John ffrench:JOHN FFRENCH, who has died aged 81, was the lastsurviving pioneer of contemporary ceramics in Ireland.
Ffrench’s career began in 1951 and spanned more than half a century. As a potter, he was known for his lively colours and unusual shapes. His work had a singularly happy quality and, on two occasions in the 1950s and 1960s, his exhibitions in Dublin sold out as soon as they opened.
In 2007, ffrench was chosen by the Crafts Council of Ireland as the subject of its first “life-time achievement exhibition”, a show so popular its run was extended by several weeks. In 2008, RTÉ television broadcast A Life in Colour, a documentary on his life and work.
Ffrench, who was half-Irish and half-Italian, was born in Dublin in 1928 to Jack and Sofia (née Brambilla) ffrench. He grew up in his ancestral home, Castle ffrench, Co Galway. Following art school in Dublin, he acquired pottery skills in Florence, where he lived from 1951 to 1955.
Back in Ireland, his earliest work was made in Kilkenny as a partner in the Ring Ceramic Studio with Peter Brennan. He introduced the Italian modernist style, influenced by friends such as Guido Gambone and Marcello Fantoni. Ffrench’s organic shapes, like theirs, were sculptural and vividly coloured but the work took Irish commentators by surprise. “Too obstinately asymmetrical,” said one. “Almost wickedly provocative,” said another.
He was also profoundly influenced by Picasso, and like him retained his youthful vitality and creativity into old age.
Ffrench hand-built his earthenware pots, which could be up to 3ft high, using a coiled-ribbon technique he developed himself. He sold through the Waddington Gallery in Dublin, where his work enjoyed equal status with paintings and sculptures.
In 1957, he went to India for three years to teach and work as a potter in Calcutta. He also collected folk art for the Design Centre of West Bengal. This influenced his later work, especially at the Arklow Studio Pottery in the 1960s, which he ran on his return.
His appointment, like that of Louis Le Brocquy, to Donegal Carpets was part of a government initiatives to improve design in Irish industry after the damning Scandinavian Report of 1962.
In 1969 ffrench and his family moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. There, he and his American wife, Primm, founded the Dolphin Studio and taught art in Monument Mountain Regional High School until 1992.
Ffrench also continued making pottery. Among his American ceramics were wall pieces based on fantastical buildings and villages. Other items made at his studio in Kinvara, Co Galway, from 1993 explored Irish myth and legend.
A constant stream of vessels and dishes covered with brightly coloured patterns continued to pour forth right up to the time of his death.
Ffrench was a joyful man with a charming personality. He loved poetry, travel, music and books and was a gregarious companion and great storyteller. He was also kind, thoughtful and supportive of young people.
He is survived by Primm, three daughters, Felicitas, Crispina and Sofia, four grandchildren and his sister, Elly Agnew.
John ffrench: born October 5th, 1928; died January 22nd, 2010