A while back I was contacted by someone who had an old lamp made by B.C. potter Hilda K. Ross. I was pleased to receive the email as I had never found a piece of Ms. Ross' work before. She was an important early contributor to the B.C. pottery scene and examples of her work are hard to find. I assume most of her pots are either in collections or have been lost to time. Thumbing through my old exhibition catalogues I've always been impressed by how well her work showed and was profiled back in the 1950s and early 1960s but couldn’t readily find too much about her career. What follows is what I was able to summarize with a little digging… Hilda Katherine Ross was born in Ottawa in 1902 and later began her artistic career when she studied art at the Winnipeg School of Art. There she studied under the tutelage of Group of Seven artist LL FitzGerald, who taught at the school between 1929–1947. After leaving Winnipeg she would go on to graduate from the Art Institute of Chicago. Ms. Ross then attended the newly founded British Columbia College of Art sometime between 1933 and 1935. While there she studied with another Group of Seven artist, Frederick Varley, who had opened the short lived school with his colleague Jock Macdonald. After concluding her studies, she became one of Vancouver’s first studio potters. Starting in September 1948, Ross began teaching pottery alongside Mollie Carter at Gordon Neighbourhood House, on Broughton Street, in Vancouver’s West End. At the same time she also served as one of the designers for the Cottage Pottery in Pennsylvania. While some potter's craft circles existed in BC prior to the war – notably in Summerland and Victoria – these were some of the first independent pottery classes taught in Vancouver and by the end of 1949 they had 200 students. Later, until the summer of 1952, their ceramics workshop was relocated to the basement of the U.B.C. library. There they were joined by Hungarian Zoltan Kiss (by way of Knabstrup Keramik in Denmark) who, on arrival, became one of the few potters in British Columbia with training and experience. The Ross lamp I was interested in took me on a jaunt out to the west coast of Vancouver Island. The owner told me it was part of a downsizing purge by an elderly relative who was parting with some "quality stuff." The lamp she showed me certainly fit the bill in my mind. The textured body was reminiscent of other Ross pieces I've seen, and likely something learned from or influenced by Mason or Ball. It would have been a quality piece to acquire back in the day – likely the late 50s or early 60s – as it still had the original exhibition label affixed to the bottom with its price of $35 (about $350 by today's standard). In 1951 and 1952 Edith Heath travelled north from Sausalito California to UBC to teach an Extension Department summer workshop to Ms. Ross and others which focused on clay, glazes and wheel throwing. Around the same time her classes were re-located from the basement of the UBC library to a more permanent home - the "Pottery Hut," a retrofitted former army barrack. Here, Ms. Ross continued to teach part-time alongside her former teacher Rex Mason among others. The UBC Pottery Hut was a hive of creative sharing and development during the next decade. Luminaries like F. Carleton Ball, Konrad Sadowski, John Reeve and Kyllikki Salmenhaara (a renowned designer at the Arabia factory Art Department in Helsinki Finland) were all guest instructors at the Pottery Hut. During these years Hilda Ross was also busy working on the formation of the BC Potters Guild with Olea Davis, Avery Huyghe and Stan Clarke. Another notable achievement that comes up in my research is the work she did with Olea Davis, Reg Dixon, and Stan Clarke to help BC studio potters find viable sources of clay in the province. In 1958 they used a grant from the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation to prepare a report on British Columbia clays for the UBC Extension Department. Their findings were presented using examples of fired works with different clays in a well-received exhibit in the Spring of 1958 at the UBC Fine Arts Gallery. Hilda Ross continued teaching and working at the Pottery Hut until it was closed in 1966. She then opened and operated the Ross-Huyghe School of Pottery with her friend Avery Huyghe until retiring from potting in 1969. During her career she actively exhibited widely in BC, Canada, and abroad - many at which she won awards. Her work was accepted to the Canadian Ceramics Biennial in 1953, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, and 1967. Other notable major exhibitions include the Universal and International Exhibition in Brussels in 1958, the 3rd International Exhibition of Ceramic Art in Prague 1962 (where she received a gold medal), the Department of Trade & Commerce Exhibitions in Berlin and Florence 1964, and the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67. M's Ross' work is notable for it treatment of surface the glazes she used. Heavy textures and rollered finishes are common as in these examples... Hilda Ross' work is signed with her "H.K.R." initials (left) or with her full name "Hilda K. Ross" (hard to make out on the right). Pottery simply signed "Ross" is often mistakenly attributed to her. I purchased the lamp of course. It is in perfect original condition and at 13" tall it is certainly an impressive piece of Ms. Ross' work - very representative of the time. It was missing its original shade but I soon managed to find an old Lotte Bostlund spun fiberglass shade that is a good match for it. I'm still enjoying the lamp and glad I spent the time digging into Hilda Ross contributions to the BC pottery story. It sits prominently in my home and gets used every day, providing necessary light to a naturally dim corner. When I pause to look at it, I'm reminded of a time when the energy around ceramic culture in BC must've been electric with all the connections that were created between prominent artists – the people who's work I love. It also reminds me of a lazy drive along the ocean on a sunny day, in the company of my daughter and her dog, and yet another good memory thanks to this hobby of mine. Update...After searching for years for a piece of work by Hilda Ross, I was able to buy the lamp. Recently I was fortunate enough to find another, and I think, better example of her work. This chun glazed and perfectly thrown bowl was likely made in the 1950s. It features a textured back and is 11" across by 3" high. Neighborhood Artists to Register. (Sept. 24, 1949). The Vancouver Sun.
photo, page 36. (October 5, 1949). Vancouver Sun. Perreault, E. (July 8, 1950). School's In For The Summer. The Province. Art of Pottery Making to Be Taught at UBC. (June 29, 1950). Surrey Leader. Pallette. (March 22, 1958). New Exhibit Covers Wide Range of Effort. The Province. Dollman, R. (Aug. 18, 1962). International Awards, Tours Favor City Cramics and BC Painting. The Province. Allan, R. (July 25, 1964). Teachers and Talent Abound At Summer School Of The Arts. Vancouver Sun. Every once in a while I come across a truly special piece of ceramic art that deserves its own post... This ceramic sculpture, shown below, was made in the early 1960s by Santo Mignosa. It stands an impressive 765 mm (30") tall and is 460 mm (18") wide across the top. Santo is known for his large sculptural pieces, a technique he learned in his native Italy before leaving his teaching job at the Institute of Art in Siracusa, and immigrating to Canada in 1957 to become a ceramics instructor alongside Olea Davis and Thomas Kakinuma at the UBC pottery hut in 1959. Santo was featured in a February 1963 edition of Ceramics Monthly and was interviewed on his techniques and ability to create such large sculptural pieces. He explained that his method "consists of just building anything you want by adding a piece of flat clay on top of another and, in doing that, giving a specific direction to the line of the sculpture." He went on to say that "it is necessary that the artist have a very clear picture in his mind of the finished work, as second thoughts are not allowed. Of course, experience makes everything easy..." The clay he chose was also unique as it was "a cone 8 dark- brown-burning clay which is used commercially to join sections of sewer pipe." The Etruscan motifs on this piece are clearly evident and in line with other sculptural works he made during these years. In fact, he wrote "Etrusco" on the bottom where he signed it to leave no question of his intent. At the time of it's creation in the early 1960s, Santo was teaching at the Kootenay School of Art in Nelson BC, with Zeljko Kujundzic. I've seen photos of other sculptural pieces Santo created during that time frame and can see Zeljko's byzantine-style influence in some of it. This one though is entirely Santo and may have been finished earlier when he was still teaching at UBC. Always eager to show his work internationally, the sculpture, titled "Impressions of Vancouver, B.C." was accepted for the 22nd Ceramic National Exhibition in Syracuse New York. The show, held in 1962, was a survey of American and Canadian contemporary art pottery held annually and featured the best work on the continent. "Impressions..." had long been in the possession of an art collector since purchasing it directly from Santo in Nelson in the mid 1960s. There it sat alongside world class pieces by Hans Coper and Toshu Yamamoto. It was important to the family of this gentleman that the Mignosa piece would find its way and end up in a collection where it would be fully appreciated and admired. It is, and now sits among works created by his friend Zeljko, perhaps some of which were thrown or fired at the same time... Update:I recently uncovered this photograph of "Impressions" in the installation at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse. The photo dates to between November 4 - December 30, 1962 just before the show went on a two year long tour of the United States. According to the exhibit catalog, Santo listed the piece at $335 USD (approximately $3500 in today's currency). The Pottery and Sculpture of Santo Mignosa. (1963, February). Ceramics Monthly, 11(2), 24–27.
Installation view, Everson Museum of Art. American Craft Council. (n.d.). Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://digital.craftcouncil.org/digital/collection/p15785coll6/id/5023/rec/1 Arthur Handy was a Canadian sculptor who started his long career as an artist and teacher in ceramics before mastering the capabilities of other mediums. He would always return to clay periodically though, in his exploration of abstract impressionism. I was fortunate enough to acquire some pieces of his work some time ago, initially knowing very little about him. The pieces were magnificent - powerful and unlike anything else I have in my collection. With a little digging however, I came to be immensely impressed by the man, his accomplished career and of course by his art. And while I primarily focus on the work of BC artists, exceptions have to be made, and Arthur Handy’s work justify this. Born in New York City in 1933, Handy grew up under the influence of the dynamic American art of Jackson Pollock and the improvisational prowess of Miles Davis. Handy graduated Magna cum laude with a BFA from Alfred University in 1959, and again with a MFA in Ceramics in 1960 and upon completion, immediately took a job as the Head of Ceramics at the Ontario College of Art where he stayed until 1966.
His final couple of decades were spent teaching, exhibiting, and returning to clay now and again. When Arthur Handy passed away in 2004 he was remembered fondly for his gentle manner and his humility. Of his sculptural work it was said “his response was deft and light. His handling of form was immensely sophisticated, informed by deep knowledge of the history of ceramics and his love of looking at art.” Arthur Handy’s work is in the collection of the Canada Council Art Bank, Alfred University, and the Royal Ontario Museum. Canadian Ceramics 1961: April 4-May 7 Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto ; May 26-June 26 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. (1961). Montreal: Canadian Guild of Potters.
Canadian sculpture today. (1964). Toronto: Dorothy Cameron Gallery. Thompson, D. (1965, February 23). Display of Ceramics Sparks Craftsman - Artist Comparison. Calgary Herald. Hale, B. (1977, April 23). The Physical Art. The Ottawa Citizen. Arthur Handy: Ceramic sculpture, 1962-65 and 1985. (1985). Macdonald Stewart Art Centre 22 June - 4 August 1985. Guelph, Ont.: Macdonald Stewart Art Centre. Flinn, S. (2004, December 4). The Magnificent Mystery of Mickey Handy. Halifax Chronicle Herald. I met Des Loan in the fall of 1982. He was my high school English teacher and he was different than the rest of my teachers. Des taught differently, talking to us in seminar as opposed to marching us through a textbook. He told stories - including one I remember about his friend “Zeljko” who had been a prisoner of war during WWII. (I would later discover this man to be Zeljko Kujundzic, another prolific and important Canadian artist who spent a considerable part of his career in British Columbia). Another time I remember him singing to us in sonnet and then admonishing us for being embarrassed by it. Yes, Des was certainly different than the rest of the staff at my high school but I credit him for reigniting my interest in reading and writing that had been dispatched over the previous three years by the drudgery of a traditional education.
Their pottery career started later in the 1950s when Peg took a pottery course on hand building at the Naramata Summer School of the Arts with California potter Hal Riegger - who headed the pottery department at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. As it happened, the ceramic seed was now planted and Des was soon getting his hands in the clay too. By the early 1960’s Des and Peg had generated enough work and interest in what they were making that they began selling pottery directly from their home in Summerland. Wanting to further his ceramic skills and deepen his understanding of the whole process, Des enrolled in UBC Summer Extension Programs at UBC in Vancouver. The classes all took place at the “Pottery Hut” - the crucible of ceramic art in British Columbia. Starting in the early 1950s and on into the 1960s, the pioneer potters of B.C. learned from the likes of American luminaries Edith Heath, F. Carlton Ball and Marguerite Wildenhain and also from international artists like Alexander Archipenko and Kyllikki Salmenhaara. Des attended for two consecutive summers; the first hosted by Stan Clarke in 1961 and then with John Reeve in 1962. Reeve had just arrived back in Canada after completing his apprenticeship with Bernard Leach at the Leach Pottery in St. Ives England (1958 - 1961). So began their fascination and journey with pottery. With an electric kiln to get them started, they established their first studio “Okanagan Pottery” on Bottleneck Drive in Summerland. Des was involved in a number of exhibitions during the 1960s, including the Western Ceramics touring exhibit in 1967. His work was one of many featured in this juried show of western Canadian artists that travelled to over a dozen galleries. His drive to explore, experiment and have a dedicated space for making pottery led Des to make the move to Peachland and build the Okanagan Pottery Studio in 1968. Right on the side of Highway 97, just past the foot of Princeton Avenue, Des constructed his studio facing the lake and looking out across at Rattlesnake Island. Here they had both a retail and studio space that was easily accessible to the public. Another big step forward here was the purchase of a gas fired kiln for producing stoneware and porcelain work. This larger scale kiln allowed for not only a huge range of glaze possibilities but also sculptures and larger scale ceramic vases like the one shown below. This is a collaborative piece signed by both Peg and Des and dates to around 1972. The 1960s and 1970s were exciting times in B.C. pottery. Artists were coming into their own, programs and careers were becoming established, and the exchange of ideas was in full swing. The Leach apprentices were back from St. Ives and luminaries like Wayne Ngan were emerging. Many notable artists moved freely between B.C. and Alberta sharing ideas and influence. Calgary, Edmonton, Banff, Nelson, Vancouver and the Island were all very prolific hubs of creation. The Okanagan valley was no different. With the passing of the Schwenks in the mid 1960s, it was the next wave of Okanagan potters like the Loans, Zeljko Kujundzic, Frances Hatfield, Walter Dexter, Leonhard Epp and Frank Poll who would create their own creative epicentre. While Dexter’s stay was fairly brief (he would leave for Nelson in 1968 to head the Kootenay School of the Arts) - Des, Zeljko and Frank would form three of the Five Okanagan Contemporary Artists collective. Along with Weldon Munden and LeRoy Jensen (later of the Limner group in Victoria) the group injected a great deal of energy and leadership into the valley art scene. Looking at Des Loan pieces created during these years you can see the mutual influence and interchange of ideas between many of these potters. You can see it the works of Kujundzic, Mignosa, and Poll at this time. The influence of Thomas Kakinuma can be seen on some of the figural animals Peg produced during these years. You can also see it in the work of his friend Les Manning who asked Des if he could work at the studio for part of the year during his sabbatical from the Banff Centre in the early 1980s. Les and Des had a great rapport with one another and inspired each other in clay and philosophy. Des had such an appreciation and deep understanding of literature that he could easily share and discuss at depth a great variety of authors, poets and playwrights. Les found this most inspiring and would often tell Des how he would incorporate ideas and quotes he had learned from Des in lectures and keynotes he would deliver. For Des, having Les working in the studio opened his eyes to a whole new range of design ideas and especially glazes. Les was a great artist and especially keen as a careful technician in formulating and firing a wide range of very interesting glazes. Des continued to use many of the recipes Les shared with him from that time. Especially a Shino glaze of Japanese origin that Des used right up to his final days of working with clay. When I was doing some research on Des' pottery career I connected with his son-in-law Peter Flanagan. Peter is also a talented and widely regarded potter who has been actively creating for the past 40+ years. Peter is known for the incredibly large plates he throws - some requiring 70 lbs of clay! They’re impressive and they’re beautiful. You can check out Peter’s work here. One of the things Peter impressed on me was that Des was a Renaissance man. He had varied interests and was good at many things. He enjoyed playing his grand piano for visitors to his home. He was an avid painter in oils and exhibited throughout the Okanagan. He was also interested in photography who had a knack for portraiture and candid capture. Des was also a published poet, his works appearing in literary journals and also in a book of his own collected works. He shared this interest with his friend George Ryga, a notable writer from the valley whom Des first befriend in the early 1960s. Peter also shared an excerpt of one of Des’ poems with me and reading it immediately took me back to 1982, to my desk by the window on the second floor, to my English teacher reading poetry aloud to the class… last night I held in sleep a hollow cylinder of carved Brazil nut a curved window in it opened on a totally negative presentiment a chocolate Haida face with empty eye sockets today at the kickwheel two angled wire-cuts in a cylinder of clay a final cut at the base pick it up to ball and discard the excess folding in the pointed flaps and through the window of the severed underside my unremembered dream lies once again in my fingers I honour the moment by making it the handle of a new pot which ironically was my intended purpose A big thanks of gratitude to Peter Flanagan for his assistance and the information he provided for this post. Identifying and dating Loan pottery |
Studio Pottery CanadaPottery enthusiast learning about the history of this Canadian art form and curating samples from the best in the field pre-1980. Archives
June 2022
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