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searching for beauty
 |
Richard
Jacobs
'Searching
for Beauty'
Letters
from a Collector to a Studio Potter
Hardcover, 342 pages
ISBN
13: 978-0-9548840-6-2
Retail
price in UK £25.
Kestrel price - £20.00
Price
in US $35.00
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Review by Jane Hamlyn - Ceramic Review
'..his questions deal with ideas and concepts
which should concern us all, as potters and as people. they
are challenging difficult and sometimes unanswerable questions
about skill, amateurism, prices, state support, collecting,
modernism, aesthetic experience, fame, criticism, post-moderism,
feminism, tradition, innovation, democracy, Abu Ghraib and 'the
dark side of the human species'....He can be erudite, exasperating,
endearing, elegiac, self-mocking and sometimes hilarious....this
admirable book could become a cult classic.' read
the complete review |
Review by Helen Bevis - Ceramics Monthly
'Perhaps the most striking letter is number
29, where he takes in torture techniques used in Iraq, a Harvard
professor of aesthetics, Soetsu Yanagi, Edmund de Waal and
news that "Letters to a Young Potter" was selected
for a conference program. It is a mind blowing ramble….
There are many rich threads to this book. There is a beauty
in ideas, the beauty of a worldly observation; the beauty
of self-referential humor, derision and burgeoning comprehension.
'Searching for Beauty' works on many levels, as one man's
odyssey to understand the strands of his life; as a guide
to understanding a collector's mind or even simply as an eclectic
guide to ceramic literature. The range is intriguing, frustrating,
eye-opening and crazy; much like us all. It is a haunting
book that demands reading and re-reading of selected passages.'
read the
complete review
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Review by Andrea Vinkovic. (PYRE - Ceramic
Arts Association of Western Australia)
'By making the letters public, the writer and
the recipient are creating an inspiring and very personal gift
to all potters, makers, craft people and by extension to all
of us that share the values and aesthetic of hand-made. I feel
richer for the experience and will return to the book many times,
sometimes to take comfort in Jacobs profound understanding of
my struggles, sometimes in search of contemplative insights
he provides, and sometimes for the inspiration and strength
his words lend me in the moments of doubt.' read
the complete review |
| Other
comment about 'Searching for Beauty' |
'As
a collector of ceramic works of art, Richard Jacobs is interested
not only in the aesthetics of his pieces, but also in the creators.
Most of his collection has been purchased through personal contact
with the artists themselves, giving him the opportunity to get
to know their personalities, life situations, and special talents.
He has great empathy for the issues that potters face: the hard
physical work, artistic development, self-promotion, economic
realities, and the "to-one's-own-self-be-true" decisions.'
Christy Johnson, Director, American Museum of Ceramic Art,
California |
'Searching
For Beauty - Letters from a Collector to a Studio Potter' is
one of those rare books which has the capacity to speak to a
wider audience as well as to those with a more particular interest
in ceramics. He is not afraid to deal with a range of ideas
and issues, but always he comes back to his love of pottery
and to his passionate belief in the humanising potential of
the craft which has captivated him. He is often very funny,
sometimes self-deprecating, yet always intellectually stimulating
and a joy to read.'
Dr Jeffrey Jones, Senior Lecturer in Ceramics, School of
Art and Design, University of Wales in Cardiff |
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'Richard
Jacobs articulates many things I believe in and would like
to say about making, education and how art and life relate
to one another, but much more eloquently than anyone else
I have ever come across.'
Tim Andrews, potter
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'I
can think of no other contemporary writing that so thoughtfully
links pots to language, literature and philosophy, thereby placing
pots squarely within the framework of liberal academic discourse.
All young potters should read these letters, and all older ones
too.'
Mark Hewitt, potter, Pittsboro, USA |
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'Searching
for Beauty' - the genesis
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| In
the summer of 2002 Dr Richard Jacobs, a Californian collector
of ceramics, bought a piece from a young potter by the name
of Christa Assad. For whatever reasons, this single act, just
one among many by a distinguished professor, educationist and
ceramics collector, kindled a desire to set down in print the
innumerable thoughts and questions of a tirelessly inquisitive
and often heretical spirit.
Taking
his inspiration from Rainer Maria Rilke's 'Letters to a Young
Poet', Richard Jacobs sets the tone of his letters to Christa
Assad with his favourite quote from that classic work, 'Try
to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like
books written in a foreign language… At present you need
to live the question.'
It
soon becomes clear that Richard Jacobs himself has always
lived the question. 'Searching for Beauty' is more - much
more - than a collection of authoritative musings on modern
ceramics. It is a thoughtful, yet witty commentary and examination
of just about everything: contemporary art and aesthetics;
philosophy, education, politics; what it means to be a citizen
of not just one nation but of the entire planet; on being
young, middle-aged and blessed with long experience; above
all, on the trials and tribulations of being an artist in
the world today.
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Richard
Jacobs has travelled the world in search of beauty. His journey
has not been eased by personal wealth, so it has never been
a question of settling for a reassuringly impressive price
tag. He has had to employ his well-trained eye, his knowledge
and experience, while all the time posing questions about
the work, the artist and the very nature of collecting.
In
his own words: 'My uncertainties lead to ironies and a complex
absurdity that is central to the brief interval that forms
my earthly existence. It is not only a survival strategy for
me but a way of playing out a self-conscious comedy of errors.
This leads to further adventures and surprises that never
match the expected outcomes but can be far richer and more
meaningful as a result. My collecting is ultimately not a
search for material artifacts as much as a search for a normative
vision of how to live a life. The ethical dimensions of seeking
justice in what has been a violent and unjust world has haunted
me my whole life. The power of art for me has been the compelling
evidence it provides that the human species has the redeeming
ability to create and contribute the saving grace of beauty.
It is that beauty that has nourished my soul and become my
final refuge.'
'Searching
for Beauty' is a book that will last, its readers returning
again and again to their favourite passages.
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Richard
Jacobs recently completed a month long tour of the UK. For a brief
report, see below. If you are a potter or ceramics student and would
like to listen to the particularly vibrant presentations and audience
participation at the events in Cardiff and Farnham, contact us and
we can send you the sound files. For more, see 'Searching for Beauty
- the 2007 UK tour' below.
'Searching
for Beauty' - the 2007 UK tour
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Richard
Jacobs recently undertook a tour with Kestrel Books to launch
'Searching for Beauty' in the UK. He gave a lecture at Wolverhampton
University, was in conversation with Ruthanne Tudball at the
Oxford Ceramics Fair and with Dr Jeffrey Jones, author of
another new book 'Studio Pottery in Britain 1900-2005' (A&C
Black) at UWIC. He was in conversation with Lionel Burman
at Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, then proceeded to The
University of the Creative Arts at Farnham for another talk,
where he was hosted by head of ceramics Ashley Howard and
potter-in-residence Gareth Mason. 'Searching for Beauty' was
officially launched at Contemporary Ceramics in Marshall Street.
An in-conversation-with Joanna Howells followed at 'hub' in
Lincolnshire before the tour was concluded at a seminar at
the Royal College of Art in London.
Although
Richard Jacobs has built up a substantial collection of British
studio pottery over the past three decades, his name recognition
in the UK was not high when the tour began.
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This
has now changed thanks to the publication of 'Searching for
Beauty' and his high octane presentations. Established potters
and students alike respond to his vigorous promotion of pottery
as central to human civilisation, while collectors of large
and modest means are encouraged by his insistence that the collector's
role can complement that of the maker. As a lifelong educationalist
with a reputation as a renegade, Richard Jacobs is unafraid
to pose the vital and difficult questions that craftspeople
habitually pose, often in private, sometimes in public. His
permission to ask these questions and to attempt answers, however
faltering and incomplete, is one of the most refreshing themes
in 'Searching for Beauty'. His sense of humour, often self-deprecating
but never frivolous, is one of the most engaging aspects of
both the book and his talks. Richard will return in 2008 for
further speaking engagements. |
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