1952 Black Mountain College pottery seminar

September 2025 During October 15–29, 1952, a pottery seminar was held at Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina, USA.https://collection.ashevilleart.org/objects-1/info/6618?sort=0 Black Mountain College Bulletin: 1952-1953 (Vol. 10, No. 4, November 1952) AshevilleArt.Org September 13, 2025https://www.edmunddewaal.com/essays/black-mountain-college-and-the-crafts Black Mountain College and the crafts EdmundDeWaal.Com September 13, 2025https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/marguerite-wildenhain/ Black Mountain College Museum: Marguerite Wildenhain BlackMountainCollege.Org September 13, 2025 October 17, 1952 Crafts Talk Scheduled at WNC College https://www.newspapers.com/article/asheville-citizen-times-1952-pottery-sem/181106780/ Asheville, North Carolina Asheville Citizen-Times 13 September 16, 2025 This seminal event commingled Eastern and Western pottery traditions and philosophies, influencing the work of younger participants and the careers of later prominent potters. Its impact has been described as "a turning point in the modern ceramic movement". Participants College faculty Karen Karnes and David Weinrib co-organized and led the event. Karen Karnes https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/karen-karnes BlackMountainCollege.Org Asheville, North Carolina Black Mountain College Museum + Art Center September 16, 2025 Bauhaus-trained Marguerite Wildenhain traveled from her California studio at Pond Farm to be the keynote lecturer and demonstrator. Other prominent participants were Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada, and Soetsu Yanagi. Many younger, less established potters participated including Karl Martz, and Elizabeth Crawford (pottery teacher at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts).Arauz M. Rachael May 2021 Gathered Momentum: Black Mountain College and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in the 1950s https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/arauz-haystack/ Journal of Black Mountain College Studies 12 Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center September 13, 2025 The October 1952 pottery seminar was followed by a summer pottery workshop in 1953, where the featured presenters were Peter Voulkos, Warren MacKenzie, and Daniel Rhodes. November 29, 2007 'A dialog with David Weinrib' set for November 30 https://www.newspapers.com/article/asheville-citizen-times-2007-asheville-d/181110559/ Asheville, North Carolina Asheville Citizen-Times 147 September 15, 2025 One notable participant was M. C. Richards. Despite her leadership role in these seminars, Karnes had neither title nor salary at Black Mountain College.IKnmWmQi5Ew Black Mountain College, VISIONARIES Episode by Helen Molesworth for CraftInAmerica.Org and PBS. At 5:30, Karnes roles at Black Mountain College including a recent interview. At 6:43, how Karnes, like other women at the time, received neither payment nor official recognition. In America in the 1950s, contributions of wives were commonly taken for granted, while their husbands received the accolades and celebrity.XftoQJiAba0 Art Break: Black Mountain College by Alice Sebrell, Director of Preservation at the Black Mountain College Museum + Art Center. At 25:41, roles of Robert Chapman Turner, M. C. Richards, and Karen Karnes. At 27:40, treatment of women.DOhmuiZ0uHw Karen Karnes: How To Craft A Revolution by Anna Helgeson for the Black Mountain College Museum + Art Center. At 3:42, how Karnes received no title nor salary. Activities Participant Audrey K. Tuverson (1921-2016) Directory of Southern Women Artists https://thejohnsoncollection.org/directory-of-women-artists/ TheJohnsonCollection.Org Spartanburg, South Carolina The Johnson Collection LLC September 16, 2025 "... joined people from all over the United States – college professors, pottery teachers, home studio workers, workshop owners, and 'just plain hobby potters trying to become serious'. We talked and listened and watched from 9 in the morning until 11 at night. At first, Mr. Hamada just sat quietly, didn't say anything. ... We complained ... Then suddenly one day he opened up and talked fluent English from then on." She described the excitement when about 30 pieces made by Hamada and Leach, having been fired in a kiln, were taken out and placed on a table. "Each one possessed its own quality and character, vitality, and warmth. ... Each of the students at the seminar was allowed to have a piece, the choice being made from numbers drawn to determine the order in which each should take his pick. You should have seen all of us with our noses pressed firm against the windows of the pottery, watching the others make their selection."Frances Griffin November 9, 1952 Arts Council Secretary ends manhunt in the mountains of North Carolina https://www.newspapers.com/article/winston-salem-journal-audrey-tuverson-at/181106527/ Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem Journal 58 September 16, 2025 Credentials of key participants and impacts Soetsu Yanagi (1889-1961) was a founder of the folk-craft (Mingei) movement in Japan, and was the Director of the National Folk Museum, Tokyo, Japan, and lectured on Buddhist aesthetics. Shoji Hamada (1894-1978) played a major role in reviving folk-art (mingei) ceramics in Japan, and in making Mashiko, Japan, a pottery center. Bernard Leach (1887-1979), regarded as the father of British studio pottery, was influential in introducing Western art to Japan in 1909-1920. In 1920, having returned to England, Leach and Hamada established the Leach Pottery. “Leach promoted pottery as a combination of Western and Eastern arts and philosophies.“ Marguerite Wildenhain (1896-1985) attended the Bauhaus School from 1919-1925, bringing Western sensibilities. Of Jewish ancestry, in 1940, Wildenhain fled the Nazi invasion of Holland, emigrating to the USA. American Karl Martz (1912-1997)http://martzpots.org Karl Martz & Becky Brown, Potters MartzPots.Org September 13, 2025 was an admirer of Asian ceramics, and spent two sabbaticals in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s, producing works influenced by Yuzo Kondohttps://yuzo.kondo-kyoto.com/en/#slide-yuzobio Kondo Museum yuzo.kondo-kyoto.com September 13, 2025 and Totaro Sakuma.Yellen Robert Sakuma Totaro (Mashiko, Mingei) The Japan Times June 24, 2000 http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/sakuma-totaro-jt.html September 13, 2025 Warren MacKenzie (1924-2018) apprenticed with Bernard Leach prior to the Black Mountain College seminar, and is considered the father of American pottery in the Mingei tradition. The show BREAKING NEW GROUND: The Studio Potter + Black Mountain College opened in 2007 at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Curated by Bobby Gold, it featured functional works by potters who were at Black Mountain College in the 1950s, including many who attended the 1952 seminar.https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/breaking-new-ground-the-studio-potter-black-mountain-college/ BREAKING NEW GROUND: The Studio Potter + Black Mountain College BlackMountainCollege.Org September 13, 2025Paul Clark October 7, 2007 Exhibit lauds studio pottery movement https://www.newspapers.com/article/asheville-citizen-times-2007-asheville-a/181110122/ Asheville, North Carolina Asheville Citizen-Times 67 September 16, 2025 Sources Category:1952 in art Category:1952 in North Carolina Category:Black Mountain College Category:Studio pottery Category:Mingei Category:October 1952 in the United States Category:American pottery