David Leach Lecture on ceramics videotapes

David Leach was an English studio potter and the elder son of Bernard Leach, a successful potter and Muriel Hoyle Leach. He admired his famous father's work and considered a self-conscious deviation from its forms was neither necessary nor desirable. Intuitive, evolutionary development was preferred to conspicuous change.

Although David was born in Japan, his family returned to England while he was still a child. A house was bought at Carbis Bay, in Cornwall, and Bernard, together with a Japanese friend and potter, Shoji Hamada, began the formidable task of setting up the pottery at nearby St Ives. This radical workshop, with its mixture of idealism, aesthetics, endless discourse and the stark realities of making a living, faced a continuing struggle for survival. But the ideas and standards that were constructed there had a significant influence on the direction of 20th-century studio pottery.

David was sent as a boarder to Dauntsey's school, Wiltshire, chosen for the breadth of its curriculum, particularly in the arts and natural sciences, and a commitment to a philosophy in which the fostering of individual talents was tempered by the imperative of social responsibility. On leaving in 1930, he joined his father at St Ives. He always maintained that he recognised the unique nature of the experience being offered, and had no doubt as to the rightness of his decision.

The Leach pottery was a strongly moralistic endeavour. While Bernard remained committed to the making of individual pots carrying the maker's personal mark, it did not diminish his advocacy of a workshop producing utilitarian pottery for everyday use.

David thought of himself as an educator, largely through the lecture demonstrations he gave to potters' groups around the world. At these gatherings, he would invariably speak about his father; his advocacy was unremitting, but elegant and persuasive. David assiduously progressed Bernard's reputation, yet paradoxically, came to regret its dominance over his own life and work. The proper teaching of throwing was a constant concern. He believed the continuation of handwork essential to the human condition, and was critical of what he considered to be the academic drift in university ceramic courses.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/feb/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries