Wye pottery, Clyro, Adam Dworski

Adam Dworski (1917-) Wye Pottery, Clyro Powys 1956-98, Cotignac, France

Little mug with landscape and bird design.

Small Dworski Pot

A Wye pottery chalice

apologies if there is already a thread but I couldn't see it.

I just received an email from Adam Dworski's daughter to say that he passed away in France early last month and below is a short appreciation that she supplied.

HOMAGE TO A HUMBLE POTTER
Adam (Adaš) Dworski
5th August 1917 – 6th March 2011

It is sad to record the death of this modest man and talented craftsman. ‘Craftsman’ is the term Adaṥ would have used to describe his occupation, ‘artist’ was not his way. While his wife, scribbling out copy for ads and articles, referred to his ‘ceramic art’, his ‘artistic talents’, Adaṥ just called himself a potter .
Adaš’ life spanned most of the twentieth century. He was born in 1917 during the waning of Austria-Hungary. His home town Rijeka, is now in Croatia. On marriage in 1954, he settled in Wales opening the Wye Studio Pottery in 1956. For forty years, Adaš became part of the local scene. Self-taught, Adaṥ was one of the very few working potters in Wales at the time. The nineteen fifties and sixties , hey day of the studio pottery was an era of originality and innovation in the art world and his work has become collectable. Commissions included two figures for Basil Spence’s new Coventry Cathedral and a black Madonna for Martin Luther King’s widow.
The brush work on Adaṥ Dworski’s majolica glazes is distinctive and early decorative pots as well as ceramic figures reflect the genres of the time. His use of rich colour distinguished his work: deep reds, greens and blues and gold echo Byzantium and the Near East. His reference was often the Classical world: Leda and the Swan, Pan and Bacchus jostled with bulls and cockerels, sweet maidens and crucifixes in his kilns and on his worktops. Wales had an influence too. Plaques painted in bright greens and browns depict the sheep- dotted hills, the tiny churches in hidden Radnor valleys.
Primarily an artist he was a lover of nature too: an accomplished skier in pre-war Yugoslavia and the founder of a mountaineering society. Adaš’ spiritual home remained the mountains and forests of inland Croatia and by extension he adopted the French Alps and the Welsh mountains as his sanctuaries. By his eighties kiln, wheel and clay became too cumbersome and he found expression with pastels and acrylics, filling drawing books with rearing horses, golden cockerels, luscious maidens and placid madonnas.
Always drawn to France, Adaṥ and his wife decided to live there permanently and it was in Burgundy, living close to his two sons, that he died this March 6th. In the village of his birth, Fužine, near Rijeka, a memorial service will be held in April. He is survived by his wife Paddy, his children Marijana, Adam and Mark and his two grandsons Samuel and Joseph.

and perhaps an appropriate piece of his work

This is a lovely little tea bowl that I am lucky enough to own

And the inside. There must be a way to put more than one picture on at a time but haven't worked out how yet

Hi,

Can anyone tell me when Adam Dworski stopped potting at Clyro?

Thanks.

aaabiker

1998 from what I undertand.

thank you

I bought a fairly large Mounted Knight plaque the other day, it has a couple of nibbles/firing faults and as usual the back is finished very crudly, but it's one of the nicer plaques I have seen in my opinion. (8" by 7 1/2")





I've also had this flower plaque for some time, it's a lot smaller, but I still quite like it. (3 1/2" by 7 1/4")

I don't think 1998 is the correct date. They were living in France when I celebrated my 60th birthday with them in 1993 & I believe they had been there a few years by then!

Welcome Nammie.

I can't give a definite answer but elsewhere on this site under the Studio Pottery heading there is a Wye Pottery thread, which contains an obituary supplied to me by his daughter last April.

She had written that and it states, "on marriage in 1954, he settled in Wales opening the Wye Studio Pottery in 1956. For forty years, Adaš became part of the local scene."

Later she adds that "by his eighties kiln, wheel and clay became too cumbersome and he found expression with pastels and acrylics. Always drawn to France, Adaṥ and his wife decided to live there permanently and it was in Burgundy, living close to his two sons, that he died this March 6th."

Therefore to me it would seem that they had a property in France as well as Wales for a period but moved to France permanently in the late 1990s.

The date I gave came from a couple of sources, but could well be wrong.

As SP says he is said to have stopped potting in his 80's and he was born in 1917, so that would tie in with the date 1998.

I believe this to be the work of Adam Dworski of Wye but have been unable to find anything very similar. Could someone please confirm this ID and also give an idea of date as I feel it is early rather than late. Thanks John

This was bought at Ally Pally as a Dworski...do we think it is and any idea of age...your advice please