Pottery in India

Pottery in India - Gurcharan Singh

Gurcharan Singh (1898-1995) graduated from the Prince of Wales College in Jammu (now Pakistan) with a Bachelor's degree in geology and chemistry in 1918. After accepting a job at a brick factory run by his father’s friend Ram Singh Kabuli, he became an apprentice with Abdullah Musalmaan, a descendant of a famous line of Pathan potters who came to India in the thirteenth century. In 1919 Singh went to Japan to study industrial ceramics. There, he met Yanagi Soetsu, Bernard Leach, Tomimoto Kenkichi and Shoji Hamada.

On his return to India, he established a workshop at his old pottery, which became known for its Persian copper-blue tiles. In 1927 he founded the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS). He was head of the Government Pottery Institute at Ambala in Jammu from the late 1930s until 1952. Singh then returned to his old pottery works, renaming it the Delhi Blue Art Pottery (now the Delhi Blue Pottery Trust). Delhi Blue tiles were used in many public buildings in India. In 1974 Gurucharan Singh was awarded the Sahitya Kala Parishad's best artist award and in 1991 he received the Padmashree from the President of India for his contribution to the field of ceramics. He is also known as the author of Pottery in India, published in 1979.