Harlequin Gallery exhibition – 3rd November 2016

The Harlequin Gallery exhibition that begins at 11am on Thursday 3rd November will contain a wide variety of studio pottery made over the last 75 years or so and below I will endeavour to give a flavour of the exhibition by highlighting just a few examples. On Thursday the gallery will be open from 11am until 5pm but will be closed on Friday 4th. On Saturday 5th the gallery will again be open from 11am until 5pm and on the following Sunday (6th November) and subsequent days it will be open by appointment. Please feel free to contact me in order to arrange a mutually convenient time. So with the formalities out of the way let’s tell you a little about what’s on offer.

The large brush decorated rounded vase to the right is a very early piece of work by Paul Barron (1917 – 1983). Barron was a pupil of Norah Braden at the Brighton School of Art and in the early war years went on to study pottery at the Royal College of Art. This vase has a label on the base that shows his address as being in Hove so may have originally been purchased at his graduation show from one of the institutions above. Around 1948/9 Barron joined Henry Hammond at the Farnham School of Art, where Hammond was Head of Department, and together they made the School arguably the finest training ground for ceramics in the country that continued to be so into the 1980s.
Henry Hammond had been a pupil of William Staite Murray at the Royal College of Art in the late 1930s and it was there that aspects of design that stayed with him throughout his career developed under the influence of Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden. The two yunomis illustrated will form part of the exhibition alongside the Paul Barron vase.

Moving forward several decades brings us to the work of the hand-builder, John Ward, who studied at Camberwell School of Art between 1966 and 1970 where he was greatly influenced by visiting teachers Lucie Rie and Hans Coper. Although in no way derivative of Coper’s work, John Ward’s pieces have much in common with them. The relatively early vessel shown here was probably made in the 1970s when he lived and work just a few miles away from the Harlequin Gallery in Charlton London SE7.Later work tended to have more surface decoration and was often cut and reassembled but since this vessel has been in my possession its quiet beauty always catches the eye as I pass it by.

As is usual these days, there will be examples of Japanese studio pottery included in the exhibition, including the chawan (teabowl) shown here that was made in Seto by Yoshiki Sugiura. Sugiura was born in Takahama city in 1915 and studied under Kawamura Kitaro in Kyoto and moved to Hiratobashi with him in 1950. Two years later he moved to Seto and remained there until his death in 1982. Sugiura san also studied under the celebrated potter, Rosanjin, and was accepted to be included in the Japan Fine Arts Exhibition as well the Nitten on several occasions.

Finally, below are just a few more examples of work included in the exhibition.