Walter Keeler

Walter Keeler at the Ashmolean, part of the Clay Live series of events.

A lecture, a demonstration and a visit to Keeler's exhibition at the Oxford Ceramics Gallery.


The lecture:

Walter Keeler talked about his interest in pottery that started very early on when he was a boy and would go to the Thames and dig in the mud excavating bits of pottery. When he went to art college they had to do craft on Fridays and he chose pottery. Bernard Leach's 'A Potter's Book' became a favourite, not for the pots which he did not like, as he felt that Leach had a narrow view of pottery, but because of the process outlined in the book.  Hans Coper and Lucie Rie were influences as was Mediterranean pottery.

He was very pleased with the cubist cruet set he made for his first assessment, but the examiner was a 'Leach man', who failed him. He had to repeat that year.

He started working with salt glaze in the 1970s, making 'strange one-off pieces' and then decided to make pots that people could use. The handles of his pots of that period are reminiscent of  Mediterranean amphorae. Just as he was about to abandon pottery, as he was not making a living out of it, he had his major breakthrough when he got a scholarship of £5,000 from the Arts Council, and this resulted in an increase in confidence and his work started selling.

Two main concerns throughout his career: the relationship between forms and bringing sculptural considerations into functional pots.  'It's important for objects to have a life'.

'I find it quite a wrench to separate the design from the making'.

'Skill isn't just skill, it opens up possibilities for the mind'.

'I want these pots to be acts of nature, not a product of fumbling hands'.

'If the pots couldn't be used, I wouldn't be making them'.

'People are increasingly detached from materials and the process of making things which is sad because it's such a vital part of communicating - materials speak to us'.


The demonstration:

 

Starting with an extruded piece

 

 

 

working on the spout

adding the bottom part of the jug

 

the 'posture' has to be right

 

 



 

not too upright

the handle is now on

elegant and stylish.

After glazing and firing, as seen in the Gallery.

Second demonstration. Starting with an extursion again,

adding the spout which has been press-moulded. (By the way, Walter Keeler does not score)

The handle's been added. Using slurry, but no scoring

Isn't this elegant? Stylish? Minimalist? Absolutely gorgeous?

And then something unexpected happened. I wanted to stand up and shout 'stop, stop right here!

More and more 'branches' were added and the jug lost the simplicity, the clean lines that made it so gorgeous. And I stopped taking photographs - it was too painful.

But then, this is just my opinion. I love Walter Keeler's work, but this new work that is full of branches and thorns is not to my liking at all. In fact, I avoided photographing any of the latest work that was on display at the exhibition.



The exhibition:

at the Oxford Ceramics Gallery

 

Bowl with extrusions - salt glaze

 



 

 

 

jugs

 

 

 

cream jugs

 

Cylindrical jug - salt ware

 

 

 

 

Lathe turned cream jug

 

 

 

 

Offset-lid teapot - salt glaze

 

 

 

Pill-box tea pot - salt glaze

 

 

 

 

Cut-rim dish - salt glaze

 

 

 

 

Fruit teapot - earthenware

 

 

  

 

Pseudo-engine turned jug

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Platform server - salt glaze

 

 

  

 

Fruit box - earthenware

 

 

  

 

Pseudo engine turned teapot

 

 

  

 

Yellow teapot - earthenware

 

 

  

 

Super charger - salt glaze

 

 

  

 

Jugs - salt glaze

 

 

 

 

Inkwash teapot