Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979) was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery".

Biography

Early years (Japan)

Leach was born in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. His mother Eleanor (née Sharp) died in childbirth. He spent his first three years in Japan with his father, Andrew Leach, until he moved back to Hong Kong in 1890. Leach attended the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

and the London School of Art, where he studied etching under Frank Brangwyn. Reading books by

Lafcadio Hearn was a Greek-born Irish and Japanese writer, translator, and teacher who introduced the culture and literature of Japan to the Western world. His writings offered unprecedented insight into Japanese culture, especially his collections of legend ...

, he became interested in Japan. In 1909 he returned to Japan with his young wife Muriel (née Hoyle) intending to teach etching. Satomi Ton, Kojima Kikuo, and later Ryūsei Kishida were his pupils. Kishida Leach

In Tokyo, he gave talks and attended meetings along with Mushanokōji Saneatsu, Shiga Naoya, Yanagi Sōetsu and others from the " Shirakaba-Group",Shirakaba ="The Birch" () was an influential cultural magazine at that time. who were trying to introduce western art to Japan after 250 years of seclusion. About 1911 he attended a Raku-yaki pottery party which was his first introduction to ceramics, and through introduction by Ishii Hakutei, he began to study under Urano Shigekichi (1851–1923), who stood as ''Kenzan 6th'' in the tradition of potter Ogata Kenzan (1663–1743). Assisting as interpreter for technical terms was the potter Tomimoto Kenkichi, whom he had met already earlier. From this time Leach wrote articles for the Shirakaba. In 1913 he also drafted covers for '' Shirakaba'' and ''Fyūzan''.A cultural magazine. Fyūzan = French ''fusain'', charcoal pencil. Attracted by the Prussian philosopher and art scholar Alfred Westharp, who at the time was living in Peking, Leach moved to Peking in 1915. There he took on the Name (for "Leach"), but returned the following year to Japan. It was the year 1919, when young Hamada Shōji visited Leach for the first time. Leach received a kiln from Kenzan and built it up in Yanagi's garden and called it ''Tōmon-gama''. Now established as a potter, he decided to move to England. In 1920, before leaving, he had an exhibition in Osaka, where he met the potter Kawai Kanjirō. In Tokyo, a farewell exhibition was organized.

Back in England

Leach returned to England in 1920 on the invitation of Frances Horne. Horne was establishing a Guild of Handicrafts within the existing artist colony of St Ives in Cornwall. On the recommendation of a family friend, Edgar Skinner, she contacted Leach to suggest that he become the potter within this group. Leach and his wife Muriel were accompanied by the young Hamada Shoji and, having identified a suitable site next to the Stennack river on the outskirts of St Ives, the two established the Leach Pottery in 1920. They constructed a traditional Japanese climbing kiln or ' Noborigama (登り窯)', the first built in the West. The kiln was poorly built and was reconstructed in 1923 by Matsubayashi Tsurunosuke (1894-1932). In 1934, Leach and Mark Tobey travelled together through France and Italy, then sailed from Naples to Hong Kong and Shanghai, where they parted company, Leach heading on to Japan. Leach formally joined the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...

in 1940 after being introduced to it by Mark Tobey, who was himself a Baháʼí. A

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

to the Baháʼí shrines in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, Israel, during 1954 intensified his feeling that he should do more to unite the East and West by returning to the Orient "to try more honestly to do my work there as a Baháʼí and as an artist..." Leach promoted pottery as a combination of Western and Eastern arts and philosophies. His work focused on traditional Korean, Japanese and Chinese pottery, in combination with traditional techniques from England and Germany, such as slipware and salt glaze ware. He saw pottery as a combination of art, philosophy, design and craft – even as a greater lifestyle. '' A Potter's Book'' (1940) defined Leach's craft philosophy and techniques; it went through many editions and was his breakthrough to recognition.

Midlife

Leach advocated simple and utilitarian forms. His ethical pots stand in opposition to what he called fine art pots, which promoted aesthetic concerns rather than function. Popularized in the 1940s after the publication of '' A Potter's Book,'' his style had lasting influence on counter-culture and modern design in North America during the 1950s and 1960s. Leach's pottery produced a range of "standard ware" handmade pottery for the general public. He continued to produce pots which were exhibited as works of art. Many potters from all over the world were apprenticed at the Leach Pottery, and spread Leach's style and beliefs. His British associates and trainees include Michael Cardew, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie, David Leach (his son), Janet Darnell (whom Leach married in 1956) and William Marshall. Another of his students at St Ives was William Worrall who became chief craftsman at the Chalice Well crafts guild in Glastonbury and Muriel Bell, co-founder of the Lanchester Marionettes. His American apprentices include Warren MacKenzie (who likewise influenced many potters through his teaching at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

), Byron Temple. He was a major influence on

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

potter Len Castle who travelled to London to spend time working with him in the mid-1950s. Another apprentice was an Indian potter Nirmala Patwardhan who developed the so-called Nirmala glaze based on an 11th-century Chinese technique. His four Canadian apprentices, John Reeve, Glenn Lewis, Michael Henry and Ian Steele helped to shape the pottery scene in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

and the Canadian west coast during the 1960 and 1970s. The Cypriot potter Valentinos Charalambous trained with Leach in 1950-51. Leach was instrumental, with Muriel Rose, in organising the only International Conference of Potters and Weavers in July 1952 at Dartington Hall, where he had been working and teaching. It included exhibitions of British pottery and textiles since 1920, Mexican folk art, and works by conference participants, among them Shoji Hamada and US-based Bauhaus potter Marguerite Wildenhain. Another important contributor was Japanese aesthetician Soetsu Yanagi, author of ''The Unknown Craftsman''. According to Brent Johnson, "The most important outcome of the conference was that it helped organize the modern studio pottery movement by giving a voice to the people who became its leaders...it gave them each, Hamada and Yanagicelebrity status... hileMarguerite Wildenhain emerged from Dartington Hall as the most important craft potter in America." He was an active member of the Red Rose Guild.

Later years

Leach continued to produce work until 1972 and never ended his passion for travelling. He continued to write about ceramics even after losing his eyesight. The

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

in London held a major exhibition of his art in 1977. The Leach Pottery remains in operation, accompanied by a museum displaying many pieces by Leach and his students.

Honours

* Charles Fergus Binns Medal for Excellence in Ceramics, 1950 * Japan Foundation Cultural Award, 1974 * Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, 1973 (UK) * Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1966 (Japan) *

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, 1962

Edmund de Waal's book

Edmund de Waal, British ceramic artist and writer, was apprenticed to the potter Geoffrey Whiting, a disciple of Leach, at the

King's School, Canterbury The King's School is a public school in Canterbury, Kent, England. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group. It is Britain's oldest public school and is considered to be the oldest continuously op ...

in the early 1980's. He has said that to move on, he had to address Leach directly. "It's anxiety of influence – you choose which father to kill, and in my case it was Leach." He researched Leach's papers and journals in the archive room of the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum. De Waal's book, the first critical monograph on Leach, was published in 1998. He described it as "the first 'de-mystifying' study of Leach", writing in the last chapter: "In the West, Leach has been seen as 'a natural child of the East', someone who 'understood' Japan by birthright and in an almost mystical way. In the East, he has been credited with seeing deeper into the culture of Japan than any Westerner since Lafcadio Hearn". Studying the circumstances of his grounding in Japanese culture, he pointed out that Leach could "barely speak" Japanese at the time of his training with Kenzan VI. De Waal also notes that poetry used in the tradition of Kenzan I would not be legible to Leach, who would straightforwardly say that he could not read Japanese texts. Leach did learn to speak the language to a conversational standard, however; recordings of this are held by the Mingei Film Archive and the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham. The book acknowledges Leach's strength as an artist, his sophisticated mark-making and sensitivity to the surface qualities of the clay, while providing an examination of the Orientalism in his thinking and making.

Writings (selected)

* 1940: ''A Potter's Book''. London:

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

** New edition, with introductions by Soyetsu Yanagi and Michael Cardew. London: Faber and Faber, 1976, * 1978: ''Beyond East and West: Memoirs, Portraits and Essays''. London: Faber and Faber ** New edition, London: Faber and Faber, * 1988: ''Drawings, Verse & Belief'
Oneworld Publications
3rd edition,

Biography

Early years (Japan)

Back in England

Midlife

Later years

Honours

Edmund de Waal's book

Writings (selected)

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links