Barry Brickell

Barry Brickell stoking a miniature clay kiln at the opening of an exhibition at the Brett McDowell Gallery in Dunedin, October 2013.

Ian Barry Brickell OBE (26 October 1935 – 23 January 2016) was a New Zealand potter, writer, conservationist and founder of Driving Creek Railway.

Biography

Born in New Plymouth in 1935, Brickell and his family soon moved to Auckland, initially staying in Meadowbank then settling in Devonport on Auckland's North Shore. While a third-form student at Takapuna Grammar School, he was introduced to potter Len Castle. He enrolled in a Bachelor of Science Degree at Auckland University College in 1954, completing his studies under the Post Primary Teacher's Bursary Scheme. His first and only teaching appointment was in 1961 at Coromandel District High School, which only lasted a few months. He then became a full-time potter and purchased his first property near Coromandel town. In 1974 he purchased the adjacent 60 acre property, which is the current location of his Driving Creek Railway and Potteries.

Brickell was one of the artists featured in Treasures of the Underworld, the New Zealand pavilion exhibition at Seville Expo '92. The exhibition toured to the Netherlands and throughout New Zealand before the works were accessioned for the collection of the National Art Gallery, now held by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

He wrote several books and small publications, including A New Zealand Potters' Dictionary (1985) and Rails toward the Sky (2011). In 1996 Christine Leov-Lealand published the biography Barry Brickell: A Head of Steam. In 2013 Auckland University Press published the book His Own Steam: The Work of Barry Brickell to coincide with a major touring retrospective of his pottery work, organised by the Dowse Art Museum and featuring 100 pieces.[1]

Kilns

Brickell was known for his skill at building kilns. Most of the kilns at Driving Creek Railway were designed and built by Brickell using bricks made on-site from clay sourced on the same property. According to Christine Leov-Lealand's biography, he built his first brick kiln at age seven, under the family house in Devonport, which was almost set alight. In 1968 he built a round coal-fired kiln for potter Yvonne Rust in Greymouth; in 1975 he built a kiln for artist Ralph Hotere in Port Chalmers, fired from pine bark recycled from a nearby wharf; in 1982 he was invited to Vanuatu to build a kiln and establish a ceramics programme for young people (it did not continue); and in 1986 he built a wood-fired salt-glaze kiln for the Northern Arizona University Art Gallery.

Awards

In 1974 Brickell was awarded a QEII Arts Council Grant to build New Zealand's first wood-fired stoneware pottery kiln, which he made with help from students, using bricks from a demolished hotel in the nearby town of Coromandel. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to pottery and ceramics in the 1988 New Year Honours.[2]

Death

Brickell died at Coromandel on 23 January 2016.[3][4]

Publications

Works

References

  1. ↑ Dekker, Diana (30 April 2013). "Barry Brickell's Pottery to be Exposed". Dominion Post. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  2. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 51173. p. 34. 31 December 1987. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "Artist Barry Brickell dies aged 80". Stuff.co.nz. 24 January 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  4. ↑ "Ian Brickell death notice". Dominion Post. 25 January 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2016.

External links

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