Harrison McIntosh
American, (1914–2016)
Harrison Edward McIntosh was an American ceramic artist. He was an exponent of the mid-century modern style of ceramics, featuring simple symmetrical forms. He studied ceramics under Richard Petterson at Scripps College, in addition to attending workshops with Bernard Leach at Mills College, with Shōji Hamada the Japanese ceramicist during his U.S. tour, and with Marguerite Wildenhain at Pond Farm during the summer of 1953. McIntosh style remained consistent throughout his career, inspired by Japanese pottery and aesthetics, as well as European modern design. Although many of his contemporaries were known for creating the large emotional works associated with Abstract Expressionism, McIntosh focused on subtlety and deliberation through the modern, functional forms of vessels. He was particularly renown for decorating his pots with thin sgrafitto lines or rhythmic brush spots made by placing contrasting slip onto the surface of his works with Japanese brushes and sponges. He often used the mishima technique, a process in which engobe is brushed into thin incised lines in the work. The quality of these brushstrokes and lines, however, changed over the course of his career. While the decoration of his early pieces have a regularity and rhythm, over time they gained dynamism as McIntosh explored line-work that expressed movement.
American, (1914–2016)
Harrison Edward McIntosh was an American ceramic artist. He was an exponent of the mid-century modern style of ceramics, featuring simple symmetrical forms. He studied ceramics under Richard Petterson at Scripps College, in addition to attending workshops with Bernard Leach at Mills College, with Shōji Hamada the Japanese ceramicist during his U.S. tour, and with Marguerite Wildenhain at Pond Farm during the summer of 1953. McIntosh style remained consistent throughout his career, inspired by Japanese pottery and aesthetics, as well as European modern design. Although many of his contemporaries were known for creating the large emotional works associated with Abstract Expressionism, McIntosh focused on subtlety and deliberation through the modern, functional forms of vessels. He was particularly renown for decorating his pots with thin sgrafitto lines or rhythmic brush spots made by placing contrasting slip onto the surface of his works with Japanese brushes and sponges. He often used the mishima technique, a process in which engobe is brushed into thin incised lines in the work. The quality of these brushstrokes and lines, however, changed over the course of his career. While the decoration of his early pieces have a regularity and rhythm, over time they gained dynamism as McIntosh explored line-work that expressed movement.
Artist Objects
