Barry Brickell
{{Short description|New Zealand potter (1935–2016)}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=January 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
Ian Barry Brickell {{post-nominals|country=NZL|OBE|size=85%}} (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 was the son of Shirley Margaret Wooler and Maurice Crawford Brickell.{{R|HBTQ}} The family soon moved to Auckland, initially staying in Meadowbank then settling in Devonport on Auckland's North Shore. While a student at Takapuna Grammar School, Brickell 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. This lasted only a few months.{{R|O'Brien}} Brickell then became a full-time potter and purchased his first property near the township of Coromandel. Because this location had good access by sea to Auckland, he was able to deliver pots to the city, or at times, sell them directly from the wharf.{{R|Clifford}}
In 1974, he bought the adjacent {{convert|60|acre|ha|adj=on|order=flip}} property and created Driving Creek Railway and Potteries in the Coromandel, with workshops and kilns, where he worked with other potters.{{R|Passau}} The line for the railway runs through around 20,000 replanted native trees and is under the care of the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust.{{R|Winder}} Much of the land for the track was cleared initially by hand with bulldozers later making it safe, and the lines were purchased from a local closed coal mine. Brickell said: "I wanted to demonstrate that you can have engineering in a rugged landscape and it could be good. Engineering doesn't have to be ugly." In October 1990 Driving Creek Railroad was opened officially under the Ministry of Transport.{{R|Lees}}
Brickell met Theo Schoon through Len Castle.{{Cite book |last=Chitham |first=Karl |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1118996645 |title=Crafting Aotearoa : a cultural history of making in New Zealand and the wider Moana Oceania |date=2019 |others=Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai, Damian Skinner, Rigel Sorzano |isbn=978-0-9941362-7-5 |edition=1st |location=Wellington, New Zealand |pages=243 |oclc=1118996645 |access-date=27 September 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230927012106/https://www.worldcat.org/title/1118996645 |archive-date=27 September 2023 |url-status=live}}
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 of his pieces.{{R|Dekker}} In 2008 Brickell paid tribute to the recently deceased poet Hone Tuwhare, noting that his words [reminded him]... "of an albatross with wings outstretched and soaring. It would alight in unexpected places, showering humour, wicked fun and generosity where it was not always known".{{R|Tribute to Tuwhare}}
Brickell noted in 2013 that most of his works hadn't been for sale, adding:
I've never wanted to sell anything. Selling and money are anathema to me. I have sold truckloads of pottery in order to make a living, in order to survive. It wasn't pleasant, but it was much better than school teaching, and I could dress as I wanted to. What I'm trying to say is the drudgery is still there of making money or surviving.{{R|Clifford}}
Kiln-building
File:Barry Brickell, Potter (30213916506).jpg
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, Brickell built his first brick kiln at age seven under the family home in Devonport, which was almost set alight.{{R|Clifford}}{{R|Leov-Lealand}}
Brickell built his first homemade kiln in Freemans Bay in the mid-1950s, this acted as a social hub for fellow potters and artists such as Hamish Keith and Keith Patterson and paving the way for the establishment of dealer galleries like New Vision.{{Cite book |last=Chitham |first=Karl |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1118996645 |title=Crafting Aotearoa : a cultural history of making in New Zealand and the wider Moana Oceania |date=2019 |publisher=Te Papa Press |others=Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai, Damian Skinner, Rigel Sorzano |isbn=978-0-9941362-7-5 |location=Wellington, New Zealand |pages=299 |oclc=1118996645}}
He built a round coal-fired kiln for potter Yvonne Rust in Greymouth in 1968, and in 1975, constructed another for artist Ralph Hotere in Port Chalmers,{{R|Dawson in Scoop}} fired from pine bark recycled from a nearby wharf. In 1982, Brickell was invited to Vanuatu to build a kiln and establish a ceramics programme for young people, and in 1986, he built a wood-fired salt-glaze kiln for the Northern Arizona University Art Gallery.{{R|Kiln in Arizona}}
Selected exhibitions
The Press reported on 24 September 1964 that the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, the governing board of Creative New Zealand, had organised an exhibition of New Zealand ceramics and paintings to open in the Takashimaya store in Ginza, during the Tokyo Olympic Games. The exhibition, which was later to tour Malaysia and India, included work by Brickell as part of a selection, said by the Director of the Auckland Art Gallery, Peter Tomory, to show work that reflected the variety and professionalism in New Zealand and "help counter the impressions...[that New Zealand]...was a nation of shepherds".{{R|QE 11 exhibition}}
In May 1966, Brickell, along with Len Castle, Doreen Blumhardt and Helen Mason, exhibited some of his work at the N.Z Painting and Pottery exhibition in London.{{R|London 1966}} In a 1969 exhibition at Several Arts Gallery in Christchurch, Brickell, who displayed a selection of "platters, jugs, bottles, beer mugs, a coffee set and fruit bowls", was described along with Yvonne Rust as one of the potters [who gave]..."strength to the exhibition".{{R|1969 in Christchurch}}
The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, located in Wausau, Wisconsin, held two exhibitions in 1988. One, called Treasures from the Land: Crafts from New Zealand, featured work that Lloyd Herman, the former director of the Museum said reflected the relationship between contemporary crafts in New Zealand and the Māori heritage, and Brickell's work exemplified the "special relationship between the craftsman and his land".{{R|Wasau}}File:BarryBrickell.jpgBrickell was one of the artists featured in Treasures of the Underworld, the New Zealand pavilion exhibition at Seville Expo '92.{{R|Seville}} 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.
The 2013 exhibition His Own Steam, A Barry Brickell Survey, curated by Emma Bugden and David Craig, and held at the Dowse Art Museum, in Lower Hutt, located Brickell's work within the "great New Zealand art of the 1950s, 60s and 70s...[noted in the catalogue as]...making new forms to bring together images that have never been seen before. Perhaps they are a kind of anthropomorphic engineering that has grown out of the Pacific – open, generous and abundant".{{R|Art News}}
A further exhibition at Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery in 2015, surveyed Brickell's work over 60 years. Exhibition notes describe his most well known form, the Spiromorphs as "large-scale spiral creations built from coiled clay...[which]...twist and unfold in expansive curves and visceral ridges, drawing on the relentless energy of nature. His work resonates with his often quoted mantra—'not the thing but how'—demonstrating his unique interest in the process of making, and the distinctiveness of a local voice".{{R|Te uru}} Two areas of Bricknell's work, stoneware and terracotta, were also displayed at the Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics in Wanganui{{R|Quartz website}} in 2015. A reviewer said the pieces reflect "playful humour mixed with a serious concern for sculptural form...[and]...are made with a sophistication and confidence which requires no adornment".{{R|Rudd}}
Honours and 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.{{R|London Gazette}} On 27 July 2016, Takapuna Grammar School opened an art studio in a tribute to Brickell as an ex-student. The school principal Mary Nixon said the studio "would acknowledge Brickell's work in art and conservation".{{R|Sparks}}
Death
Brickell died at Coromandel on 23 January 2016.{{R|Aged 80}}{{R|Death notice}}
Publications
- A New Zealand Potter's Dictionary: Techniques and Materials for the South Pacific (1985){{R|Dictionary}}
- Six Spiromorphs (2009){{R|Spiromorphs}}
- Rails toward the Sky: The Story of Driving Creek Railway (2011){{R|Rails toward the sky}}
- Plastic Memories: Thirty-Eight Years of Storytelling in Clay (2013){{R|Thirty eight years}}
- The hand is more important than the brain (1977){{R|Brickell in Art NZ}}
In popular culture
Barry Brickell appears in New Zealand Film maker David Sim's 2016 documentary The Last Fatso - and no maybes based on Brickell's life and contribution to society.{{R|The last fatso}}
Brickell appeared in Marcus Lush's documentary 'Off The Rails'.{{R|Lush}}
In 1971 a National Film Unit production called Barry Brickell - Potter, about Brickell's creative life on the Coromandel Peninsula, won first prize at the Venice International Film Festival.{{R|Film success}}
Works
- [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/party.aspx?irn=292 Works in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa]
- [https://archive.today/20130629101555/http://collection.govettbrewster.com/search.do?view=lightbox&keyword=brickell&db=object Works in the collection of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery]
- [http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collections-research/collections/search/?entm=http%3a%2f%2fapi.aucklandmuseum.com%2fid%2fperson%2f1781 Works in the collection of Auckland War Memorial Museum]
- Exhibitions at Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin in [https://web.archive.org/web/20111005060243/http://www.brettmcdowellgallery.com/barrybrickello9.html 2009] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201654/http://www.brettmcdowellgallery.com/barry%20brickell%20show%202012.html 2012]
- [https://ehive.com/collections/6009/driving-creek-railway-and-potteries Works at Driving Creek Railway]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20160126023030/http://fletchercollection.org.nz/item.php?id=405 May Smith's 1969 painting From Barry Brickell's Verandah in the Fletcher Trust Collection]
Further reading
- Doreen Blumhardt and Brian Brake, Craft New Zealand: The Art of the Craftsman (Auckland: Reed Publishing, 1981) {{ISBN|0589013432}}
- Helen Schamroth, 100 New Zealand Craft Artists (Auckland: Godwit Press, 1998) {{ISBN|1869620305}}
- Moyra Elliot and Damian Skinner, Cone Ten Down: Studio Pottery in New Zealand, 1945–1980 (Auckland: David Bateman, 2009) {{ISBN|1869537319}}
- David Craig & Gregory O'Brien, His Own Steam: The Works of Barry Brickell (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2013) {{ISBN|9781869407636}}
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{Cite news |last=O'Brien |first=Gregory |date=23 February 2016 |title=Acclaimed potter shaped the world around him |work=Dominion Post |publisher=Stuff |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/77166837/acclaimed-potter-shaped-the-world-around-him |url-status=live |access-date=30 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830020226if_/https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/77166837/acclaimed-potter-shaped-the-world-around-him |archive-date=30 August 2022}}
{{Cite magazine |last=Clifford |first=Andrew |url=http://www.listener.co.nz/culture/arts/full-steam-ahead-3/ |title=Full steam ahead |magazine=New Zealand Listener|date=24 April 2013 |access-date=2 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305070040if_/http://www.listener.co.nz/culture/arts/full-steam-ahead-3/ |archive-date=5 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}
{{Cite web |last1=Hugh |first1=Lily |last2=Passau|first2=Victoria|date=5 August 2016 |title=Barry Brickell |url=https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/collections/topics/barry-brickell |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216011118/https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/collections/topics/barry-brickell |archive-date=16 February 2022 |access-date=30 August 2022 |website=Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira}}
{{Cite news |last=Lees |first=Judi |date=1 November 1992 |title=On Coromandel Peninsula Tiny railroad in New Zealand wilds |work=The Morning Star |location=Vernon, British Columbia, Canada |url=https://archive.org/details/tiny-railroad-in-new-zealand-wilds |url-status=live |access-date=31 August 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220830225613/https://archive.org/details/tiny-railroad-in-new-zealand-wilds |via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=30 August 2022}}
{{cite news|last=Dekker|first=Diana|title=Barry Brickell's Pottery to be Exposed|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/visual-arts/8610471/Barry-Brickells-pottery-to-be-exposed|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304223628if_/http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/visual-arts/8610471/Barry-Brickells-pottery-to-be-exposed|archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=1 May 2013|work=The Dominion Post|date=30 April 2013}}
{{Cite news |date=15 October 1986 |title=Another Brick in the Kiln |work=The SUN, Flagstaff, Arizona |url=https://archive.org/details/another-brick-in-the-kiln |url-status=live |access-date=31 August 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220830224338/https://archive.org/details/another-brick-in-the-kiln |archive-date=30 August 2022|via=Newspapers.com}}
{{Cite news |date=24 September 1964 |title=N.Z. Paintings, Ceramics On Show in Tokyo |work=The Press |volume=CII|issue=30554 |page=22|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19640924.2.225?end_date=31-12-1979&items_per_page=10&page=3&query=Barry+Brickell&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1955 |url-status=live |access-date=4 September 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220904043819/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19640924.2.225?end_date=31-12-1979&items_per_page=10&page=3&query=Barry+Brickell&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1955|archive-date=4 September 2022|via=Papers Past National Library of New Zealand}}
{{Cite news |date=18 May 1966 |title=Exhibition in London |work=The Press |volume=CV|issue=31062|page=16|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19660518.2.155?end_date=31-12-1979&items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Barry+Brickell&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1959 |url-status=live |access-date=1 September 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220831203157/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19660518.2.155?end_date=31-12-1979&items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Barry+Brickell&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1959 |archive-date=31 August 2022|via=Papers Past National Library of New Zealand}}
{{Cite news |date=9 October 1969 |title=Pottery Exhibition |pages=11 |volume=C1X|issue=32114|work=The Press |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19691009.2.76?end_date=31-12-1979&items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Barry+Brickell&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1959 |url-status=live |access-date=1 September 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220831205313/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19691009.2.76?end_date=31-12-1979&items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Barry+Brickell&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1959 |archive-date=31 August 2022|via=Papers Past National Library of New Zealand}}
{{Cite news |date=4 January 1988 |title=Museum to premiere two exhibitions |work=Wasau Daily Herald |url=https://archive.org/details/museum-to-premiere-two-exhibitions |url-status=live |access-date=2 September 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220902093203/https://archive.org/details/museum-to-premiere-two-exhibitions |archive-date=2 September 2022|via=Newspapers.com}}
{{Cite encyclopedia |last1=Lloyd Jenkins |first1=Douglas |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/45327/treasures-of-the-underworld-seville-expo-92 |title=Treasures of the Underworld, Seville Expo '92 |last2=Hammonds |first2=Lucy |date=22 October 2014 |encyclopedia=Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308042533if_/https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/45327/treasures-of-the-underworld-seville-expo-92 |archive-date=8 March 2016 |url-status=live}}
{{cite news | url=http://deaths.dompost.co.nz/obituaries/dominion-post-nz/obituary.aspx?n=ian-brickell&pid=177433414 | title=Ian Brickell death notice | date=25 January 2016 | work=The Dominion Post | access-date=25 January 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124214128if_/http://deaths.dompost.co.nz/obituaries/dominion-post-nz/obituary.aspx?n=ian-brickell&pid=177433414|archive-date=24 January 2016}}
{{Cite book |last=Brickell |first=Barry |title=A New Zealand potter's dictionary : techniques and materials for the South Pacific |publisher=Reed Methuen |year=1985 |isbn=0474000079 |location=Auckland, New Zealand |pages=164 |url=https://library.tepapa.govt.nz/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=17012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220901024436if_/https://library.tepapa.govt.nz/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=17012 |url-status=live|archive-date=1 September 2022|access-date=1 September 2022|via=Te Aka Matua Research Library, Te Papa Tongarewa}}
{{Cite web |title=Off the Rails |url=https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/off-the-rails-series-2004/series |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506061930/https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/off-the-rails-series-2004/series |archive-date=6 May 2021 |access-date=1 September 2022 |format=Television series 2004-2005|website=NZ On Screen, Screen Iwi Whitiāhua}}
{{Cite news |date=9 July 1971 |title=Film unit successes |work=The Press |volume=CX1|issue=32654|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19710709.2.12?end_date=31-12-1979&items_per_page=10&page=2&query=Barry+Brickell&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1955 |url-status=live |access-date=3 September 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220903101337/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19710709.2.12?end_date=31-12-1979&items_per_page=10&page=2&query=Barry+Brickell&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1955 |archive-date=3 September 2022|page=1|via=Papers Past National Library of New Zealand}}
}}
External links
- [http://www.dcrail.nz Driving Creek Railway official website]
- [http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/barry-brickell-potter-1970 Barry Brickell: Potter, National Film Unit documentary, 1970]
- Cultural Icons interview with Barry Brickell [http://culturalicons.co.nz/episode/barry-brickell-part-1 part one] and [http://culturalicons.co.nz/episode/barry-brickell-part-2 part two]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20121005043734/http://tvnz.co.nz/good-morning/extra-200912-brickel-video-5096650 TVNZ interview with Barry Brickell on Good Morning, 19 September 2012]
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Category:20th-century New Zealand male artists
Category:New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Category:University of Auckland alumni
Category:People from New Plymouth
Category:People from North Shore, New Zealand
Category:People educated at Takapuna Grammar School
Category:People from Coromandel Peninsula
Category:People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa