William Staite Murray
Born 9 September 1881
Died 7 February 1962
Active: 1915 - 1940
Country of birth: England
Country of death: Zimbabwe
Artist potter, pottery teacher
Born in Deptford, London. Staite Murray began by studying painting with artist-cousins. In 1895 his father sent him to work in a Dutch bulb farm, from where he travelled in Europe (studying painting), the USA and Canada. He married in 1905 and attended Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (1909-15) where painted, studied pottery and tried bronze casting. In c.1915 he joined C.F. Hamilton at the Yeoman Pottery, Kensington; he served in the Army (1915-18), then set up a pottery workshop in the family engineering firm (1919) and afterwards at his home (1924) in south east London. Here he made plain high-fired stonewares, adding bold brushwork in a later phase.
From 1925 Staite Murray taught at the Royal College of Art, becoming head of pottery in 1926. He had a solo exhibition at Paterson's Gallery, Old Bond Street, London and in 1927 he joined the '7 & 5' Society. Staite Murray moved to Bray, Berkshire and worked there from 1929 to 1938. On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 he and his wife became stranded in Rhodesia. They remained there, building a house and living in seclusion near Umtali.
Information and images are available at: http://www.vads.ac.uk/learning/learndex.php?theme_id=cscu1&theme_record_id=cscu1murray&mtri=cscu1ceram (accessed 15 June 2012)
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
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Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at 10th Exhibition of the Seven and Five Society (Leicester Galleries), 1931
Multiple works
Institutional and Business Connections
Teacher at Royal College of Art (including National Art Training School)
1925 - 1939
Listed as a teacher of pottery in the first avaliable school prospectus from 1926-1927. Last listed in the 1939-1940 prospectus. Note that from 1941 to 1945 the school produced an abridged prospectus that did not list the names of staff.
Sources
Catalogue of the 10th Exhibition of the Seven and Five Society
1931
p.13.
Prospectus of the Royal College of Art, 1926-1927 Royal College of Art
1926
Unpaged staff list.
Prospectus of the Royal College of Art, 1939-1940 Royal College of Art
1939
p. 5.
Citing this record
'William Staite Murray', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1244023513, accessed 05 Jul 2020]
