Quartz Museum looks at the work of Dame Doreen Blumhardt

Some of the later work of Doreen Blumhardt. Photo / Paul Brooks

The new exhibition at Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics is a look at the life in pottery of Dame Doreen Blumhardt, from examples of small earthenware pieces to large wall sculptures formed by throwing clay at sea-bashed rocks on the Wellington coastline.

Rick Rudd of Quartz has curated a fascinating display using pottery from the collection of Simon Manchester who had amassed an impressive number of Doreen Blumhardt pieces as well as four Ans Westra photographs of Doreen at work and an original monochrome Brian Brake picture of her posing with an impressive piece of pottery still hot from the kiln.

Doreen was born in Whangārei in 1914 and studied at Canterbury College's School of Art before beginning teacher training in 1937.

She was one of three students chosen for specialist art and craft training in a scheme set up by Dr CE Beeby, Director of Education, in 1939.

She taught art in Nelson in 1940, then became art department head at Christchurch Teachers' College the following year. A decade later she became head of the art department at Wellington Teachers' College, where she remained for 21 years.

Doreen was one of 15 potters invited to exhibit in the first NZ Studio Potters' Exhibition in Dunedin in 1957 and was one of a small group that began the NZ Potter Magazine in 1958. In 1968 she became president of the NZ Society of Potters.

She collaborated with photographer and friend Brian Brake on two books on New Zealand pottery and craft.

Rick Rudd is included among the array of artists celebrated in Craft New Zealand (1982) and one of his works was photographed by Brian and published in the book.

Doreen received a CBE in 1980 and in 1981 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London. Other honours came her way and, in 2007, she was made a dame.

Doreen died in 2009, leaving a legacy through the Blumhardt Foundation, a charity established in 2003 to foster craft and object art in New Zealand.

Some of Doreen Blumhardt's more artistic pieces. Photo / Paul Brooks

The work in the exhibition at Quartz is marked by its variety in a parade of pieces in rough chronological order. They range in size from tiny to colossal, smooth to rough and rugged, utilitarian to display art only.

The sequence is telling. One piece stands out for its stark difference. It's a large pot engraved with obvious ethnic design, unlike anything else on display.

"It's a real oddity," says Rick, "And I didn't think it was Doreen's."

Documentation from Simon Manchester and Dunbar Sloane found inside the pot, plus a photo from Simon's archive proved otherwise.

The large piece on the left is not Dame Doreen's usual style, but it has been verified as being her work. Photo / Paul Brooks

Some of the work on display is big and heavy, exhibiting a physical as well as a visual weight, says Rick.

"It's a slice of history," he says, indicating the 70 pieces that make up the exhibition.