Peter Rushforth
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Name
Peter Rushforth
Other names
PR [impressed mark]
RUSHFORTH, Peter Frederick
Culture
Australian
Gender
Male
Birth date
4 December 1920
Birth place
Manley, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia View on map Close map
Death date
22 July 2015
Death Place
Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia. View on map Close map
Occupations
Ceramic artist | Decorative / design artist
Summary
Worked: Australia (NSW)
NGA IRN
22066
Context
Australia
Biography
Peter Rushforth
Peter Frederick Rushforth was born at Manly, NSW, on 4 December 1920. He first studied art following the second world war at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the National Gallery Art School under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme. It was during this time that he was inspired to try working as a potter after a visit to the Fern Tree Gully Studio of Alan Lowe.
In 1951 Peter Rushforth established a kiln at Beecroft, was appointed to the staff of the National Art School, Sydney, and where as Head Teacher of Ceramics he established a certificate course in ceramics in 1964.
In 1964 Peter Rushforth spent five months in Japan, working with a family of traditional potters in Koishiwarra, Kyushu; with Shimaoka, a pupil of Shoji Hamada in Mashiko, Honshu and at a studio within the Kyoto Art University. In 1967 he was granted a Churchill Fellowship that enabled him to study standards and methods of training in pottery in Europe and America and in 1970 he established a kiln and studio at Church Point, Sydney.
Retired from teaching in 1978 Peter Rushforth now works fulltime at the pottery he established at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, NSW, in 1969. He has exhibited extensively both in Australia and overseas.