Lee Love on sat 26 feb 05
mailtoandrew@FSMAIL.NET wrote:
>Whilst not being deliberately contentious Im still at a loss to understand
>the reverence in which Leach s pots are held,
>
>
Andrew. Leach and his books helped create what know as the studio
potter, that exists today. Most of us would not be making functional
pottery if it were not for his, Yanagi's and Hamada's work. They
showed us that secrets hinder progress. Leach's work is held in high
esteem because of what he did for the craft.
If you go here: http://www.queensrow.org/QR-rev6.html You
can see a video of Autio speaking about why what Hamada brought us was
important.
> and why one particular
>traditional, one style of Japanese ware, has come to be so dominant for
>craft potters.
>
If you look at work in the West from Japan, you could not say
"Japanese ware" is dominant. The two kinds of work have many different
qualities.
If your work pays attention to materials and process, the best
work done in this manner, are going to have some things in common.
In Japan, there has been a continuous tradition of high fired
stoneware. If folks find inspiration in this work, it is not because
it is "Japanese" or "Chinese", but because it is the best work made with
these methods that we know of.
Also, if you are speaking of that early pot (1917) pictured
at the link you provided, that is not Japanese inspired. It is
inspired by Korean Yi work.
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://potters.blogspot.com/ WEB LOG
http://claycraft.blogspot.com/ Photos!
Lee Love on fri 4 mar 05
Lee Love wrote:
> All it takes is looking at a book to know Leach was born in '87
> in Hong Kong, moved to Japan in '89 and then to Singapore in '95 .
> At the ripe old age of 9, because his formal education would start in
> England at the age of 10, he left Singapore, traveled across America
> with his Grandfather by train and arrived in England for his
> education. All of his formal education was in England.
What I forgot to mention, just in case folks didn't know, Hong
Kong and Singapore were colonies of England at the time, so the child
Leach was surrounded by British culture there. Even during their
couple years in Japan in his childhood, the Leach family lived a very
isolated life and did not speak Japanese.
This brings up something related to what Craig brought up,
about how Chinese ceramic culture isn't given enough attention (of
course, this would be related to Andrew's questioning Japanese influence
on world ceramics):
Japan was never colonized like the rest of Asia was so it
was better able to protect its traditional culture. This ability was
primarily due to it being separated from the rest of the continent.
It shares this with England and Ireland, but, whereas the distance
between England and the continent is 10s of miles Japan has a very
dangerous sea of over 100 miles width separating it from the
continent. So invaders had a far more difficult time.
This isolation also helped Japan jump into the modern era
quickly, so that both traditional and industrial products were being
manufacture, side by side. What often happened in the colonies, is
that the Imperial powers would disallow traditional production in favor
of their industrially manufactured goods. This did not take place in
Japan, though Japan did similar things to their own colonies.
I mentioned previously, that Hazan, Hamada's mentor, was
influenced by the work he saw from Europe during the world exposition.
Soun, the painter whose museum we visited in Ashigaka had a world
exposition certificate on display at the museum, for a watercolor he had
in it. Another example my wife Jean reminded me of was how at The
Philadelphia exposition of 1876, a Japanese folding screen decorated
with a patchwork of traditional Japanese fabrics helped inspired the
"Crazy Quilt" crazy movement in the West. Of course, we know that
painters in the west at the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th
century was strongly influenced by Japanese woodblock prints.
So these exchanges have a long history.
--
in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://potters.blogspot.com/ WEB LOG
http://claycraft.blogspot.com/ Photos!
Lee Love on fri 4 mar 05
Eric Hansen wrote:
> particular to be full of myths which don't hold up under criticsm and are in part reflective of our weakened and weakening stance in regard to the Fine Arts in general.
>
>
Eric, many inaccuracies come from people speaking in tones of great
authority about things they don't know very much about. For
instance, let me take on example from the beginning of your first post
on the subject.
If you simply read a biography about Leach, you would know that your
following statement is inaccurate:
> Supposedly have been raised only in the Far East,
All it takes is looking at a book to know Leach was born in '87 in Hong Kong, moved to Japan in '89 and then to Singapore in '95 . At the ripe old age of 9, because his formal education would start in England at the age of 10, he left Singapore, traveled across America with his Grandfather by train and arrived in England for his education. All of his formal education was in England.
But even if he lived all his life in Asia, it doesn't mean he couldn't speak intelligently about English Slipware if he was serious about learning about it (not simply accepting 3rd hand information.)
If you are going to pontificate and speak disrespectfully about an important person to our craft, you should at least READ a little bit about it. It will help you come from a more logical perspective and a less emotional one.
Also, if you study a little bit, you'll find out that Wm. Morris was a cornerstone of the foundation of Mingei. Actually, Leach and Yanagi's first work was related to the work of William Blake, Rodin and Walt Whitman. If you go to the site below, you can see the bronzes Rodin sent Yanagi after his Shirakaba literary group sent Rodin some Japanese woodblock prints (go to the middle of the page after the images stop loading):
http://claycraft.blogspot.com/
Actually, one of the big things brought to fruition by the Mingei movement was a cosmopolitan, universal perspective on art and craft. There was a great synergy that was created at the turn of their century, where access to different cultures was becoming available to the entire world in a way that was never seen in the past.
So, their great gift to us was to help us modern people shuck a sense of superiority that have kept us from looking outside our own culture and also a willingness to share knowledge freely. In the middle of the last century, most of what we knew in America was from the industrial process and often clay, firing and glaze recipes were held as secrets. Hamada and Leach brought an openness to the craft.
Here is a story for you to illustrate. I heard this from Warren MacKenzie (who was my first exposure to Mingei) at a workshop he did at Northern Clay Center:
Warren was demonstrating how to make an enclosed salt shaker. He explained how he came to making them. In the middle of a workshop in Michigan, a young woman brought him one of these salt shakers and ask Warren to figure out how they worked. She told him, "This kind of salt shaker was a "secret" of my teacher's and he wouldn't tell anybody how they are made."
Warren worked on it for a little bit and figured it out. He showed the young woman how to make them. And he teaches them at his workshops, because he learned from Hamada when he was touring America in the '50s, that "secrets hinder progress."
Warren then told us a story about Hamada. At a workshop, a woman said to Hamada, "I know they are probably secrets, but I really like your glazes." Hamada told her, "Get me a piece of paper and I will write the glaze recipes down for you." That is when Hamada said, "Secrets hinder progress." Warren explained that in those days potters were very jealous of their "secrets" and there wasn't the free exchange of knowledge that we take so much for granted in the current pottery community.
There are many misunderstandings about Mingei because people base what they know about it 2nd and 3rd handedly. When I get some breathing space, I will put up some web pages to help illustrate. I have some really swell photos from Hamada's museum.
I am happy to dialog about these things in an adult manner. We also live in a spectacular time. Never before has the knowledge of so many cultures, times and places been available to us. But we have to be willing to take it in.
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://potters.blogspot.com/ WEB LOG
http://claycraft.blogspot.com/ Photos!
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