When Alex Leckie was admitted to as a sculpture student at the Glasgow School of Art, it was on the basis of his talent, rather than any formal academic qualifications.
In 1955, rather than face British National Service, he emigrated to Australia, settling in Adelaide. He initially found work throwing terra cotta pots for Bennetts’Magill Pottery. When he inquired about furthering his studies at the South Australian School of Art, he discovered he was the most qualified potter in the state. He was subsequently employed to teach both sculpture and ceramics.
In 1962 he was arrested for swimming naked in the River Torrens and dismissed from his teaching post. However by this time he had his own well established pottery and was President of the Contemporary Art Society of South Australia. 1964, he was one of three Australian ceramicists chosen to represent this country in the International Ceramics Exhibition in Tokyo.
However the prudish culture of Adelaide at the time was perhaps a factor in his return to Scotland in 1966. He spent some time in the London Central School, but in 1968 he was appointed Head of Ceramics at the Glasgow School of Art, a position he held for the next twenty years.
He did return to Australia in 1978, 1979 & 1982 as Artist in Residence at Melbourne State College, but for the rest of his life was based in Glasgow.
An obituary described him as ‘… wee bull who caused havoc in many a china shop …’
- Writers:
-
7write6
Joanna Mendelssohn
- Date written:
- 2021
- Last updated:
- 2022
