Phil Rogers 2017

Phil Rogers

goldmark

Price £10

Phil Rogers

goldmark 2017

162. Tall Bottle Tenmoku with swipe decoration. Nuka top 49 x 16 cm

Phil Rogers An Interview with Max Waterhouse

Next year will be your fortieth as a working potter. Do you feel your approach to clay has changed since you first started?

Occasionally, I am confronted with a pot that I made in the very early part of my career. What strikes me with these discoveries is that the essence of the work has remained consistent throughout the years; the change has been that the pots have got better (I hope!).

It is hard to define what ‘better’ means; to many of their owners, these early pieces are still attractive. For me, it is to know that improvement has taken place: in form, decoration, orchestration, and finish. All these things are very much dependent on experience; not just the experience of a long career and in making many, many pots, though that is probably the most important element. It is about what one experiences as one travels, seeing pots in different settings, from different cultures and ages, and handling works by other makers whom one meets and interacts with. One has to be open and receptive.

Making pots over a long career is ultimately about refinement,

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a never-ending quest to improve. The cliché is that ‘the next firing will be my best’; but it is true that this is every potter’s hope.

This will be your fourth show at the Goldmark Gallery. Are you conscious as you work of making pots specifically for exhibition, or is it simply a case of choosing the best?

It’s a little bit of both. I have been putting pots aside for this show for eighteen months but, as I continue to make, I have images in my mind about how they can be displayed. That sense of unity and the arrangement of pots in a show is something of which I am very mindful. So, as I throw I try to create groups that will sit happily next to each other as cousins.

It has always been my thinking that an exhibition should not only be the best work available but also, in the main, the most recent.

Hopefully those two things go hand in hand. My wood kiln is fired only three times in a two-year period and the oil kiln maybe three times a year, so to me a period of eighteen months is recent. Nonetheless, as with most potters I am sure I will be firing right up to the last minute in an effort to find those elusive exhibition pieces.

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171 - 173. Lidded Jars Wood fired. Sunken lid. Ash glaze 11.5 x 15.5, 12 x 20, 19 x 13, cm

Is there anything new that you wanted to showcase or trial in this exhibition?

I have been working at creating a form of Buncheong for about three years now. Buncheong is a type of traditional Korean pottery that existed in its original form throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. It relies upon just three elements: a dark, ironrich clay; white slip; and a clear, sometimes greenish or grey glaze. Often this slip was swept on the pot with a coarse brush, a technique the Koreans termed Guiyal and which the Japanese came to call Hakeme. Decoration was made by drawing through the slip to reveal the clay body underneath, or by inlaying into stamped and incised patterns. Iron pigment was also used on top of the glaze to draw stylised birds, animals, and plants, often in a ‘naïve’ or ‘childlike’ manner.

When a kiln is only fired perhaps once a year, development is slow. I have been at pains to find my own vocabulary with the brush, and although they are quite different from the fluid ash glazes and the ‘in the clay’ decoration I am normally associated with, these new pots I think capture that same unifying spirit of form and touch. I am open to future refinements, but the Buncheong pieces that I have chosen for this show represent the most successful iteration of this new way of making.

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248. Large Bottle Hakame with iron brush pattern 45 x 25 cm

74. Press Moulded Bottle Hakeme with iron pigment brush pattern 21 x 9 cm

You have always looked to a broad range of influences, be it the way of working embodied by Hamada, Leach and Cardew or further back to pottery made in Medieval Britain, Germany, Korea, and Japan. Do you ever find yourself seeking out more current sources of inspiration?

I feel, justifiably, that I am largely self-taught. Many of the pieces from the potters and periods you mention were my absentee tutors and I learned a great deal from looking at, handling, and soaking up the essence of their work. I still look at the same pots I always looked at, and I regularly go back to them for reassurance on a barren day.

When I was at Newport College of Art, I was taught to work in a developmental way, that we don’t just paint one picture or make one pot: there should be an ongoing series of ideas that start from the same root but which can lead almost anywhere through succession. I think that any creative artist will, or should, reach a plateau in their career when influences have had their effect and a kind of overdrive kicks in where one is propelled from one creative idea to the next. At this point an individual style is already present, and one is able to work in a prescribed and considered manner, producing pots imbued with a personal hallmark.

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184. Jug Wood fired. Ash & Nuka glazes 21 x 12 cm

You’ve spoken before of how people today have no need for functional pots; you’ve also written on the need for a ‘sense of adventure’ in modern pottery. What do you think is the role of the potter in contemporary society?

I think I coined the expression ‘a sense of adventure’ when writing about Lisa Hammond, and I stand by what I said. The role of the potter today is not what it was 100 years ago. Cheaply produced metal and plastic have superseded the ‘country potter’ making inexpensive utilitarian wares. The advent of the ‘studio potter’ meant that we potters had a new role. Our pots are seen as an artistic expression and in our work we answer many of the same questions that a sculptor or painter asks themselves: questions about line, form, composition, light, shade, balance, and so on. Our work is no longer exclusively concerned with ‘use’. Pots, while possessing a practical function, can also have a contemplative role in the same way that a painting or a sculpture can grace an environment and command the space around it.

Sometimes it’s not about utility at all. Whatever we do make, I think that there has to be this ‘sense of adventure’ in the work.

I want people looking at my pots to be able to see that I have somehow pushed my own boundaries a little, tried to expand the repertoire and succeeded by risking failure.

What is the role of the potter today? I think that our pots must have a personal signature. We are not the anonymous craftspeople that Yanagi or William Morris espoused: Hamada

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recognised this, and fully embraced the status of ‘artist potter’.

We are making pots for a sophisticated clientele who want, in the pieces they buy, something more than a purely functional utensil. I think we must inject our work with a spirit of artistic endeavour that elevates the pot and places it alongside the best of two and three-dimensional ‘fine art’. The Goldmark Gallery has contributed hugely to this end and continues to promote the very best of pottery as equal to any other art form.

2016 has been an uncertain year for most of us, and 2017 seems likely to bring more of the same. What do you hope for your future as a potter, and for the future of ceramics?

Ceramics is in a strong place: there has never been so much interest. The high level of sales at the Goldmark Gallery is proof of that. I have spent quite a lot of time in the USA over the years and there I see a very vibrant ceramic education system where many of the leading artists and potters are also professors.

Unlike many of our own colleges, they manage to maintain both spheres of their creative lives.

For myself, I hope to go on doing what I do. I feel, however, that I may be coming toward the end of the wood firing aspect of my work. The wood kiln and its vagaries have taken up a lot of my time and energy. The amount of hard labour involved is daunting, from cutting the wood (I have just sawn and stacked

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224. Jar Wood fired. Combed. Pine ash glaze 28 x 19 cm

6 tons; I have another 17 waiting) to the loading and then the long hours of stoking and supervision. Wood firing is a hard task master, and though there is no other way of firing that can give you its breath-taking colours and surfaces, a wood kiln can also kick you in the teeth, often for no apparent reason other than a streak of malevolence. I have had it both ways and have, on occasion, smashed as many pots as I have kept.

In truth, I still love what can be done with a limited number of materials, some locally won, in a reduction kiln. Recently I have got back into testing glazes again after neglecting this area for a few years, relying on a library of around ten that I know will work. Wood ash has always held a fascination for me and I want to return to more experimentation.

The latest delivery of wood for the kiln may well be the last: 23 tons is enough for five firings over at least two years. So, whilst the end of this chapter may be in sight, it won’t be for a while.

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225. Tall Bottle Straps & pellets. Ash & Kington stone glaze 53 x 21 cm

27. Chawan Salt glaze 9 x 12 cm

227. Dish Combed. Chrysanthemum. Salt glaze 7 x 29 cm

85. Press Moulded Bottle White slip over iron 18 x 6.5 cm

73. Press Moulded Bottle White slip over iron 27 x 8 cm

226. Covered Bowl Iron brush pattern 23 x 24 cm

97. Bottle Incised pattern. Ash glaze 39 x 16 cm

91. Teardrop Bottle Incised pattern. Ash glaze 35 x 14 cm

195. Jar Wood fired. Ash & Kington stone glaze 34 x 21 cm

199. Tall Bottle Elm ash glaze with Nuka 34 x 14 cm

250. Oval Bottle Hakame with iron brush pattern 21 x 13 cm

252. Bottle Hakame with iron brush pattern 28 x 17 cm

108. Squared Bottle Finger wipes 30 x 13 cm

117. Platter Tenmoku with finger wipes 5 x 26 cm

141. Box Wood fired. Ash glaze 9 x 9.5 cm

223. Jar Wood fired. Natural ash glaze 26 x 20 cm

222. Jar Wood fired. Natural ash glaze 26 x 20 cm

148. Lidded Jar Central strap. Salt glaze 15 x 10.5 cm

26. Chawan Wax resist over iron slip 10 x 12 cm

88. Squared Bottle Wax resist 29 x 12 cm

205. Vase Hakeme with iron brush pattern 20 x 10 cm

134. Bowl Hakeme with iron pigment brush decoration 8 x 19 cm

197. Squared Bottle Shino glaze with white slip 25 x 13 cm

190. Jug Shino glaze with pellets 27 x 16 cm

164. Tall Bottle Nuka with swipe decoration 51 x 18 cm

230. Large Jar Tenmoku glaze with iron brush pattern 32 x 26 cm

Biography 1951 1969-70 1970 - 74 1973-77 1978 1981 1982 1984

1985

1986

1987 1988-90 1990 1991 1991 1993 1993 1994 1995

1995 1996

Born Newport, Gwent.

Newport College of Art. Swansea College of Art. Swansea College of Education (S.A.T.D. University of Wales).

Teacher of Art, Cambridgeshire.

Moves back to Wales to open first workshop in Rhayader making oxidized stoneware.

Builds gas-fired kiln.

Research Grant, Arts Council of Wales.

Moves to Cefnfaes Farm. Converts stone cow house into studio and stables into kiln shed. Builds 75 cu ft oil fired down draught kiln with the help of Arts Council of Wales Grant.

Builds 45 cu ft catenary kiln for salt glazing.

Elected a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association (C.P.A) of Great Britain.

Begins a series of annual pottery summer schools that runs for sixteen years.

Adjudicator, National Eisteddfod of Wales.

Lecturer on B.A. and M.A. courses at North Staffordshire University.

Elected to the Council of the C.P.A. First prizewinner, National Eisteddfod of Wales.

Awarded Crafts Council grant for promotional material.

Organizes a series of major exhibitions around the UK for the C.P.A. Elected Vice-Chair of the C.P.A. Elected a full member of Contemporary Applied Arts.

Elected Chairman of the Crafts Potters Association of Great Britain.

Visits Ethiopia for Project Ploughshare & to set up a women's pottery project in Gondar.

Tours USA giving a series of lectures and demonstrations.

Re-elected as Chairman of C.P.A. for a third term.

Appointed to the Craft Board, Arts Council of Wales.

Re-elected as Chair of C.P.A. for fourth term.

Revisits Ethiopia to oversee continuing work on the woman's pottery project in Gondar.

Workshop tour of USA (Dallas, Houston and Washington).

Lectures on the history of British Studio Pottery in Athens.

Gives week long workshop to Township people in Cape Town, South Africa.

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53. Yunomi Shino glaze with iron brush pattern 10 x 8 cm

37. Guinomi Wood fired. Impressed pattern 7 x 7 cm

46. Yunomi Paddled pattern. Nuka glaze 10 x 8 cm

36. Guinomi Hakeme. Iron brush pattern 7 x 7 cm

243. Yunomi Combed. Salt glaze 10 x 8 cm

1997 1998

1999

2000 2001

2002 2003 2004

2005

Demonstrates at Maltese Potters annual festival in Malta.

Judge for ceramics competition at the Royal Dublin Society, Dublin.

Teaches salt-glazing, kiln-building at Chungnan University, Taejon, S. Korea.

Builds new 55 cu ft kiln for salt-glaze.

Awarded scholarship (Harold Wingate Foundation) to build Korean wood fired climbing kiln.

Invited for lecture tour to Canada and USA. Returns to Korea in March.

Selected for Westerwald Prize Exhibition, Germany.

Appointed a trustee of the Craft Potter's Charitable Trust.

Guest demonstrator at the International Festival of Ceramics, Aberystwyth.

Builds a salt kiln at Hood College, Maryland, USA. Prizewinner - National Eisteddfod of Wales.

Workshop tour of the USA. Purchase Award, Orton Cone Box Show, Kansas, USA. Panelist at NCECA in Charlotte, USA. Shows at the World Ceramic Biennale and I.A.C. Exhibitions, S. Korea.

Demonstrator at the Craft Potters Association of Ireland.

Annual Ceramic Festival Workshops in the USA. Orton Cone Box Show, Kansas USA. 'Salzbrand' Exhibition, Hohr Grenzhausen, Germany.

Tours Korea and Japan.

Guest demonstrator at the National Functional workshop, Ohio, USA. Judge for the Orton Cone Box show, Kansas, USA. Re-elected to the Council of Management of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain.

Completes two-chambered wood fired kiln.

First potter elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy.

Presents a workshop in Bavaria for Kalkspatz.

Featured In TV documentary 'Creative Roads' for HTV. Present two workshops in the USA in January.

Guest presenter at the Kelowna Clay Festival, British Columbia, Canada.

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160. Lidded Jar Salt glaze 16 x 15 cm

106. Squared Bottle Iron brush pattern 23 x 12 cm

2007

2008 2009

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Contributes to 'The Firing', a programme for BBC radio 4.

Awarded ACW grant.

Presents two further workshops in the USA. 'Phil Rogers - Potter' book published in the USA. Recipient of the major Creative Wales Award from the A.C.W. Becomes Vice Chair of the CPA for the second time.

A new film by Charles Mapleston produced by the Goldmark Gallery entitled Phil Rogers - A Passion for Pots.

Invited to speak at the World Ceramics Centre in Icheon, S. Korea on the Environmental concerns of salt glazing.

Took part in an International Workshop in Icheon. S. Korea.

Attended the Mungyeong Teabowl Festival in S. Korea.

Exhibition, Boston, USA. 'Phil Rogers - a Portfolio' is published by Goldmark Publishing.

Exhibition, Boston, USA. Workshop tour in Canada and USA. Exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, UK. A new 30 minute documentary film by Goldmark called 'Drawing in the Air'.

Workshops in Connecticut and Boston.

Exhibition, Schaller Gallery, St Joseph, Michigan, USA.

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218. Plate Hakeme with iron brush pattern 6 x 32 cm

39. Guinomi Hakeme. Iron brush pattern 6 x 7 cm

153. Jug Wood fired 21 x 12 cm

110. Jug Wood fired 18 x 14 cm

Solo Exhibitions 1978 1981-82 1982, 89, 92, 96 1982, 90 1982, 88 1984-90 1986, 89 1985, 86, 87, 89 1989 1990 1990 1992, 94, 96 1993, 95, 2000 1993, 95 1994, 96 1997 1998 1999 2000 2002 2003

2004 2005 2005 2006

2007

Quay Gallery, St. Ives.

Century Gallery, Henley on Thames.

Rufford Craft Centre.

Wyeside Arts Centre, Builth Wells.

Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

Oriel 31, Welshpool.

Chestnut Gallery, Bourton on the Water.

Contemporary Ceramics, London.

Booth House Gallery, Holmfrith.

Llantarman Grange Arts Center.

Model House, Llantrisant.

Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh.

Harlequin Gallery.

Hart Gallery. Nottingham.

On Line Gallery. Southampton.

'Tho Art' Space Gallery, Seoul, Korea.

Twenty Years a Potter, Harley Gallery.

Bircham Gallery, Norfolk.

Bettles Gallery, Hampshire.

Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA. Harlequin Gallery, London.

Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA. Contemporary Ceramics, London.

'Showcase', Contemporary Applied Arts, London.

Oakwood Gallery, Nottingham.

Harlequin Gallery, Greenwich, London.

Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.

Pucker Gallery, Boston, USA. Candover Gallery, Arlesford.

Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham,Rutland.

Pucker Gallery, Boston, USA. Gallery St Ives, Tokyo, Japan.

'COLLECT', Victoria and Albert Museum.

Pucker Gallery, Boston, USA. Candover Gallery, Arlesford.

The Gallery at Bevere, Worcester.

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2008 2012 2013 2014 2015 2017

143. Lidded Jar White slip 12 x 10 cm

Ceramic Art London, Royal College of Art. Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

St Ives Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall.

Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland.

Book Launch Exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland.

Pucker Gallery, Boston, USA. Leach Pottery Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall.

Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland.

Schaller Gallery, St. Joseph, MI. USA. Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland.

245. Bottle Wood fired. Incised decoration. Ash glaze 29 x 14 cm

115. Sake Set Wood fired. Ash glaze 12 x 8 cm

100. Squared Bottle Hakeme with iron brush pattern 22 x 11 cm

Work in Public and Private Collections ENGLAND Allen Gallery, Alton, Hampshire.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Buckinghamshire Museum, Aylesbury.

City Museum, Stoke on Trent.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Leicester City Museum, Leicester.

Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham.

Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

York Museum, (Bill Ismay Collection), York.

Brueghel, Veghel.

Princessehof Museum, Leewarden.

SOUTH KOREA Ganjin Celedon Museum.

World Ceramic Center, Icheon.

CANADA Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario.

Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

SCOTLAND Aberdeen Museum and Art Gallery, Aberdeen.

Paisley Museum of Art, Paisley.

WALES Ceridigion, Powys and Monmouthshire County Councils.

National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.

Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Newport.

Swansea City Museum, Glynn Vivien Art Gallery, Swansea.

University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

GERMANY Collection – Adolf Egner, Frechen, Koln.

Keramikmuseum, Hohr Grenzhausen.

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munchen.

ISRAEL Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art, Haifa.

JAPAN Museum of Contemporary Ceramics, Mashiko.

Museum of Modern Ceramics, Mino.

NETHERLANDS Jan van Houte Collection, Institut Pieter

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USA Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH. American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA. Arizona State University Museum, Tempe, AZ. Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA. Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH. Crocker Museum of Art, Sacremento, CA. Essex Peabody Museum, Harvard, Boston, MA. Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN. Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minneapolis, MN. Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM. Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA. Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Sackler Museum at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. The Schein-Joseph Museum at Alfred University, NY. Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA.

Publications, Film, TV & Video Ash Glazes Ash Glazes Throwing Pots Salt Glazing Phil Rogers-New Pots 2005 Phil Rogers-Potter

Two Potters UK Festival of European Ceramics Art Talks Creative Roads The Firing Phil Rogers-A Passion for Pots A Portfolio Two Pioneer Potters in 1920’s Britain The Leach School - Contemporary British Potters

Phil Rogers, published A&C Black. 1992.

Reprinted 1996.

2nd Revised Edition published 2003.

Phil Rogers, published A&C Black. 1995.

Reprinted 2000, 2001, 2005.

Phil Rogers published A&C Black. 2002.

Goldmark Gallery, essay by David Whiting. 2005.

Pucker Gallery, essay by Andrew Maske. 2007.

Numerous articles and essays for various magazines and catalogues.

Phil Rogers and Mo Jupp.

Video production by Invision Films. 1994.

Video. 1992. with Mal Pope. HTV. 2002.

A documentary film made for HTV Television. 2004 (prod. Gwenda Richards).

For BBC Radio 4.

A film by the Goldmark Gallery.

Phil Rogers, published Goldmark, 2012.

Catalogue Hamada Shoji’s perspective on Modernity, Published in Japan.

A catalogue by the Museum of Contemporary Ceramics, Mashiko, Japan.

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185. Jug Tenmoku with pellets 13 x 11 cm

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Text: © Phil Rogers, 2017 Pot photographs: © Vicki Uttley / Jay Goldmark Location photographs & portraits: © Jay Goldmark Design: Goldmark / Porter / Uttley ISBN 978-1-909167-41-4 Goldmark Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424 goldmarkart.com

170. Set of 80 Guinomi Various glazes 102 x 102 cm

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