SCULPTURE BY NICK VERGETTE AT HIS HOME NEAR CARBONDALE WHERE HE TEACHES AT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY - NARA - 552498

Nicholas (Nick) Vergette (1923–1974) was a British potter and sculptor, who produced ceramic murals and figurative works for architectural settings during the 1950s and 1960s.Sandra Alfoldy "Crafting Identity: The Development of Professional Fine Craft in Canada", published by McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston, London, Ithaka, 1969, p.37. He was Professor of Art at the

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of T ...

, School of Art and Design from 1960 to 1974.

Biography

Vergette was born in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

in 1923. He studied pottery under

Dora Billington Dora May Billington (1890–1968) was an English teacher of Ceramic art, pottery, a writer and a studio pottery, studio potter. Her own work explored the possibilities of painting on pottery. As head of the pottery department at the Central Sc ...

at the

Central School of Art and Design The Central School of Art and Design was a school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Crafts. ...

in London. In Britain during the 1950s Vergette,

Alan Caiger-Smith Alan Caiger-Smith MBE (8 February 1930 – 21 February 2020) was a British ceramicist, studio potter and writer on pottery. Life and work Caiger-Smith was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts ...

, Margaret Hine and others including the Rye Pottery made tin-glazed pottery, going against the trend in studio pottery towards

stoneware Stoneware is a broad class of pottery fired at a relatively high temperature, to be impervious to water. A modern definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire ...

. They all were given the name of "Piccassettes" by the studio potter and art teacher

Bernard Leach 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. His mother Eleanor (n� ...

. In the early 1950s Newland, Hine and Vergette "formed something of a coterie", sharing a studio in

Bayswater Bayswater is an area in the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...

and exhibitions at the Crafts Centre and the Studio Club in

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...

. The three of them also had participated in a holiday in Spain in 1949 where they "went to Malaga and studied throwing and tin-glaze techniques". Vergette emigrated to the United States in 1957. From 1960 to 1974 he served as Professor of Art at the School of Art and Design of the

. Vergette died of cancer in 1974, two months after completing "Here", a large sculpture piece on the SIU campus.

Reception

Dora Billington in her 1953 article "The Younger English Potters" in ''The Studio'' noted: Darren Dean in a 1994 article entitled ''William Newland, Margaret Hine and Nicholas Vergette, 1949-1954'' concluded: Donhauser (1978) recalled, that " Dirk Hubers and Nicolas Vergette are two examples of potters who, through their distinctive form language, added to the diversity of style and attitudes which comprised the American studio-pottery scene during the 1950s."Paul S. Donhauser (1978), ''History of American Ceramics: The Studio Potter.'' p, 125

References

External links

Vergette Gallery
at cola.siu.edu. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vergette, Nicholas 1923 births 1974 deaths 20th-century British ceramists Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Artists from Lincolnshire English ceramicists English emigrants to the United States English male sculptors English sculptors People from Lincolnshire Southern Illinois University faculty