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Hello everyone! My name is Mel and I am a wheel-lover and teach Ceramics at a HS in FL.

 

I am seeking to create a weekly potters talk in my Ceramics 2 and 3 classes at the high school where I teach.(cer. 1 does basic art history each week)  I am looking to make a top 20 list of important potters/ceramic artists.

 

 

Can you all help me by answering this-WHO WOULD YOU WANT FUTURE CLAY ARTISTS AND POTTERS TO KNOW ABOUT?

 

 

No bounds except I am trying to avoid super contemporary potters (I don't ignore this in class just not part of this idea)

 

(Once I compile a list and make some image ppts. would be glad to share if interested:)

 

 

 

 

On your mark.....

get set......

Thanks!

 

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Guest JBaymore

Probably the "BEST" potters......... none of us have ever heard about by name.  But their work was great, and was important in their time and some of that is likely sitting in museum cases all over the world.

 

Not a lot of time right now... and don't know how "contemporary" you really mean by "not contemporary"........but a few immediately come to mind:

 

Paulus Berenson

Lucy Rie

Hans Coper

Bernard Leach

Hamada Shoji

Peter Volkous

Rudy Autio

Paul Soldner

Robert Arneson

 

best,

 

....................john

 

PS:  I could list a lot more Japanese names......but likely not your focus.

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Thanks for the list John!  That is a great start. 

 

This is a big deficit for me and I am determined to round out my art history for my students.  Most of them have not had art since having it every 7 days in elementary school, so Ceramics one does a basic art history talk.  I could cry at how small the exposure has been for most of them until high school. 

This is my next step. 

 

As for how contemp. is contemp. and  westerns vs. eastern... I was thinking contemporary as currently creating and showing or selling (I have a research project for this). As for location of artist...all names welcome! I may organize the talks by culture depending on who I choose.

 

So excited to get started on this!

:D

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There probably is no one potter by name here ...

 

But I think the story of the European quest for a porcelain clay body would be very interesting for this age group. It has everything from weird alchemists, kidnapping and holding prisoner of them by kings, hostage takings, recipe stealing and accidental burning down of wood and stone buildings where they were trying to fire hot kilns.

 

Most kids would never suspect that a pottery tale could be so adventure filled.

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Guest JBaymore

There probably is no one potter by name here ...

 

But I think the story of the European quest for a porcelain clay body would be very interesting for this age group. It has everything from weird alchemists, kidnapping and holding prisoner of them by kings, hostage takings, recipe stealing and accidental burning down of wood and stone buildings where they were trying to fire hot kilns.

 

Most kids would never suspect that a pottery tale could be so adventure filled.

 

The historical fiction book about this is called "The Arcanum" and is availabe at Steven Branfman's "The Potters Shop Bookstore".  http://thepottersshop.com/  Go to the bookstore section.  I think it is high school level reading.

 

The secret of porcelain got to Japan by the samurai under Warlord Hideoshi invading Korea (on his way to try to conquer China) and capturing entire villages of Korean potters and bringing them back to Japan to make pots for the various Daimyo (Feudal Lords).  When good kaolin and ptunse was dicovered in Japan...... the Koreans knew what to do with it.

 

best,

 

.......................john

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Guest JBaymore

Oh crap... missed Michael Cardew above in that first list.  (corrected spelling 8/3 thanks babs :) )

 

best,

 

.................john

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Chris, that book about the search for porcelain in Europe is calle The Arcanum. Great read. 

 

If you look at the first ceramics show at the Whitney Museum in NYC Six Sculptors

you have

Peter Voulkos, John Mason, Kenneth Price, Robert Arneson, David Gilhooly and Richard Shaw, 

In Ceramics History in the US 

Mary Chase Perry Stratton  Founder of Pewabic Pottery

Mary Louise maclaughlin's work at Rookwood Pottery

Adelaide Robineau (the Thousand Hour Vase) and Taxile Doat at the Women's University in St. Louis. She initiated the Syracuse Ceramics National in 1929 and founded Keramos magazine

  She invited Taxile Doat to come to the US from the Sevres Porcelain factory in Paris.

Margarite Wildenhein

Maija Grotell , teacher at Cranbrook and former Bauhaus artist

Patty Warashina 

Robert Sperry

Stephen DeStabler

Charles Binns (Father of Alfred University Ceramics)

Ted Randall

Tashiko Takeaezu

Byron Temple

Maria and Julio Martinez

Potter Dave , the slave potter who captured souls in the face jugs

George Ohr, the Mad Potter of Biloxi

Bernard Palissy, French

Josiah Wedgewood

A good reference book might be 100 years of American Ceramics by Garth Clark or the collection at the ASU research center in Tempe, Az.

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I think the early days of the Bauhaus school deserves a looking at. It influenced how a lot of art programs are instructed on a college level today and it was part of the whole "is clay art, craft or design" discourse.

Also interesting for artists such as Eva Zeisel escaping the Nazis to America, and becoming a design icon.

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oh boy...so despite my attempt at checking for typos in the initial post a biggie slipped by. -_-  The post title was supposed to read FROM history not "form history".  Thanks for the catch- oldlady It has been fixed.

 

So, as I have been researching the names given so far I realize I have to choose between ancient ceramic history and perhaps the past 100 years or so.   I can see most of the names given focus on the latter and so shall I.

 

Thank you to all who have sent a name...now to narrow the 40 to 20!

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Guest JBaymore

The "recent history" aspect was a bit what I was aluding to in my initial comment.  The older you go in the history... the less the names of potters are recorded .................except particularly in Japan (highly valued art form) , and a bit in Korea, and China.

 

If you go back in time... you might refer to types/locations of ware production... not specific artists.

 

Your BIG issuse is going to be narrowing it down to the "Top 20". ;)

 

best,

 

....................john

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Val Cushing, John Hesselberth and Ron Roy Have made a big impact on ceramics in that a good portion of the glazes used out there are derived directly from formulas derived and tested by these people. There is a lot more to ceramics than just making pots. I think the kids need to know about these people also.

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HOpe you don't enter the Art v Craft side of life!! :D  :D  :D

Good luck with your weeding!

Maybe you could give them a big list to select one  from individually to research, and then bring together the  results fot everyone to share.

Correcting a typo John, in case this potter is not known by the original poster, Michael Cardew.

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John...I now get what you were talking about earlier. I am trying to consider impact and the type of lifestory and artwork to most interest my teenage audience.  

 

I am really excited to see women will be a significant part of this list.

 

I may have to go to 25....

The Arts and Crafts Movement had women decorators. Some became quite famous. The saturday Night Girls in Boston painted tiles. Newcomb Pottery in New Orleans has a traveling show on right now. Great design work.

Marcia

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Early American potters, Goodwin & Websters, the bird & fish potters, named that for the cobalt decoration on crocks and jugs,NC.

I used them as an example of the potters that made this country's utility stoneware and help develop this nations growth.

The folk potters of the south, the Hewell's of Georgia, 150 yrs of family pottery, The Catawba valley potters, generations of family potters

The potters, unnamed that developed ash glazes for whiskey jugs from clay and ash, as good as Asian counterparts century's earlier.

Isaac Button, who dug the clay to make the kiln, then dug & processed the clay to turn a ton a day..

Harding Black of San Antonio Tx, that spent a life time rediscovering great reduction glazes.

Just a different POV about the giants in clay, those who we stand on their shoulders.

Wyndham

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