Mirek smisek biography

New Zealand potter (1925–2013)

Miroslav SmíšekOBE (2 February 1925 – 19 May 2013) was a Czechoslovakian-born New Zealand potter. After fleeing the Czech coup and eventually arriving in New Zealand he started work for Crown Lynn and later established his own pottery. His two pottery kilns in Te Horo are scheduled as a category 2 historic place by Heritage New Zealand

Biography

Smíšek was born in the Bohemia region of Czechoslovakia in 1925. After spending most of World War II in labour camps due to his efforts in the anti-Nazi resistance movement, he fled Europe in 1948 after the Czech coup. He emigrated first to Australia, and then to New Zealand in 1951, and became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1955.

He worked for the Crown Lynn pottery in Auckland where he created the "Bohemia Ware" line in manganese slip glaze, before moving to Nelson in 1952. There he worked at the Nelson Brick and Pipe Company, where he learned the technique of salt glazing. He left in 1957 and became New Zealand's first full-time studio potter. He also taught pottery at the Nelson Technical School (at the time part of Nelson College) and night classes at Waimea College. In 1962 he went to Japan and studied at Kyoto University. In 1963 he went to St Ives in England and studied under Bernard Leach. In 1968 he moved to the Kāpiti Coast, where he established three potteries. He purchased a property in Te Horo to establish a pottery work. Potter Pamella Annsouth became his partner in 1979 and remained with him until his death.^&

Mirek Smíšek was born in Czechoslovakia in 1925. Fleeing from the devastation of war he moved to Canberra, Australia in 1948 where he had a short stint at the Canberra Brickworks before moving to Sydney a year later and gaining employment at the Diana Potteries.

He moved to Auckland in 1951 and worked for Crown Lynn where he made a popular range of vases with incised line decoration called Bohemia Ware referencing his home region.

In 1952 Mirek moved to Nelson, gaining work at the Nelson Brick & Pipe Company, where he learnt the technique of salt glazing which the company used for sewer pipes.  After two years he branched out on his own gaining a reputation as New Zealand’s first full time potter.

The works on show are all from this early period and convey a clear understanding of both form and function. The majority have a manganese glaze and are finely salt-glazed. All were intended for domestic use and are expertly thrown, glazed and fired. It is often thought that these earlier works are finer and show more control than his later more free-flowing works.

Brian Wood.
2017

Date:1980 - 1984

From:[Ephemera of quarto size relating to work and exhibitions by potters and ceramic sculptors in New Zealand]

Reference:Eph-B-CERAMICS-1980/1984

Description:Includes: 1980s: An Exhibition of Pottery by Ray Rogers (of Auckland). Antipodes Gallery, Wellington. An Exhibition of Pottery & Glassware by Nicholas Brandon & Tony Kuepfer. Antipodes Gallery, Wellington. Pots for the Eighties. Antipodies Gallery, Wellington. Includes potters - Keith Blight. Doris Dutch. Harley Gamble. Brian Gartside. Jim Greig. Barbara Hockenhull. Fairlie Rowe. Denis Rowe. Tony Stevens. Robyn Stewart. Graeme Storm. Howard Williams. 1980: John Parker: Recent Ceramics. Media, Karori, Wellington, 1 - 12 September, 1980? Springtime: An exhibition of garden pottery at Textures, Wellington, Monday 8 September 1980. Wellington Potters Association Annual Exhibition 1980 [entry form] Wellington Potters Association Inc: Charity Day, Cuba Mall, 18 October 1980. 1981: Auckland Studio Potters 18th Annual Exhibition 1981. Auckland War Memorial Museum 18 - 27 October 1981. Ceramix: First ever national pottery symposium and exhibition. Organised by the New Zealand Society of Potters Inc. Palmerston North Teachers' College, 19 - 22 January 1981. Exhibition Open Day. Mirek Smisek Pottery, Main Highway, Te Horo, 5 and 6 September 1981. Exhibition: Pottery by Geoff Clarke; Photographs by Warwick Smith; Cap-maker, Jay Davidson. Holloway Road Pottery, 19 - 20 December 1981. New Zealand Society of Potters Inc. [News letter dated 24 November 1981 circulating a letter from Sally Vinson to the parliamentary parties re their policy on a sales tax on craftspeople. Included are replies from the three parties involved]. Pottery: An exhibition by David Marden. The Crafsmans Quarters, Wellington, 8 - 19 December 1981. The Treasures of the Imperial Dynasties: Miniature vase collection (by Franklin Porcelain, Auckland). [Flyer advertising a collection of 12 miniatu

What a life it was, and how well it was lived!

Born in Bohemia in what was then Czechoslovakia, Mirek was 15 when the German Army invaded in 1939. He and his friend Milos Stefanek declared their own war and joined protest groups cutting telegraph wires, throwing rocks and distributing pamphlets for which they were sent to a forced labour camp in Austria. Labouring in the steel works they sabotaged what they could and some months later escaped, with the intent of getting to England to help the Allies but were caught at the Swiss border and interrogated, beaten and interned in a number of prisons in Germany where they survived by watching one another’s backs. Eventually they were returned to the Austrian steel works for more hard labour where they renewed their sabotage activities. They again escaped but were caught once more, this time just before the Czech border and returned to prison camp.  Eventually in 1945 the camp collapsed with the retreat of the German Army and Mirek and Milos walked out and all the way back to Czechoslovakia and home. There they found the Communists taking over and once more felt obliged to rebel against totalitarianism. They saw they must leave, so in September,1946, they escaped USSR dominated Czechoslovakia leaving behind homes and families, perhaps forever. In post-war West Germany Mirek worked for British Intelligence searching out Nazis but realised that this vengeance was not what he wanted from life and instead, saw the future framed with creativity and the positive rather than anything Europe might offer at the time.

Australia

Mirek and Milos emigrated to Australia where, as assisted contracted immigrants, they were sent to Canberra to work and Mirek attended pottery classes in the evenings. After a year he went to Sydney where he worked for the Diana Pottery as designer and one famous product was the ‘Waltzing Matilda’ jugs and beer steins which featured, in low relief, kangar