The exhibition Poetry in Function: Influential Potters of the Mid-20th Century presents the work of three seminal potters who shaped modernist ceramics: Bernard Leach, Shōji Hamada, and Lucie Rie. With the spread of the Industrial Revolution into every aspect of life, the shift from handmade to mass production disrupted traditional modes of making and sparked a new tension between tradition and art.
This historical juncture led these potters to articulate differing approaches to craft, clay, and the relationship between art and daily life. The exhibition explores the dialogue between ideals of spirit, tradition, and utility, as reflected in the work and philosophies of these makers. It invites the viewer to reconsider the tension between the “perfect object” and the “living vessel” – one that serves the human hand and holds memory.
Bernard Leach (1887–1979), born in Hong Kong to a family of British diplomats, is considered the father of modern British studio pottery. He bridged Eastern and Western traditions and became, particularly in the West, an archetype of the ideal potter: a maker devoted to community, faithful to clay, and guided by moral values of humility, simplicity, and utility. In his influential A Potter’s Book (1940), Leach criticized the separation of function and aesthetics and the industrialization of ceramics that was flourishing in England at the time—a process he saw as alienating the vessel from its maker and its clay. He asserted that beauty lies in use, and that the potter must relinquish artistic pretensions in favor of a spiritual, functional, and ethical calling:
“It must always be remembered that the dissociation of use and beauty is a purely arbitrary thing… The normal is a balanced combination of the two.” (Leach, 1940, p. 18)
Shōji Hamada (1894–1978), born in Japan and trained within the Japanese ceramic tradition, was a key figure in bridging East and West, folk craft values and modernist ideas about form, clay, and tradition. Hamada was a leading member of the Mingei movement, whose name derives from the Japanese words min (people) and gei (art). The movement challenged the distinction between “high art” and utilitarian craft, emphasizing the aesthetic and cultural worth of everyday objects made by ordinary people. It was founded by philosopher and artist Soetsu Yanagi (1889–1961), in collaboration with potters Kanjiro Kawai (1890–1966) and Hamada. The movement arose in response to Japan’s rapid industrialization and blended Buddhist principles of simplicity and harmony with inspiration from the British Arts and Crafts movement.
Leach and Hamada, both influenced by these anti-industrial currents, co-founded the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, England in 1920. There, they laid the foundations of the Studio Pottery movement, which centered the potter as an independent artist–maker, deeply connected to clay, tradition, and daily life.
In Hamada’s 1923 solo exhibition at W.B. Paterson’s Gallery on Bond Street, London, the image of the potter as a fully autonomous creator—from clay preparation to firing—was fully realized. His work emphasizes function, everyday use, and the relationship between craft and local tradition. The result is what has been called a “hybrid Mingei theory” – a fusion of simplicity, authenticity, and a deep sense of rootedness.
Lucie Rie (1902–1995), born in Vienna, studied and practiced pottery in Austria and exhibited internationally. In 1938, she fled to London due to her Jewish heritage and the rise of Nazism. Rie introduced a wholly different aesthetic into British ceramics, developing a minimalist yet deeply sensitive language. Her work was shaped by Bauhaus principles and the Viennese design culture of the 1920s and 1930s, expressed through refined glazes, clean lines, and a quiet formal elegance. Her approach is encapsulated in a remark she once made about her work:
“To make pottery is an adventure to me. Every new work is a new beginning. Indeed, I shall never cease to be a pupil.” (1951)
While all three artists are recognized as pillars of contemporary ceramics, the contrasts between them are revealing. Leach and Hamada established the ideal of the studio potter as spiritual, moral, and rooted in place. Hamada faithfully embodied the values of Mingei, while Leach aimed to formulate a universal vision of “pure” pottery—yet in doing so, often overlooked the local clay traditions of his own British context. Art critic Garth Clark wrote in Shards (2003) that Leach was a conservative figure who represented an outdated ideal and ultimately fell short of achieving the fusion he sought: between tradition and modernity, or East and West. His ideas drew criticism from a younger generation of potters who preferred more experimental and open-ended approaches.
Rie, by contrast, worked from within a modernist, urban, European environment, embracing ideas of change, movement, and formal flexibility. Her deep devotion made her a “spiritual mother” to both the British and international ceramic communities.
The works by Leach and Hamada shown in this exhibition come from a private collection and include emblematic signature pieces of each artist. The works by Rie are from a private collection gifted to a close friend; they were used daily by the family—an intimate, quiet realization of the ceramic ethos.
Between ideal vision and material reality, the exhibition offers a renewed look at the roots of modernist ceramics as shaped by the hands and spirits of three groundbreaking makers—and invites viewers to reflect on the ways craft, tradition, and daily life continue to shape our world.
The Small Gallery
Curators: Reut Rabuah, Shelly Shavit
Opening: Thursday, 17/7/2025, 19:30
Gallery talk: Friday, 15/8/2025, 11:30
Closing: Saturday, 30/8/2025, 14:00
