Artists

Esias Bosch is considered one of the world’s few master potters and has been described by art historian Murray Schoonraad as the father of South African creative ceramics. Bosch’s profound influence on the development of South African pottery stems from his training in England, his constant and unrelenting exploration of the possibilities of the clay medium and his obsession with producing objects of technical and artistic excellence. He was born in Winburg in the Orange Free State. Instead of pursuing his parent’s wish for him to become a dentist, his tertiary studies began with a course in fine art from the University of Witwatersrand and a teacher’s diploma from the Johannesburg School of Art, where he excelled in portraiture. In 1949 he was awarded a three-year scholarship to study ceramics in England. He spent the first year at the Central School of Art in London, studying under Dora Billington, following this with a practical apprenticeship with two of England’s most highly considered potters, firstly under Raymond Finch and then with Michael Cardew.

Bosch returned to South Africa in 1953 where he taught ceramics for two years at the Durban Art School before moving to Pretoria. During this time, his production was primarily domestic earthenware decorated with slips and oxides. After moving to the Lowveld and eventually settling near White River in 1961, he developed a small holding known as Die Randjie. Here, Bosch continued to create domestic ware, but he moved from earthenware to reduction stoneware production, which he explored and mastered for the next fifteen years. His stonework led to numerous murals, including commissions for the foyer of the Schlesinger Centre in Braamfontein (now the WesBank building) and the international departures hall of Jan Smuts Airport. Bosch then changed his medium once more and began working exclusively in porcelain. By 1979 Bosch was no longer creating domestic ware but rather focussing on the production of large, extensively decorated lustre tiles which became highly sought after for their extraordinary beauty, and in 1988 he began making very large, thin vitrified tiles. Towards the end of his career, Bosch moved away from creating ceramics and returned to painting and drawing. His last years were devoted to the pursuit of drawing ‘portraits’ of the Lowveld trees.

Esias Bosch won numerous awards during his career, including a silver medal in 1963 from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, and he received a number of commissions during his lifetime. He participated in several group and solo exhibitions in Europe, the United States and South Africa. His work is represented in international collections and most public collections in South Africa.

See esiasbosch.co.za for more information.