You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
A biography of one of the most influential potters of the 20th century, an artist who lived in turmoil while creating pots of serenity and beauty. played a pioneering role in creating an identity for artist potters in Britain and around the world. Born in the East (Hong Kong) and educated in the West (England), throughout his life Leach perceived himself as a courier between the disparate cultures. His exquisite pots reflect the inspiration he drew from East and West as well as his response to the basic tenets of modernism - truth to materials, the importance of function to form, and simplicity of decoration. This biography provides a detailed account of Leach's life and its relation to his art. recollections of the artist's family, friends and students to tell Leach's story. Cooper explores Leach's working methods, the themes of his pottery, his writings and philosophy, his recognition in Japan and Britain, and his continuing legacy, bringing into focus a complex man who captured in his work as a potter the still centre that always eluded him in his tumultuous personal life.
Examines the standards of and the various clays, pigments, and glazes used in Japanese raku, English slipware, stoneware, and Oriental porcelain, showing students how to adapt designs to local conditions
In our time, Bernard Leach has done for pottery what Henry Moore has done for scuplture. This... infinitely rewarding book is an account of his pilgrimage through life.' Times Bernard Leach (1887-1979) was as renowned in Japan and the East as in Europe and America, both as an artist-craftsman and as a thinker. His interpretation of the traditions of the Orient in the making of pots - and in evolving a philosophy of life - was a lodestar for many potters in the West. Beyond East and West, first published in 1978, is more than an autobiography. Full of sharply-etched and amusing recollections, it contains much of Leach's deeper thought and a great deal too about the practical application of his ideas. Its recurrent theme is the meeting of East and West at all levels - artistic, cultural, social, political.
There can be no potter in the world whose name is more widely known and respected than that of Bernard Leach. He is as famous in Japan and the East as he is in Europe and America, not only as an artist-craftsman but also as a thinker. Leach was born in Hong Kong, and spent the first few years of his life in Japan. Later, he attended Slade School of Fine Art and the London School of Art, where he studied etching under Frank Brangwyn." A Potter in Japan" is a collection of memoirs and diary entries from his return to Japan in the early 1950 s. These accounts provide a unique opportunity to see the Eastern influence on his craft. This book appeals to lovers of ceramics and those with an interest in cultural interchange between East and West."
Bernard Leach was the preeminent artist potter of this century. Early in his career he spent 12 formative years in Japan. Returning to England in 1920, he set up a studio in St. Ives. Leach's influence on the growth of the studio pottery movement, both in Japan and in the West, has been profound. His making of ceramics and his teaching of some of the foremost artist-potters of the period gives him a central place in the international history of decorative arts.