P(l)otting a plan

Mona

Potters are dying but pottery is slowly coming up...is how Mansimran Singh summarises the current scenario. He is in Chandigarh for a seminar on his father Gursharan Singh, the first studio potter of the country, who studied the art in Japan in 1920s and brought back a rich collection of Chinese, Japanese and Korean ceramic collection.

Interestingly, this unique collection is now part of the Government Museum and Art Gallery. The Japanese Foundation, Delhi in collaboration with the gallery held a seminar on Gursharan Singh and Mansimran, who followed his father’s footsteps, was only too happy walking down the memory lane.

Happy chatting in Punjabi, now that he is in Chandigarh, a Himachali topi covering his long white strands, he doesn’t mind acknowledging that he was all set to join the Merchant Navy. Had it not been for his colour blindness that stopped him from doing so, pottery might not have occurred to him at all. “When my father did pottery, there were no takers for it. There still aren’t many, for this is something breakable,” he says holding out a beautiful pot done by his late father with a lotus and a swan. With an instruction to put it back carefully, he resumes how his father before being initiated into pottery had to learn Japanese that he duly did staying with a Japanese family, for so was his passion. For Mansimran, post the Merchant Navy fiasco, he learnt under Bernard Leach in UK. In 1960 he moved back to continue in the field along with his father. Having assisted in establishing the Lalit Kala Akademi’s (National Academy of Art) pottery studios in Delhi, it was in 1984 post riots and on his wife Mary’s insistence he moved base to Andretta, Himachal Pradesh. “Mem demanded to live by seas side or mountains, I chose the latter.”

Together the couple runs the pottery workshop for three summer months at Andretta and also organise international pottery shows. “Increasingly pottery is being accepted. In our shows potters demand global prices and valuing the art people are now willing to invest.”

Happy at pottery rubbing shoulders with other arts as painting, Mansimran is happy passing it on. Any change in the student profile over the years? “No, they are still unmarried women waiting to find a match,” he laughs while also taking out his phone and sharing pictures of the works of one his students who has set up a studio in Mumbai.

Glad that some 200 pieces are now displayed at the museum, Mansimran insists that his father’s creations have been an inspiration. “Unlike him who went to an art school, I decorate my pieces with glaze work, but, his have been the finest.”

The collection recently put at the museum has some fine pieces depicting Japanese ways of life in bowls, bottles, dishes, kettles and more. As for the future of pottery, he shares, “Unlike the old times, where one kumhar made pots for the entire village and fairs had a fair share of it, potters are soon getting scarce. But pottery is going to get its fair share in coming times.” Having set a trust post his father’s demise, the efforts are on and yielding results for getting this art to people and helping potters learn and grow. In fact, Mary, who is only too happy teaching along with hubby, celebrated it in her book The Delhi Pottery!