1,000-PS2,000 In the Twenties he developed a relationship with
Shoji Hamada, who visited his London pottery, resulting in Murray's increased interest in early Chinese ceramics.
Shoji Hamada made this bowl (above) at Leach's St Ives studio; this bulbous Rie vase (right) sold for pounds 1,400 in a sale in March This David Leach vase is impressed with the DL monogram to one side and is worth pounds 200-pounds 300
Bernard Leach and
Shoji Hamada were influential people in the field, disseminating the value of functional pottery in everyday life.
The ceramics collection features over 400 works by pioneer potters such as Bernard Leach,
Shoji Hamada and Michael Cardew, and also by the current generation.
He went to Japan in 1909 as a two-dimensional painter and etcher, was captivated by the three-dimensional art of ceramics and returned 11 years later with a Japanese potter,
Shoji Hamada, to set up his own studio.
Included are works from Dartington Hall Trust Collection, among them works by Bernard Leach and
Shoji Hamada, who established the Leach Pottery in the early 1920s -- a significant fusion of ceramics from the East and West.
It consists of forty-eight short essays, poems, process suggestions and philosophical statements interspersed with delightful and insightful quotes about clay by the likes of John Updike, Herbert Read, John Ruskin and
Shoji Hamada. Essays include: "A Potter's Philosophy" by Marguerite Wildenhain, "Illusions of Reality" by Jamake Highwater and "Criticism in Ceramics" by Warren MacKenzie.
I decided to respond to where I was, and to acknowledge, in my own fashion, those who had founded and shaped the Leach Pottery--Bernard Leach,
Shoji Hamada and Janet Leach.
The latter includes pieces by Bernard Leach,
Shoji Hamada, Ewen Henderson, Lucie Rie, Michael Cardew, Joanna Constantinidis, and Edmund de Waal.
During the months to come, I would learn who Warren Mackenzie is and who
Shoji Hamada was, what 'cone 10' means and how to pronounce 'NCECA'.
Imagine: The legend
Shoji Hamada was there, proof of those rare moments when the beauty of crafts (think Anni Albers) supersedes the pretensions to art made by painters or sculptors.
One of his longest and most fruitful collaborations was with a potter called
Shoji Hamada.