Murray & Bacia Edelman on tue 1 feb 00
The master potter thread may have been tied in a knot. However, I want to
share with you a few things from an article in the Art/Architecture section
of Arts and Leisure in the N. Y. Times on Sunday, January 30. For those of
you who have the time and are able to surf the net, I think one can look up
newspaper articles; otherwise this post is addressed mainly to U.S.
Clayarters.
Rita Reif writes up craft reviews, often about ceramics. This is about a
slave, whom she calls a "master potter in Edgefield, S.C. in the 19th C.,
the first African-American to sign his ceramics." His name was David Drake.
He could read and write and wrote on his pots. It became illegal for
slaves to be taught to read and write about 1836. He was sold to a
newspaper editor and then, already a fine potter, to pottery producers.
There is an exhibit of his work, opening next weekend at the Henry Francis
duPont Winterthur Museum at Winterthur, Delaware remaining through June 25th.
Either my sense of volume or Rita Reif's is a bit skewed. She refers to a
"robust eight-gallon jar......slightly larger than a basketball." My 5
gallon buckets are already a couple of basketballs' volume.(??) I would
like to share more if you wish to stay tuned.
"Dave was a large man, probably more than 6 ft. tall, who had remarkable
potting skills.," quoting a researcher who became a graduate research
fellow (and later a curator at U. of S. Carolina McKissick Museum) --
studying Dave, the master potter.
She continued "He was able to move 50 or 60 pounds of wet clay on and off
the wheel to produce one of his smaller, 10-gallon pieces. But his largest
works,which were 29 inches high and held up to 40 gallons, must have
required awesome strength."
Reif raves about his glazes with: "The subtle differences in the textures
and colors on these pieces recall the medieval ash-glazed pots produced at
Shigaraki, Japan."
I found this fascinating and I wish, if any of you on the central eastern
seaboard of the U.S. get to see the show, you would send me a report of
your impressions or send it to the group.
David Drake also wrote poetry on some of his pots, scratched in the clay?
He was freed (!!!!) at the end of the Civil War. The researcher's name is
Jill Beute Koverman.
Regards, Bacia Edelman
Bacia Edelman Madison, Wisconsin
http://www.mypots.com/bacia.htm
| |
|
