Teruo Hara
Ceramic Platter, c.1960

Hara was born in Chiba on Tokyo Bay on May 26, 1929. He was a graduate of Tokyo Kyoiku University, where he studied chemistry, engineering, design and ceramics. He became a member of the Crafts Group of Japan as well as the avant garde Sodeishu group of craftsmen-artists who rebelled against the rigidity of Japanese artistic tradition. He wrote and lectured extensively in Japan and helped plan the crafts center in Tokyo. In 1958, he came to the US under the auspices of the American Craftsmen Council and the Fine Arts Committee. He soon gave a well-received show in New York City. Wishing to learn English and new American techniques in ceramic materials and technology, he worked and studied for a time with Design Technics in Stroudsburg, Pa. He settled in Warrenton, VA in the early 1960s. There he established the Kobo Group design studio. In the 1960s, he taught oriental glazing techniques at the Corcoran. He also had taught at the Haystack School in Deer Isle, Me., and at Mary Washington College in Fredricksburg, VA. A review in The Washington Post of a show of 168 of his pieces at the Corcoran School of Art in 1968 said his work contained “probably the most exciting examples of glazed ceramics being produced in the United States today.” Another Hara show at the Corcoran in the 1960s featured a group of sake cups. He received a grand prix award at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. He was invited to participate in shows in Brazil, Italy, Japan, West Germany and at the Smithsonian Institution. In addition to the ones at the Corcoran, he had one-man shows in Tokyo, Kyoto, New York, Baltimore and Miami.

Stoneware