Janet Kaiser on tue 28 may 02
Hey, Avril! How exciting to find out you really do have Clay Genes!!!
You may find more if you look for Green; Gilbert Harding (no hyphen).
This is all I know: The Central School of Arts and Crafts (London) was
famous for employing and producing potters who rejected the dominant
Oriental aesthetic and Green was one amongst several names in the
1950s and 60s who "fell out" with the Leachist and craft potters. The
Craft Potters' Association nearly stopped before it started because of
the rift between these new men and the craft-based potters. Art versus
Craft... So what's new??? You should have a chat to Mick Casson and
even Walter Keeler... Mick was definitely in the thick of the
controversy at the time, along with David Leach. Casson had set up the
Diploma in Studio Pottery at Harrow School of Art, which I believe is
still one of the best courses ever developed... I think the big bust
up was all to do with new Diplomas or Certificates which were to be
more liberal (= arty-farty) at the Central and probably throughout the
UK, whilst potters like Mike and Wally were pushing for courses with
more of a workshop and business-based character. Of course robust
studio stoneware was very fashionable back then, so the rift was
pretty deep...
Wait a minute... I may have some reference here... Yes! Here you go...
Gilbert Harding Green (1939-1971)
I quote from "The Crafts in Britain in the 20th Century", p. 235
"By 1947 Dora Billington was head of the pottery department in the
newly created School of Furniture, Interior Decoration, Pottery and
Stained Glass. As we have seen, she had little time for Orientally
inspired stoneware. By 1953 she was able to endorse a new school of
English studio potters led by William Newland, who worked in vividly
coloured tin-glaze, often figuratively. In the mid 1950s she was
succeeded by Gilbert Harding Green, an elegant Georgian figure, fond
of gardening, who presided over a second wave of talent led by figures
like Gordon Baldwin and Ruth Duckworth. Harding Green 'created things
through other people' and in Ian Auld's view was 'the best ceramic
head of department that one has ever known'. The department was
enlivened by the occasional presence of Paolozzi, the painter Louis le
Brocquey and William Turnbull."
Hope this sets you on the right track!
Janet Kaiser
The Chapel of Art / Capel Celfyddyd
Home of The International Potters' Path
8 Marine Crescent : Criccieth : GB-Wales
URL: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
postbox@the-coa.org.uk
----- Original Message -----
Can anyone supply me with some background information on Gilbert
Harding-Green? He was a contemporary of Dora Billington in London. I
have just discovered he was a great great uncle of mine and I can't
find anything much on the net. If you can, please ee me off list.
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