Walter Ostrom
New book looks at a brilliant and mercurial innovator in ceramics.
Walter Ostrom received the Saidye Bronfman Award for Excellence in the Fine Crafts in 2003 and the Order of Canada in 2006. His ceramics have been exhibited and collected in Canada, the United States, China and Europe, but, west of Winnipeg, his work has rarely been seen. Good Earth: The Pots and Passion of Walter Ostrom aims to remedy this situation by introducing the man and his work to a wider Canadian audience.
Accompanying a recent exhibition of his work at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, this volume includes many beautiful illustrations, nine short essays exploring Ostrom’s broad range of interests, and an edited transcript of his 2014 Regis Master lecture at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis.
While no one essay gives a satisfactorily focused critique of his ceramic work, the various authors clearly have affection for their subject, and the fascinating events and preoccupations of Ostrom’s life make for interesting reading.
Walter Ostrom, “The Lady Macbeth Commemorative Soap Dish Series I, Axis of Evil (Exploding World and Caryatids) and (Weeping Willow),” 2003
earthenware, thrown and altered, footed maiolica, 1" x 5" diameter (reproduced from “Good Earth: The Pots and Passion of Walter Ostrom," courtesy Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Goose Lane Editions)
Born in 1944 in Binghamton, New York, Ostrom came of age during the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War. After studies in biology and chemistry, he switched to ceramics, earning a BFA and MFA. In 1969, he was invited to Halifax by Gerald Ferguson to teach ceramics and Asian art history at what was then the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Reorganized under the direction of Gary Neill Kennedy, the college was recognized at that time as one of North America’s most progressive art schools.
The position clearly suited Ostrom’s experimental and spontaneous approach to teaching, but, after removing all the potters’ wheels from the classroom and assigning unusual conceptual projects, he came to realize that the fundamentals of ceramics practice and the history of the discipline were essential for a successful ceramics program.
Summarizing his own achievements, Ostrom points to the importance of teaching in his career. Julie Hollenbach, one of the exhibition’s curators, explores his teaching methods in Walter Ostrom’s Passionate Pedagogy. Ostrom mentored several generations of outstanding teachers, including Sin-ying Ho, Greg Payce, Katrina Chaytor, Martina Lantin and Ying-Yueh Chuang, who, through their teaching, have helped shape contemporary ceramics practice in North America.
Walter Ostrom, “Spirit Pot / Fen Ping,” 1996
earthenware, wheel thrown, constructed and press moulded, slip and coloured glazes, 59" x 20" diameter (reproduced from “Good Earth: The Pots and Passion of Walter Ostrom," courtesy Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Goose Lane Editions)
Ostrom’s engagement with Chinese and Asian ceramics informed his teaching agenda. Mary Boyd traces the importance of China throughout his career, dating back to his childhood encounter with American author Pearl Buck’s 1931 novel, The Good Earth, which dramatized life in a Chinese village, through to his studies of classical Chinese ceramics and his first trip to China in 1976. Twenty years later, he taught for a semester at the Ceramics Institute in Jingdezhen, the country’s thousand-year-old centre of porcelain production, with Sin-ying Ho, then his student, serving as translator and cultural ambassador. This sojourn led to more contacts and visits, which helped normalize exchanges between Chinese and Western ceramists.
Noting that the great ceramic traditions of the world relied on local clay, Ostrom began using Lantz clay, a local earthenware. Despite the low esteem for earthenware at the time, Ostrom persevered, researching Islamic and European tin glaze traditions and championing decorated functional work. In this, he challenged both the conceptual authority of NSCAD and the ceramic community’s preference for high-fire stoneware and porcelain.
Earthenware is most commonly used to make flowerpots, and these, along with baskets and bricks, comprise some of Ostrom’s most endearing works. White tin glaze provides an excellent surface for colourful designs, and, not surprisingly, simulations of historical pots decorate many of his flower holders. Often, Ostrom exhibited the pots filled with flowers, which he felt completed the composition.
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Walter Ostrom, “The Lady Macbeth Commemorative Soap Dish Series III, Occupied (Be A Host),” front side, 2019
glazed earthenware with image transfer, 1.5" x 8" x 7.5" (collection of the artist)
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Walter Ostrom, Back side, “The Lady Macbeth Commemorative Soap Dish Series III, Occupied (Be A Host),” 2019
glazed earthenware with image transfer, 1.5" x 8" x 7.5" (collection of the artist)
Another favourite form is a turtle, based on his long-time pet, Retlaw (Walter spelled backwards). Retlaw appears in the form of a flower brick, or as a support carrying the history of ceramics on his sturdy back. In another vein, The Lady Macbeth Commemorative Soap Dish Series features pointed political statements related to the occupation of Palestine and the Iraq War. The form plays on the developed world’s tendency to “wash its hands” of responsibility for conflicts.
Ostrom is a committed gardener, a collector and hybridizer of rare plants, particularly rhododendrons. In Not Without a Plant, Sheila Stevenson chronicles Ostrom’s horticultural expertise. In 1976, he helped found the Rhododendron Society of Canada Atlantic Region, and he continues to cultivate and share both native and non-native plants. He likens developing new hybrids to creating new glazes: both require experimentation, observation and patience.
Ostrom argues passionately for the contribution of ceramics and craft to Canadian culture. He fought hard to get craft acknowledged as a serious academic specialty and was instrumental in persuading NSCAD to hire Sandra Alfoldy as the first craft historian at a Canadian institution. Craft history has grown as a discipline in part due to his insistence that craft objects encode rich cultural information.
Emily Galusha, director emerita of the Northern Clay Centre, describes Ostrom’s mind as working “at almost a 5G rate, moving from one idea to the next with a speed that requires concentration and lightening mental reflexes.” Clearly, this mercurial and brilliant man is difficult to sum up, but Good Earth serves as a worthy introduction to his world. ■
Good Earth: The Pots and Passion of Walter Ostrom, edited by Christian Roy. Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Goose Lane Editions, 2021.
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