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Bernard Leach - The Making of a Master- Part 3 - USA
Bernard Leach - The Making of a Master- Part 3 - USA
How did Bernard Leach’s ideas travel from a small pottery in St Ives to influence generations of potters around the world?
In the final episode of our three-part series, we follow Leach as his influence spreads beyond Britain. We explore his relationship with American potters Warren and Alix MacKenzie, his travels across the United States, and his celebrated 1952 tour with Shōji Hamada and Sōetsu Yanagi.
From Black Mountain College to the emerging American studio pottery movement, we meet artists including Marguerite Wildenhain, Karen Karnes and Peter Voulkos, and discover how a new generation embraced, challenged and transformed Leach’s ideas.
This is the story of how Bernard Leach became an international figure — and how his philosophy helped reshape studio pottery for generations to come.
Artworks and images in this episode: Bernard Leach, David Leach, and students at the Leach Pottery, St. Ives, Cornwall c.1945 A Potter’s Book, by Bernard Leach, 1940 David Leach, 1911-2005 Standard Ware Bowls, Bernard Leach Pottery Dinnerware, The LeachPottery, St. Ives Michael Cardew, William Marshall, Bernard Leach, Picnicking at Cardew’s Pottery in 1970, Courtesy of Jeff Oestrich Bernard Leach at Alfred University, 1950, Warren & Alix MacKenzie, 1953, Bowl, Warren MacKenzie, c. 1969-1970 Ceramics, Warren MacKenzie, 1924-2018 Hamada, Leach, Yanagi and Wildenhain at Black Mountain College, 1952 Sōetsu Yanagi, Bernard Leach and Shōji Hamada, 1952 Black Mountain College Seminar, 1952 Vases, Margaurite Wildenhain, c. 1940’s-50’s Bottle Vase, Margurite Wildenhain, 1970 Vase, Bernard Leach, c. 1959 Shōji Hamada, c.1970 Sōetsu Yanagi, Bernard Leach, Rudy Autio, Peter Voulkos, Shōji Hamada, 1959 Covered Jar, Peter Voulkos, c.1954 Peter Voulkos kicking the potters wheel, 1952 Cup and Signed Box, Shōji Hamada Robert Rauschenberg at Black Mountain College, c.1952 Bernard Leach, c.1920’s
Professor Paul Greenhalgh is a specialist on the art and design of the Modern period. He has written widely on Art Nouveau and curated several exhibitions including the major survey Art Nouveau 1890-1914, which toured internationally (2000-01). His books include Ephemeral Vistas (1988), Modernism in Design (1990), Art Nouveau 1890–1914 (2000), The Modern Ideal (2005), Fair World (2011), L’Art Nouveau: La Revolution Decorative (2013), Ceramic Art and Civilisation (2021) and Pablo Picasso: The Legacy of Youth (2022). He has held positions as Head of Research at the V&A Museum, London; President and Director at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Director of the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich; and Inaugural Director of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, London. He was born and raised in Bolton, and is a proud Lancastrian.
Stephanie Rozene is a ceramic artist, Professor of Art, and the Ceramics Program Coordinator at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York she has been teaching, writing and making art since 2004. At Hartwick she's been honored with the Wandersee Scholar in Residence award twice, along with the Teacher Scholar Award. Stephanie's research uses historical ornament and porcelain as a visual language to critique contemporary political rhetoric, and she also explores the history of clay as a cooking tool. Her work has been shown extensively both nationally and internationally. She is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and is the Vice President of the board of trustees for the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine, and was educated at NSCAD University in Nova Scotia, Canada and the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.
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