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School of Art
Aberystwyth University
Buarth Mawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 1NG

Tel: +44 (0)1970 622460

Fax: +44 (0)1970 622461

Email: artschool@aber.ac.uk

Display artist/maker:

Michael Ambrose Cardew

Born: 1901, UK, England, London, Wimbledon Died: 1983, UK, England, Cornwall, Truro

Ceramicist. Cardew studied humanities at Exeter College, Oxford but decided to devote himself to the potter’s craft, learning pottery during summer vacations at Braunton Pottery. He joined Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada at St Ives in 1923, where he began to develop his interest in the English slipware tradition.

In 1926, Cardew branched out and acquired the Winchcombe Pottery in Gloucestershire, where there was a very large, wood-fired bottle kiln. Clay was extracted from the land adjacent to the pottery. Most of the output of the period 1926-39 was slip-decorated earthenware with galena glaze. The pots in Aberystwyth’s collection are nearly all of this period.

In 1939, Cardew set up another pottery at Wenford Bridge, but the outbreak of the Second World War disrupted his plans. In 1942 he first went to Ghana as a pottery instructor and later set up the Pottery Training Centre in Abuja, Nigeria. He remained in West Africa for long periods until his retirement in 1965, helping to develop stoneware using local materials. Cardew’s later work is strongly influenced by his experiences in Africa.

The pottery at Wenford Bridge was run by Ivan McMeekin, and from there Cardew produced stoneware with painted decoration. He also spent time in his later years lecturing, travelling and writing. He was awarded an MBE in 1964 and an OBE in 1981. His autobiography ‘Michael Cardew, A Pioneer Potter’ was published posthumously by his son, Seth, in 1988.