The stoneware jar was made by Les Blakebrough (b.1930) at the Sturt Pottery Workshops, Mittagong, NSW. The 1960s-1970s were a significant period in the growing studio ceramics movement in Australia where the 'anglo-oriental' aesthetic in stoneware, as propagated by the British potter Bernard Leach, was particularly influential. The Sturt pottery workshops, initially set up by Ivan McMeekin in 1953 at the request of founder Winifred West, became a well known training ground for the 'anglo-oriental' aesthetic, and also the development of a particular ideology towards local crafts education and studio production. Sturt Pottery used local clay, and was an innovator in Australia in the development of local clay bodies.
Les Blakebrough, who had come to Australia in 1948 from England, joined the Sturt workshops in 1957 as an apprentice to Ivan McMeekin. Blakebrough went on to become the manager of the pottery studios (1959-72); the director of the Sturt workshops (1964-1972); before leaving to head the Ceramics department at the Tasmanian School of Art, Hobart. He became an important figure on the Crafts Councils of NSW and Australia; and the Crafts Board of the Australia Council. His work is represented in the public collections of all State Galleries, as well as other galleries nationally and internationally.
During his period at the Sturt Workshops Les Blakebrough was instrumental in bringing many well respected international craftspersons to visit the pottery workshop, including from the UK, USA, New Zealand and Japan. Blakebroughs 1963 study visit to Japan, and the period of work in Kyoto with potters Kanjiro Kawai and nephew Takeichi Kawai, was to influence many of his ideas on form, technique, method, and glaze types. The unfurling flower knop on the cover of the jar shows an example of characteristic forms and decorative devices explored by Blakebrough since the mid 1960s drawing upon his experiences in Japan. As Jonathan Holmes identifies, Blakebroughs continued concern with the interrelationship between classical forms and the application of organic motifs reaches its most complete articulation with the development of his lidded storage containers.

The jar is historically and aesthetically significant with strong interpretive potential to demonstrate developments within the Australian studio ceramics and crafts movement of the 1960s. It links to other significant ceramic works in the collection of this period that also represent the 'anglo-oriental' aesthetic, including by Peter Rushforth, Ivan McMeekin, Harold Hughan and Bernard Leach.


References

Cochrane, Grace (1992). 'The Crafts Movement in Australia: a History' (Sydney: New South Wales Press)
O'Callaghan, Judith (1991). 'A New Direction: 1940-1980', in Bilney, Elizabeth (ed), 'Decorative Arts and Design from the Powerhouse Museum' (Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing)
Blakebrough, Les. 'About Les Blakebrough', at www.lesblakebrough.com.au
Holmes, Jonathan. 'Les Blakebrough: Potter'
Exhibition catalogue essay - Cochrane, Grace (1989) 'Les Blakebrough', in exhibition 'Two potters three decades: Les Blakebrough and Carl McConnell'; Hyde Park Barracks 14 June 1989.
Holmes, Jonathan (1988). 'Les Blakebrough: A retrospective' exhibition catalogue.

Emma Lees for Paul Donnelly, Curator, Design, History and Society, July 2008

Jar, covered, stoneware, Les Blakebrough, NSW, 1970-1972

Made: 1970 - 1972

91/161

1970 - 1972

390 mm

213 mm

213 mm