William Ricketts Sanctuary, Victoria, Australia. A mere hour from Melbourne, in the Dandenong Ranges, one finds a landscape of huge pine trees and beautiful fern gullies. In one of such gullies, a mans life-work and dreams live on. William Ricketts (1898–1993) was an Australian potter and sculptor of the arts and crafts movement. Although not trained as a potter and never technically superior (his works, large and small, frequently exhibit cracking), the power of his vision of a modern Australia that embraces Aboriginal spirituality and respect for the natural world was his general message throughout his artworks. In the 1930s he purchased a four-acre plot of land on Mount Dandenong, naming it Potters Sanctuary. Beginning in 1934, William Ricketts started work on his clay figures that would soon adorn all of his property. In the 1960s, after having gained some local notoriety for his sculptures, the Victorian Government bought the sanctuary and some surrounding land to become a park for public use. He continued to live on and work in his Sanctuary until 1993, when he passed away. From 1949 to 1960 he made frequent trips into Central Australia to live with Pitjantjatjara and Arrernte Aboriginal people, whose traditions and culture inspired his sculpture. He was not an Aboriginal by blood but considered himself adopted by the Pitjantjatjara nation. He left behind many of his central Australian works at Pitchi Ritchi near Alice Springs – a bird sanctuary run by his friend Leo Corbet – as he considered the landscape integral to these sculptures.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 13:55:39 +0000
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