John Maltby
cover: #1 Ancient King 42.5 cm tall right: #2 King and Raven 36 cm tall
John Maltby Solo Exhibition, July 2012 The Oxford Ceramics Gallery 29 Walton St. Oxford OX2 6AA
‘This is the day of the Artist Craftsman, not of the Journey-man potter. That means that any young person taking up a craft today, as a vocation, only justifies him/her self by finding something to voice or say i.e. his life or true character extended into his work. We want from the potter the same sort of good quality which we expect from the Author, Poet, Painter or Composer.’ Bernard Leach wrote this over 50 years ago. But I was trained in a rather more typical, contemporary situation than the ‘Journeyman Potter’ – the art school. My interests were catered for in a variety of areas and the increased possibility of travel and communications meant that I was seeing paintings and sculpture and particularly music at first hand. The Workshop traditions – a kind of Anglo-Orientalism, established by Bernard Leach at St Ives, seemed attractive for a while – the skills of making: throwing and glazing, firing and decorating became my work. However, in my travels I had seem recently made ceramics by Picasso and, among others, I particularly admired the paintings of Dubuffet and Paul Klee: The repetitive skills of the workshop seemed to expose the monotony within this vigorous system, and the tyranny of such a life-style seemed ever-increasingly numbing! I’ve now been making clay sculptures for more than fifteen years: they aim to dig more deeply into my past experience and to more directly connect to the ‘Englishness’ which is my heritage: I would like there to be a seamlessness between this inherited past and my contemporary situation. Anglo Orientalism has long gone, as has an obsession with ‘skill’ rather than ‘heart’. That which remains – the world that I know and love – I try to find a little place for in the work that I do. John Maltby, June 10th 2012
#4 Royal Boat 29 cm tall
#3 Bird and Helm 30.5 cm tall
#5 King and Boat 26.5 cm tall
#13 Knight and Tiger 18 cm tall
#9 Angel and Pillar 29 cm tall
#27 Angel 31 cm tall
#8 Family and Boat 28 x 22 cm
#16 Man, Bird, Fish 39 cm tall
‘The modern potter is a child of our time, and there is no creative place for a nostalgic longing for a past era, or a culture which we might admire but with which we have no identity. We must make pots which take into account contemporary developments - but must beware of confusing such developments with progress.’ John Maltby, Ceramic Review, 1990
#20 Boat Family 23 x 25.5 cm
#23 Idol 32.5 cm tall
#12 Bird And Fish 32.5 cm tall #24 Knight & Tiger 16 cm tall
#15 Lidded Box 13 cm tall
#17 Fishermen and Boat 29.5 cm tall
#30 Bird Box 13 cm tall
#2 King and Raven 36 cm tall
#10 Angel and Wall 33 cm tall
#6 Bird and Fish 30 cm tall
#14 King and Horse 15.5 cm tall
#7 Ancient King 32 cm tall
#32 Cup Form, c1990 14 cm tall
‘I have been told that most of my ceramics lean slightly, either in form or in pattern, or both. This is not a conscious intention, but perhaps part of that subliminal consciousness which I have tried to describe and which pervades our natures. (I remeber, as a small boy, leaning into the fierce winds of the East Coast, where I was born).’ John Maltby, Ceramic Review, 1990
#31 Footed Dish with Bird, c1990 6.5 x 25 x 23 cm
#29 Mother and Child 22.5 cm tall
#38 Casket, c2004 18 x 18 cm
#19 Mother and Baby 28 cm tall
#18 King and Bird 27 cm tall
#21 King and Raven 34 cm tall
#36 Large Bowl, c1980 37 x 14 cm
#35 Dish, Switzerland Scene, c1988 26 x 26 x 4 cm
#28 Angel (Iken) 22 cm tall
#22 Casket (angel) 14.5 cm tall
#34 Oblong Dish, c1990 18 x 10.5 x 4 cm
‘Decoration exists at the first touch of the maker’s hand. The enlivenment of the surface is pursued both consciously and subcionsciously by hand and tool, by choice of clay and glaze, by the anticipated result of fire. Decoration is, therefore, no more or less important than form; it is inevitable.’ John Maltby, Ceramic Review, 1982
#33 Footed Dish, c1990 18 x 17 x 4 cm
#39 Tile, c2003 17 x 17 cm
#26 Two Boats 35 x 40 cm
#25 King, Queen and Landscape 35 x 40 cm
#40 Box with Japanese Enamels, c1980 5 x 6 cm #37 Flagon with Boats and Moon, c1990 18 cm tall
#11 Angel on Wall 32 cm tall
John Maltby was born in Lincolnshire in 1936. He studied sculpture at Goldsmith’s College, London and went on to teach painting for a couple fo years. He went to work with David Leach in Devon from 1962 to 1964, before setting up his own pottery at Stoneshill, Devon. He has been at Stoneshill ever since, intitially making mostly domestic ceramics but then changing to making more one off contemporary pieces. John has exhibited widely in the UK, Europe and US. Examples of John’s work can be found in many collections including: Victoria & Albert Museum London Crafts Council London Contemporary Art Society University of Wales International Museum of Ceramics Faenza, Italy Belfast Museum Exeter Museum National Museum of Scotland Glasgow Museums & Art Galleries
© The Oxford Ceramics Gallery and John Maltby, 2012 Photography ©2012, James Fordham Design and Layout by Rachel Ackland
‘I hope my pots are, warts and all, like me.’ John Maltby, Ceramic Review, 1986
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