The Godfather of Drip

I came to the 'rockstar' potter Jean - Joseph Marie Carries a few years ago whilst trawling through a door stopping tome about the history of ceramics. The author concluded Carries to be 'one of the greatest figures in the history of ceramics.' Whilst the critic Gabriel Mourey remembered him as 'a man with remarkable talent, endowed with the rare gift of imagination.' His life was short, living to the modest age of 39 - but greatly impacting on the ceramic world and beyond.

Vase Soliflore c.1890

It has been said that he carried 'a sense of doom' around during his life, possessing a 'reckless commitment to his art.' True or not Carries saw himself as a sculptor - training as such in Lyon, before moving to Paris in 1874 in an attempt to enrol at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He failed at first and spent several years simply 'hanging out' in Paris , meeting people and making art. Eventually struck by his greatest inspiration, that in turn gave him his aesthetic outlook and his discipline .....Japanese Ceramics. In 1878's Exposition Universeille in Paris saw Carries' introduction to Japanese art and in particular Japanese stoneware. He became a leading light in the 'stoneware revival' and will probably be best remembered for his technically advanced Japanese influenced stoneware produced in Saint Arnand en Puisaye in the 1880's and 90s.

But it's the gourd vase (above) the 'Vase Soliflore' that most reflects the influence from Japan and the pot I think of when I think of Carries, with it's thick dripping glaze. Made circa 1889 -94 it now resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On first seeing this I not only furiously experimented with drip glazing - I also went through a period of gourd making. The results for both the above mixed and short lived. Thus years later I look at the above vase with immense respect...and pleasure! Truly a thing of beauty! Carries' core output was vases, bottles (sake, pyriform) and gourd forms, for which he employed a seemingly endless array of shapes, surface treatments, glazes and application styles. In fact he became the recognised master of drip glaze the moment it became fashionable.....and now without argument 'the Godfather.'

The Conical Serving Bowl (my early drip glazing attempt)