There was something preternatural, almost unearthly about Dan Arbeid's freely made hand-built pots, first exhibited by Henry Rothschild in 1959. They showed a fresh and direct handling of material, the forms organic and primitive, with pitted and bubbling glazes that seemed to fuse with the underlying clay. He was an intuitive potter, who had no interest in an applied style or concept, but followed his instinct for the sheer materiality of vessel-making.
Arbeid (1928-2010) was born in east London and after working in a ceramics factory in Israel, he enrolled at the Central School. Through the 1960s and beyond he was coiling and slab-building, throwing, folding and cutting, the work influenced by indigenous architecture and natural forms. His white glazed stoneware or 'proto' porcelain had an ethereal quality, and was amongst the most arresting work to come out of studio ceramics during one of its best sculptural periods.
David Whiting |
