POMONA >> Internationally renowned and trend-setting ceramicist Harrison McIntosh died Thursday, Jan. 21, at Mt. San Gardens Health Center. He was 101.
McIntosh was described by family, friends and fans as a “gentle soul, thoughtful gentleman and iconic artist who infused his art with his spirit and elevated ceramics from craft to fine art.”
McIntosh’s works are featured in the collections of 40 museums, including The Louvre in Paris, Smithsonian, National Museum of Art in Japan, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Huntington Library.
Artists, museum founders, relatives and art patrons reflected Friday on eight decades of work by the man who transformed art by attracting legions of people outside of the art world to his exhibits.
Fine arts appraiser Gina Capaldi said McIntosh was among the post-World War II Claremont and Pomona Valley artists “shaking things up and elevating functional art to a fine art form.”
Although influenced by Danish designers, McIntosh chose to be more traditional and “pioneered perfect, distinctive and cutting-edge designs,” American Museum of Ceramic Arts founder David Armstrong said.
McIntosh contemporaries and close friends included such names as Millard Sheets, John Edward Svenson, James Hueter, Albert Stewart, Sam Maloof, Paul Soldner, Paul Darrow, Phil Dike, Karl Benjamin, Milford Zornes and Betty Davenport Ford.
The generation that followed grew up surrounded by beautiful art, inspirational fathers and creative second families, said children Catherine McIntosh, David Svenson and Tony Sheets.
“They made such an enormous impact on the art world and even the people who didn’t know much about art,” said Tony Sheets, who like David Svenson, found inspiration in their fathers’ works and became professional artists themselves.
Collaboration, not competition, was stressed by these artistic geniuses, they all recalled.
“I grew up feeling this is what everyone did,” said Catherine McIntosh, Harrison’s daughter and a professional photographer. “I thought everyone made art and everyone’s home was filled with beautiful Sam Maloof furniture, sculptures by John Svenson, Albert Stewart and Betty Davenport Ford and paintings by Millard Sheets, Karl Benjamin and Phil Dike.
“They shared and filled each other’s homes with their art,” she continued. “They each had individual styles, but they were so supportive of each other. They were neighbors, too, so I spent a lot of time going to family gatherings in their homes, as well as to museums and art exhibitions.
“The division between fine art and craft really blurred in Claremont.”
The friendship between James Hueter and McIntosh began in 1948 when the latter came to Claremont to join other young artists as the first in the Master of Fine Arts program established by Millard Sheets at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School.
At 90, Hueter, an acclaimed realist and surrealist painter, said the circle of now-famous friends had no idea they were pioneering art styles and designs in the early 1950s and 1960s.
“We were just all hard workers and friends, encouraging each other and exhibiting together at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and other places,” Hueter recalled. “Harry was a very fine person, very honest and very dedicated to his work.”
Jack Tuggle and his brother Sam knew McIntosh was an art legend, but to them he was also a loving grandfather. Looking back on his grandpa’s achievements and those of his famous friends, Jack said they served as creative forces, influencing him and his friends.
“My grandpa’s life is a lesson in how a community can drive artists to greater heights and how great art is a reflection of that community.
“He will be with us forever as a ripple effect of his influence on ceramic design,” Jack said.
The emphasis on family and friendship was passed on to their offspring, David Svenson said. He, Catherine, Tony Sheets, Bess Benjamin, Chris Darrow and Carolyn Sheets Owen-Towle stay in touch and get together as often as possible to preserve their childhood friendships.
Despite worldwide exhibitions, McIntosh he never forgot his local roots. He is locally celebrated in the permanent collections of Scripps College and the Pomona-based American Museum of Ceramic Arts, the only ceramic museum in the western United States.
“He is one of the leading lights of ceramics in the 20th century,” said Mary MacNaughton, Scripps’ Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery director. “His gentle soul infused his art. He is among the iconic figures of the art scene in Claremont.”
It was a happy coincidence that AMOCA opened on Sept. 11, 2004, McIntosh’s 90th birthday, said Armstrong, the museum’s founder. He has simultaneously celebrated AMOCA and McIntosh’s shared birthdays every year since he opened it. The 100th birthday celebration in 2014 the artist Armstrong called “an absolute gentleman and one of my heroes” drew 500 fans and friends.
The museum, open noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays at 399 N. Garey Ave. in Pomona, honors McIntosh’s passing with a memorial display of his work.
Born in Vallejo, McIntosh was the older of Harrison Gordon McIntosh and Jesusita Coronado McIntosh’s two sons. He and brother Robert were raised in Stockton and inspired to become artists after frequent visits to the newly built Haggin Museum there. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1937.
Harrison served in the Army during World War II and served as a driver for military doctors in the San Francisco Bay area. He married Marguerite Loyau, a fellow student and Fulbright scholar who came to Claremont from France. They moved to Claremont in 1948 and in 1958 built a home in Padua Hills which included the studio he shared with fellow potter Rupert Deese for 50 years,
McIntosh was among the first generation of West Coast potters to work with hand-thrown stoneware and also among the artists whose work defined California design at mid-century, said AMOCA director Beth Ann Gerstein. He built a foundation based on modern design, rather than pursing the abstract expressionistic approach to clay, and interpreted a modern esthetic with natural materials, she added.
Catherine McIntosh said her father’s gardens, filled with succulents, also influenced his designs.
He was an American Craft Council fellow and National Endowment for the Arts consultant and panelist, His oral history was recorded in the Smithsonian’s National Archives of American Art.
He is survived by his wife Marguerite; daughter Catherine McIntosh, son-in-law Charles Tuggle and grandsons Jack and Sam Tuggle. The family requests memorial donations be made to the American Museum of Ceramic Art and the Claremont Museum of Art. A memorial service will be held later.
