INTRODUCTION TO THE CONFERENCE EXHIBITION
By Peter Cox
THIS EXHIBITION has been arranged in connection with the International
Conference of Craftsmen in Pottery and Textiles taking place
at Dartington Hall from July 17th to 27th. It brings together a
selection of the best work done in hand-made pottery and textiles in
this country since 1920 and should be of interest to a wide public,
because it reveals not only a high standard of workmanship but also
aesthetic quality and inspiration.
The organisers of both exhibition and conference believe that one of
the urgent problems to-day is to find a rightful place for craftsmen in
our industrialised society. Out of the craftsman's urge to create something
new has come much of the invention on which industry itself
depends, and it is still through the craftsman's hands that many new
ideas and fresh possibilities occur. As an artist the craftsman has also
an essential contribution to make.
The Arts and Crafts movement has not yet had the success it deserves.
Conditions have been against it and too many craftsmen have seemed to
escape into the past rather than to be looking forward to the future.
But the principles upon which the movement was founded have continued to
gain acceptance during the last thirty years, not only in Britain
but in the world at large. We are beginning to realize that society
cannot be healthy unless it offers outlets for the imagination and
opportunities for artists and craftsmen to live and work as part of the
community. The achievements of craftsmen themselves have shown
that the machine, despite its usefulness, cannot produce all that society
needs, and even in industry itself, there is growing realization that with
his all-round knowledge the first-rate and adventurous craftsman can
break essential, new ground.
Encouraging though this change of attitude is, the craftsman still
faces this fundamental problem: he must produce something which
cannot be as well produced by industry and something which at the
same time the public wants and can afford to buy. He must possess a
considerable degree of originality and his products must, however
simple and unpretentious they may be, have a real aesthetic appeal.
In industrialised countries the challenge would be easier to meet if
the indigenous tradition of craftsmanship had not already been lost and
with it many hundreds of years of inherited knowledge. A measure of
rediscovery can take place through experiment, research and scientific
study but much of it can only be learnt again intuitively. This is not
easy for the craftsman of to-day coming to his craft self-consciously,
often with a background of an almost exclusively intellectual education.
He is, moreover, subject for the first time in history to a bewildering
variety of inspiration and knowledge derived from all ages and cultures
and not least from the many movements within the world of modern
art. For the few, with a real gift of creative power, this process of
selection, digestion and personal integration is difficult enough, but
for the majority it will probably present an insuperable difficulty until
a new tradition of craftsmanship has been established.
In addition to these fundamental problems, craftsmen to-day inevitably
face, along with other creative people, many practical difficulties
in working in a world geared for mass production. They have to have
training and capital, find ways and means of economic production and
distribution, and work within government regulations and restrictions
designed mainly to control industry. Genuine raw materials and good
equipment have for many years been getting more and more difficult
to obtain.
These difficulties did not in any way prevent the growth of the crafts
movement in Britain between the wars and there emerged not only
a number of outstanding craftsmen but also workshops associated with
personalities, like Ethel Mairet or Bernard Leach, which maintained
regular production and became centres where the younger generation
could get training and experience. Since the war the number of practising
craftsmen has increased considerably and many have sought in
the crafts a way of life which, while offering but a meagre income,
gives fundamental satisfaction. This new generation has likewise been.
undeterred by great practical difficulties but these have often adversely
affected their work. Too much professional craftsmanship being
offered for sale to-day has insufficient technical quality and little or no
original inspiration.
The raising of existing standards, both aesthetic and technical, is of
the utmost importance, because on the standard of craftsmanship
depends among other things the future of patronage. During the
present century the main patrons have been a comparatively small
number of people, many of them wealthy, who have bought from a
small number of craftsmen. These patrons are now disappearing but
the effect of this has not yet been fully felt. With the war the market
for crafts widened but this was due more to shortages generally than to
any preference for hand-made goods; as the shortages cease the market
may well dwindle. The few first-rate craftsmen will always have the
which is beginning to grow apace now that art is taught more
imaginatively in the schools. Craftsmen have also to forge a closer
link with the world of architecture and to lay claim to their proper
function of meeting the special needs of public buildings.
In Great Britain some progress is being made to help craftsmen
through this difficult period of transition. The Rural Industries
Bureau, the British Crafts Centre, the British Council, the Circulation
Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ministry of
Education and the better Art Schools are all in their respective ways
making a contribution. In other parts of the world, both East and
West, efforts are being made to assist this new movement of craftsmanship
and to preserve and resuscitate an indigenous tradition where it
still exists. The time seems ripe therefore for some international
pooling of experience and consideration of problems.
With a view to achieving this some 80 craftsmen from all parts of
the world are gathering at Dartington Hall in Devonshire this summer
for a ten-day conference. It seemed appropriate on this occasion to
have an exhibition of work done by artist-craftsmen who have worked
in this country over the last thirty years. This exhibition can at the
same time act as a landmark from which new developments may arise
and be of use to the large number of young British craftsmen who have
not had a chance of seeing some of the distinguished work done before
the war.
As the exhibition is of interest to a wider public, the Arts
Council of Great Britain is undertaking to show it in Edinburgh,
London and Birmingham. Both conference and exhibition are being sponsored
and organised by the Arts Department at Dartington Hall, since it seemed that the
Department, though not itself an active participant in the Crafts,
could make a useful contribution in this way. Experts were invited to
form a panel to advise the Department, the panel consisting of Philip
James, C.B.E., Chairman (Director of Art, Arts Council of Great
Britain), Bernard Leach (Potter), Muriel Rose (Officer for Crafts and
Industrial Design, British Council), The Lady Sempill, A.R.C.A.
(Member of Scottish Committee of the Council of Industrial Design,
and Member of Council, Royal College of Art), Marianne Straub,
F.S.I.A. (Textile Designer to Messrs. Warner's of Braintree), Robin
Tanner (H.M.I.), George Wingfield Digby (Keeper of Textiles,
Victoria and Albert Museum), and Alec Heath (exhibition designer),
who has designed the exhibition. The Arts Council, the British
Council and the Ministry of Education all gave their encouragement
to the enterprise.
The Panel agreed from the outset that owing to limitations of space,
time and money the exhibition should be restricted to Pottery and
Textiles and also to the work of artist-craftsmen who had worked in
Great Britain. This latter restriction fortunately did not exclude
Shoji Hamada of Japan, who worked in England for a time between the
wars and had, as the exhibition shows, a considerable influence on
British potters. It also allowed the inclusion of several important
craftsmen of foreign origin but of British naturalisation.
The selection of the exhibits has been in the hands of two sub-committees:
for pottery, Bernard Leach, Muriel Rose, The Lady
Sempill, George Wingfield Digby; and for textiles, Muriel Rose and
Marianne Straub. As the exhibition had to be of a limited size it
seemed impractical to offer a general invitation to craftsmen to send
in exhibits or to try to include the work of a large number. Conse-
quently, each selection panel invited only some twenty to thirty
craftsmen to send in examples of their work. Meanwhile, the
members of the panels concentrated on collecting, mainly from private
collectors and museums, a good representation of the work of the few
leading craftsmen of our time.
This may well mean that some genuinely good work has been
omitted, but the selection panels hope that they have achieved their
aim of providing the public with a good review of work over the last
thirty years which at the same time shows some eye to the future.
Small though this exhibition is, it has involved the willing collaboration
of a large number of people-craftsmen, private collectors, the
British Council, the Arts Council, committees and officers of museums
and others, who are mentioned by name throughout the catalogue.
To these and to members of the Advisory Panel the Dartington Hall
Trustees wish to offer their thanks. They hope that the exhibition
will help to increase public appreciation of the crafts and be a stimulus
and encouragement to craftsmen themselves.
PETER COX
JUNE 7, 1952
ARTS DEPARTMENT, DARTINGTON HALL
Reproduced from the conference report with the permission of the Dartington Hall Trust Archive.