William Staite Murray (1881–1962) was an English studio potter.

Biography

He was born in Deptford, London and attended pottery classes at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1909 - 1912. He worked with Cuthbert Hamilton, a member of the Vorticist group,^[1] at the Yeoman Pottery in Kensington before joining the army in 1915.^[2] In 1919, after his military service, he set up his own pottery in Rotherhithe, London in the premises of his brother's engineering and foundry works. Although initially influenced by the avant-garde art of the time he became increasingly interested in early Chinese ceramics, under the influence of which he began making high-fired stoneware in an oil-fired kiln. From Rotherhithe he moved his studio first to Brockley in Kent and then to in 1929 to Bray, Berkshire.^[3]

He rejected any need for functionality in his work, regarding his pots as pure art and giving them individual titles.^[3] In this respect, he was at variance with Bernard Leach and his followers, for whom functionality was a key tenet. Murray's aim was to raise the profile and reputation of pottery to a level where it would be regarded as equal to painting and sculpture.^[4] He was a member of the Seven and Five group of painters and sculptors, and held exhibitions jointly with the painters Ben and Winifred Nicholson and Christopher Wood.^[5] He was also a member of the Red Rose Guild.^[6]

He was made instructor in pottery at the Royal College of Art in London in 1926^[7] and became an influential teacher in the 1930s, his pupils including Henry Hammond, Sam Haile,^[2] Robert J Washington,^[8] and Emma Smith Gillies.^[9] In 1940 he went on a three-month visit to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and decided to settle, in part because of the war. He gave up making pottery and died twenty years later although he had a final exhibition in London towards the end of his life.

In Rhodesia he was appointed Trustee of National Arts Council.