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Join the Asheville Art Museum in celebrating the wide variety of work from Western North Carolina ceramist, Walter B. Stephen. The February 18th Opening Reception will feature author Rodney Leftwich, author of Pisgah Forest and Nonconnah: The Potteries of Walter B. Stephen. Leftwich will also be featured at the March 19 Gallery Talk and Book Signing, where he and the Museum’s Special Projects Curator Lynne Poirier-Wilson will give an informative tour of the exhibition Walter B. Stephen: Potter of Distinction.
Walter Benjamin Stephen (1875-1961) produced art wares that demonstrate both variety and skill. Basically self-taught, he and his mother Nellie Randall Stephen opened their first pottery called Nonconnah near Memphis, Tennessee in 1904. Nellie Stephen decorated pieces by brushing on successive layers of translucent, porcelain slip decoration. Stephen called this method, reminiscent of English Wedgewood, cameo ware and would continue using some version of it throughout his career. In 1905, one year after opening, production was good enough that Stephen was working at the Nonconnah pottery full time. By 1913 he had settled in Skyland, North Carolina where he opened another Nonconnah pottery. Here he continued to make decorated ware, and experimented with other forms and glazes. In 1920 Walter Stephen began working and studying with Oscar Bachelder, the Western North Carolina ceramist, who had become a friend and mentor. Soon after Stephen began construction of his third pottery in Arden, North Carolina called Pisgah Forest Pottery. He continued to produce his decorated cameo ware, but also began experimenting with other glazes and wheel thrown forms. During this time he developed his crystalline glazes which required skillful mixing and firing. Stephen operated Pisgah Forest Pottery for almost thirty years. By 1949 he was “semi-retired” leaving more day-to-day issues with his younger workers Grady Ledbetter and Tom Case, but he continued to produce pottery until his death in 1961. The pottery continues today under the direction of Tom Case. This exhibition explores the work of Walter B. Stephen throughout his career. The exhibition is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Asheville. The exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum. For more information, visit www.ashevilleart.org. (Images provided by the Asheville Art Museum.)
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