FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 21, 2016
Contact: Beth Ann Gerstein
Executive Director
American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA)
909.865.3146 • bgerstein@amoca.org
Harrison McIntosh
September 11, 1914 - January 21, 2016
Harrison McIntosh, an internationally known ceramicist, whose work defined California design at midcentury, has died at the age of 101 in Claremont, Calif. His long career as a Southern California ceramic
artist, known for his strong sensual shapes, spanned eight decades and included his modern approach to
classical vessel forms in the 1950s to his work in sculptural spheres floating on geometric chrome forms.
He is especially known for work enhanced by distinctive surface decoration of thin sgrafitto lines or
rhythmic brush spots. His ceramics are held in numerous museum collections around the world.
Harrison McIntosh was born on September 11, 1914 in Vallejo, Calif. During his high school years, in
Stockton, the newly-built Haggin Museum became a source of inspiration for him and his brother Robert.
Both decided to study art. While Robert became a painter, Harrison pursued his interest in three
dimensional art forms. When the McIntosh family moved to Los Angeles in 1937, Harrison's interest in
architecture led him to encourage his parents to hire Richard Neutra to design their new home.
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He took his first ceramics class with Glenn Lukens, at USC in 1940, and set up a studio in his parent’s
garage in Los Angeles. After the war, thanks to the GI Bill, he was accepted by Millard Sheets into the
new MFA program at the Claremont Graduate School. While studying under Richard Petterson at Scripps
College, he and fellow potter Rupert Deese opened a ceramics studio on Foothill Blvd. His experiences
were enriched by workshops at Mills College with Bernard Leach, and at Pond Farm with Marguerite
Wildenhain.
McIntosh married Marguerite Loyau, a fellow student, who came to Claremont on a Fulbright scholarship
from France. They built a home in Padua Hills in 1958 with a studio where Deese and McIntosh
continued to share equipment, kiln and work space for 50 years.
McIntosh followed his own path, choosing to build a foundation based on modern design rather to pursue
the abstract expressionistic approach to clay that became popular in the 1960s. Working in his Claremont
studio, he continued to explore the subtleties of form, both vessel and sculptural, in his personal and
thoughtfully deliberate manner.
McIntosh was among the first generation of West Coast potters to work with hand-thrown stoneware,
alongside contemporary artists Gertrude and Otto Natzler and Laura Andreson. Along with his close
friend, renowned woodworker Sam Maloof, he was among the artists whose work defined California
design at mid-century and interpreted a modern esthetic with natural materials.
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In the early years, McIntosh sold his work at home furnishing stores, including Bullocks Wilshire, Van
Kepple Green in Beverly Hills, and Abacus in Pasadena. In the 1980s and 90s, his work was represented
by Louis Newman and later by Frank Lloyd Gallery.
While he preferred working in the relative solitude of his studio in Padua Hills, McIntosh also designed
prototypes for Metlox pottery and tiles for Interpace. With his wife Marguerite, he traveled to Japan
throughout the 1970s to design dinnerware and glassware for Mikasa.
By 1980, McIntosh had achieved an international reputation. Today, his work is represented in more than
40 museum collections, including the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.; the Museum of
Decorative Arts; The Louvre in Paris; the National Museum of Art in Tokyo; the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston; and locally at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Huntington Library, Art Collections,
and Botanical Gardens; and the American Museum of Ceramic Art. His pieces have been featured in
more than 70 publications.
Over a 50-year period, McIntosh has had 43 solo exhibitions. He is a Fellow of the American Craft
Council, has served as a consultant-panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and an oral history
has been recorded in the National Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
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David Armstrong, the founder of the American Museum of Ceramic Art and a close friend of Harrison
McIntosh, said, “One of the great gentlemen of ceramics as we know it today has passed away. He added
a great deal of dignity to the profession and will be truly missed by all who loved him.” AMOCA's
HM100 exhibition and birthday celebration in September 2014 was attended by over 500 guests.
He is survived by his wife Marguerite, daughter Catherine, son-in-law Charles Tuggle and grandsons Jack
and Sam Tuggle. The family has requested that donations in his memory be made to the American
Museum of Ceramic Art or the Claremont Museum of Art. A memorial service is being planned.
To request images
Catherine McIntosh: cmcintosh1011@gmail.com
Page 1 Image: Harrison McIntosh in his studio c.1960’s
Page 2 Image: Harrison McIntosh, age 99, holds one of his footed bowls at his home in
Claremont in January, 2014. Credit: Catherine McIntosh
Page 3 Image: Mystic Symbols, 1982. Limited edition. Chromed steel and cast, glazed stoneware.
13.5” x 12.5 x 5”. Collection of the Artist. Photo credit: Cynthia Madrigal/AMOCA
Resource Links
AMOCA 2014
http://www.amoca.org/hm100/
LACMA video 2012
http://www.lacma.org/video/harrison-mcintosh-0
Archives of American Art Oral Interview 1999
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-harrison-mcintosh-11879
LATimes article 2009
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/24/entertainment/et-mcintosh24
American Museum of Ceramic Art
399 North Garey Avenue, Pomona, CA 91767
(909) 865-3146
www.amoca.org
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