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| Image of Walter B. Stephen pottery courtesy of Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. |
Walter B. Stephen, 1876-1961, was a remarkable artist with no formal training who became an imaginative and gifted potter. First with slip-painted pots made from Nonconnah Creek clay in the then-rural area outside Memphis, Tennessee, and then with more variety of forms and glazes he developed after moving to the hills near Asheville, North Carolina. Stephen's work spanned Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau to the Moderne era. His decorative schemes were widely diverse, ranging from memories of his young life on the Nebraska frontier, Bible references, and Asian art. Also, themes with Mayan and Egyptian motifs as well as Wedgwood influences were explored.
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| Image of Walter B. Stephen pottery courtesy of Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. |
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| Dr. Stanton Thomas, Curator of European and Decorative Arts, at the entrance to the exhibit. Photo by John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist. |
"I am fascinated that we have an exhibition by a largely undiscovered and incredibly innovative art potter who began working in Shelby County around 1900," says exhibition organizer Stanton Thomas, Curator of European and Decorative Art at the Brooks. "Stephen is a little idiosyncratic and very much an individualist, and at the same time. he's part of the larger Arts & Crafts movement, when artists were getting away from mechanization and focusing on the handmade."
Mr. Leftwich's book Pisgah Forest and Nonconnah: The Potteries of Walter B. Stephen is available for purchase in the museum's gift shop and here.
