Feature - The Seventies by Frances Morgan



	From: Issue 40 #3 Sept 2001

Vol 13, No 2, Spring, 1974, Derek Smith, ‘Solar III’, copper and iron pigment over engraved lines, h.61cm, Royal Doulton Studio, Chatswood, NSW	Frances Morgan ‘Did you ever see a sea fly, a bore get high or a candy bar cry?’1 Evidently some funk artists did in the 1970s. From funk to functional: diversity defined practice. Ceramic artists were presented with more information and better training, and professional bodies were established to give support and funding. In response, they seized every opportunity. Ceramics became part of the crafts family. Work on this commenced in 1964 with the establishment of the Crafts Association of Australia. But it did not come to full realisation until the 1970s when the Crafts Council of Australia was established and a Crafts Board was included in the Whitlam governments’ newly restructured Australia Council. The Crafts Board provided a strong voice not only for ceramics, which had the most practitioners in the country, but also for representing smaller crafts such as glass, which in 1974 comprised only one per cent of practice.

Professional development was assisted when the Whitlam government increased funding. The Potters Society received a few grants, but remained largely self-funding. Members of the society benefited and used the assistance ‘to finance study-travel tours, to set up or improve existing workshops or for special research.’2 Cross-pollination between crafts was occurring. As Kenneth Hood wrote: ‘Not only are the dividing lines between the various crafts becoming increasingly indistinct but so too is the rigid and traditional barrier between arts and crafts.’ 3 He was writing about Marea Gazzard, following her 1973 Clay + Fibre exhibition held with textile artist Mona Hessing. The exhibition not only symbolised crafts merging but sparked debate among critics about the division of art and craft. Peter Travis also challenged these boundaries by bringing to his sculptural ceramic forms a background in music, industrial and fashion design and a penchant for designing kites. Ceramic artist Stephen Skillitzi, who pioneered glass blowing in Australia, combined the two mediums in some of his work. And Bernard Sahm’s sculptural Art Machine No.2, blurred the boundaries between art and crafts practice. Practitioners were also commissioned to produce large installation works for public spaces, such as Milton Moon’s Glover Fountain at Adelaide’s Festival Theatre. Funk ceramics reached Australia via Margaret Dodd and Tim Moorehead. Many practitioners were attracted to funk ceramics as a vehicle to express their political beliefs and social attitudes. A new generation was emerging who had gained the benefits of improved courses, trained or travelled overseas, and incorporated a myriad of influences in their work. Functional stoneware remained a prominent aesthetic but it had become one style in a diverse practice.		Vol 16 No 2, Spring 1977, Mark Thompson, Porcelain, Adelaide Festival Centre Gallery, 1977 photo: Grant Hancock

Vol.17. No.1, Autumn 1978, Peter Hook, Don’t count your chickens, porcelain slip with low-fired enamels, iron, wood, and wire, d.45cm. Photo: John Delacour	Australia became less remote with more practitioners going overseas. Janet Mansfield led the Ceramic Study Group on many trips including one to Peru and Mexico where they visited the workshop of renowned English potters Harry and May Davis. Australian potters began to forge a name overseas. Joan Campbell was one of 12 Australian potters to be selected to exhibit in the 1972 International Academy of Ceramics exhibition held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where she won the coveted International Academy of Ceramics Diploma of Art Award. Eight Australian potters won gold medals in the 1970s at the prestigious ceramics competition at Faenza, Italy. This group included Peter Travis (1973), Col Levy (1974), Les Blakebrough, Derek Smith and Shiga Shigeo (1975), Bernard Sahm (1976), Sandra Taylor (1977) and Stefan SzÃnyi (1979). At home, milestones and highlights included The Jam Factory Craft and Design Centre opening in Adelaide in 1973 with pottery workshops established in 1974. A farewell exhibition by students was held for Peter Rushforth, who left his position as Head Teacher Ceramics at ESTC in 1978 after teaching there for 27 years. In May 1978 the first biennial National Potters Conference was held bringing together 450 practitioners from around Australia. In 1979 Shiga Shigeo returned to Japan after living and working in Australia for 13 years.

More than 20,000 people were involved in ceramics by 1978. After the first National Potters Conference Peter Travis wrote; ‘Twenty two years ago four Sydney potters founded the Potters Society of Australia. Barely anyone knew they existed, or even thought there was such a thing as local handmade ceramics. But from this small group and a few isolated others, grew the vigorous pottery scene of today that has expanded into a diverse range of styles removed from its initial aesthetic stimulus.4’ 1 Miyamoto, Shigeru. Pottery in Australia. Volume 13, No.1. Autumn 1974. 2 Pottery in Australia. Volume 13, No. 1. Autumn 1974. 3 Hood, Kenneth. Pottery in Australia. Volume 12 no.2, Spring 1973. 4 Travis, Peter. Pottery in Australia. Volume 17 no.2 Spring 1978.