Barry Brickell

Ian Barry Brickell OBE (26 October 1935 – 23 January 2016) was a New Zealand potter, writer, conservationist and founder of Driving Creek Railway.

Barry Brickell stoking a miniature clay kiln at the opening of an exhibition at the Brett McDowell Gallery in Dunedin, October 2013.

Biography

Born in New Plymouth in 1935, Brickell was the son of Shirley Margaret Wooler and Maurice Crawford Brickell.[1] 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. Brickell then became a full-time potter and purchased his first property near the township of Coromandel. In 1974, he purchased the adjacent 60-acre property, where his Driving Creek Railway and Potteries remain today.

Brickell was one of the artists featured in Treasures of the Underworld, the New Zealand pavilion exhibition at Seville Expo '92. 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.

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.[2]

Kiln-building

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. In 1968, he built a round coal-fired kiln for potter Yvonne Rust in Greymouth; in 1975, he built a kiln for artist Ralph Hotere in Port Chalmers, 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.

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.[3]

Death

Brickell died at Coromandel on 23 January 2016.[4][5]

Publications
  • A New Zealand Potter's Dictionary: Techniques and Materials for the South Pacific (Auckland: Reed Methuen, 1985) ISBN 0474000079
  • Six Spiromorphs (Dunedin: Brett McDowell Gallery, 2010) ISBN 9780986456732
  • Rails toward the Sky: The Story of Driving Creek Railway (Auckland: David Ling Publishing, 2011) ISBN 9781877378478
  • Plastic Memories: Thirty-Eight Years of Storytelling in Clay (Coromandel: Driving Creek Press, 2013) ISBN 9780958248518

Barry Brickell appears in New Zealand Film maker David Sims 2016 documentary 'The Last Fatso - and no maybes'. Sims is working on a documentary on Brickell's life and contribution to society.[6]

Brickell appeared in Marcus Lush's documentary 'Off The Rails'.

Works

References
  1. Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 77. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
  2. Dekker, Diana (30 April 2013). "Barry Brickell's Pottery to be Exposed". Dominion Post. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  3. "No. 51173". The London Gazette (3rd supplement). 31 December 1987. p. 34.
  4. "Artist Barry Brickell dies aged 80". Stuff.co.nz. 24 January 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  5. "Ian Brickell death notice". Dominion Post. 25 January 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  6. Screen, NZ On. "David Sims | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
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