Bernard Leach

by Edmund de Waal

One of a series exploring the lives and work of major artists associated with St Ives, this book looks at the potter Bernard Leach. It provides a critical overview of his art and influences, and places him alongside his contemporaries, both in St Ives and further afield. In the early part of his career Leach spent 12 formative years in Japan, during a period of febrile excitement in the arts, and returned to England in 1920 to set up a studio in St Ives. His influence on the growth of the studio-pottery movement, both in Japan and in the West, has been profound, and his making of ceramics and his teaching of some of the foremost artist-potters of the period gives him a central place in the international history of decorative arts.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

80 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

Edmund de Waal describes himself as a 'potter who writes'. His porcelain has been displayed in many museum collections around the world and he has recently made a huge installation for the dome of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Edmund was apprenticed as a potter, studied in Japan, and read English Literature at Cambridge University. 'The Hare with Amber Eyes', a journey through the history of a family in objects, is his most personal book.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/edmund...

Reviews

[Jeffrey Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only someone like me, a potter (in my case, and amateur), would take a strong interest in this slim, well-researched, intelligent, informative, and attractively illustrated book. De Waal is a prominent English artist in the medium of pottery. Not only does he understand Leach's artistry, but he also is well versed in the competing ideologies of pottery in the past century or more. Leach was enormously influential as a potter, a teacher of pottery, and a writer on the topic, with very strong and sometimes (as de Waal suggests) wrongheaded opinions.
In general, I don't have many ideas about pottery, as to whether it is an art or a craft, because I do it for fun, and I don't have big aspirations as a potter. However, I am not one to do anything without thinking about it (the curse of the over-educated), and it was useful for me to learn about Leach.
One idea that de Waal makes short shrift of (without making a fuss) is the crazy theories that Leach had about the opposition between the spiritual East (mainly Japan) and the material West. Politically, Leach seems to have been either an idiot or a proto-fascist (though de Waal never makes such accusations directly; rather he lets the reader figure it out; as they say in Hebrew, hamevin yavin - he who understands will understand).
De Waal is a fine writer, Leach was a fascinating man, and if you are interested in pottery, this is a book for you. Incidentally, Leach himself wrote a lot of books about pottery, but, from the way de Waal discusses them, I'm pretty sure I don't want to read them.

[J Grimsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the book but find Leach's pottery a little brown and his philosophy interesting but really only one strand. Why do artist and their theory's have such an exclusive claim to perfection dismissing other idea's and schools? But I am ignorant (genuinely) but interested.

[Alen Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fairly well-written and researched book, with a crisp critical approach. very well for an introductory read into Leach i feel.