CLAY - Shaping the future with earth.

The topic of "good ceramic art" was brought up in another thread, or well, kind of brought up anyway, and I thought it might be kind of fun to expand on it in here. There are quite a few folks that are playing in clay right now at my house, and everywhere else, that I feel could really benefit from seeing some good ceramic work that may not necessarily be tiki. By looking at some of this work I believe artists and collectors alike can use the imagery and methods of construction to further expand their own work and ideas in Poly Pop and Tiki. One good example of this would be the scale (size) of work...everyone has been thinking small over at my house lately, mugs, bowls, etc. What about doing some platters, or taller tikis, wall hangings, drums, or well, damn, it's such an open door...who knows what. It would be cool to also juxtapose some of this newer imagery to other ceramics that might have come, or are currently coming from Polynesia.

Let me start with a few of my favorites ceramic artists out there...

Most ceramists look to Peter Volkus as the father of modern ceramics. In 1953 he started moving ceramics in to a sculptural medium which was really unheard of at the time. Clay was not considered to be a "true" artists medium like say working in bronze was. Despite the art critics of the day, he persisted and opened up the eyes of the world to clay

http://www.voulkos.com/core.html

Check this fun little link out on Peter...talk about "Clay Jams"....using 4000 lbs of clay in one night...DAMN! That's an intense night in the old studio there! How much does your car weigh huh?

http://www.queensrow.org/QR-rev2.html

Next up: Ruth Duckworth....I love Ruth! Her work, and her dedication to ceramics is unparallel. Ruth apprenticed under Henry Moore in bronze. One day she went to Moore and explained to him that she was moving on and changing her medium to clay, Moore became furious with her...clay was not a medium that Henry thought any artist should use. Later on, he came to one of Ruth's opening dedications of one of her installation tile works and openly admitted he was wrong and that she made the right move. Cool huh....

http://www.artsmia.org/ruth-duckworth/

Next up: Don Reitz....I have had the pleasure of working with Don. This man is not a young man anymore, and he is so full of energy that it's mind blowing! Don has sent me in search of the child within myself...I owe him.

http://www.empyrean.net/donreitz/don_reitz_profile.htm

John Balisteri: What can I say...John is awesome!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Balistreri
http://johnbalistreriartist.com/?page_id=7

Next: Jun Kaneko...Jun is breaking ground to day that no one else has. I had the honor of helping to fire one of his Dongos over at John's house at a 4 day Anagama firing once in the early 80's...This guy is one of those type of people that lights up a room when he walks in.

http://junkaneko.com/
http://www.knoxart.org/exhibitions/kaneko/

Well, that's enough for now....there is soooo much more.

Glad Babs moved this over to Beyond Tiki, cause if ever there was a subject that was perfect for this forum....

Eva Zeisel was the leader of the 30s and 40s organic movement that created what we think of as Bohemian and Beatnik cool-cat abstraction.

A short bio;

Her mother first woman ever to graduate from the University of Budapest.

Born to a wealthy Hungarian Jewish family, her uncles were famous chemists and economists.

Eva was the first woman to learn the craft of pottery in the Budapest Guild.

In 1935 Zeisel was named the artistic director of the entire Soviet ceramics industry.

1936, thrown in solitary confinement for a year (!) in the USSR.

1938 - married in Austria, then fled from the Nazis.

Her experiences were the basis of the anti-Stalinist novel "Darkness at Noon".

In the 1930s and 40s, she lived and designed in New York.

Taught one of the first Industrial Design courses at Pratt Institute.

Had the first one-woman show at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

And she's still alive & making stuff!!!!!

Rad!
very inspiring Baba!

LLT - :)

Cam, this post on Eva Zeisel is incredible...I have never looked into her work before. Simply wonderful!

It's a shame you've missed out on Eva all these years, babalu... you missed a heck of a show at the Mengei a few years ago...

http://www.mingei.org/exhibitions/detail.php?EID=31

Luckily there are tons of books about her work for you to check out!

Thank you for this, Babalu! This is exactly what I thought of when I saw the ceramic art thread. And, oddly enough, just this morning a good friend of mine sent me a bunch of photos from a recent visit to Jun Kaneko's studio- I'll upload a few soon. His work is astounding.

Thanks for this post...Tucson has had a diverse & wonderful history of people producing great work. Maurice Grossman, Ernie Cabot, Joanie Pavarnik and lots of other I can't remember right now. I'll try to get together some pics soon.
Hey tikitucson, you've probably seen their work around town, especially Maurices stuff, he is a treasure.

[ Edited by: drgoat456 2009-01-14 09:56 ]

On 2009-01-14 09:55, drgoat456 wrote:

Hey tikitucson, you've probably seen their work around town, especially Maurices stuff, he is a treasure.

[ Edited by: drgoat456 2009-01-14 09:56 ]

I love Maurice's work! And no, you really can't live here for too long without running into him somewhere. I really he Maurice has met literally everyone in Tucson. He even officiated our friends' wedding (years before we moved here, even).

There are/have been a surprising number of really talented potters around here, many of whom are still working today.

Shaker, It is a real shame I've missed out on Eva...I've got her now though :) This thread is already paying off big time.

You two Tucson fellas are living smack dab in a killa art zone...I know Don Reitz lives close to you as well. I am totally waiting on the edge of my seat to see those recent shots of Jun's studio. As Jonsey would say...thump, thump, thump!

Ok, we started with some big work...let's move to some really small, and I mean small, work. Jon Alemda is another new artist to me..I just saw him for the first time on the back cover of Ceramics Monthly. He has a really bitchin' Site...make sure you go into his process area too. Jon is throwing off of a hump and raku firing his work. Jeez, I can't even see this small even with my glasses on.

http://www.almedapottery.com/

You know, Eva's work was inspired by Hungarian peasant handicrafts, but what really drove her work was a response to authoritarian political regimes.

But a person can't discuss politics on TC. It's Rule #1.

So unfortunately, I can't talk here about what motivated the work of my favorite ceramic artist.

Tikitucson & Babalu ....I am totally with you. We moved to tucson in '52 (I was 2) with my Uncle, Charles Clement. He did alot of public art around town, most of alot of which is gone,. but some of it stills sits there, the big fountain downtown behind the old courthouse bldg., several mosaic murals, one in the economic bldg. at the U of A and one at the Jewish Community Center. He did alot of work with DeGrazia, who is good, but he seems to get more of his share of the limelight. He was a good salesman, for sure. Charlie and Maurice were some of the founding members of the Tucson Art Guild (Southern Ariz. Art Guild) (along with Cabot, Ruth Brown, Bertha Wright and others). We had many get togethers with the Grossmans, we basically all grew up together (Maurice's kids, etc). We still see Maurice a few times a year, though he didn't look to good last time, getting old. He spent the whole day at my wife and my wedding cracking up everybody doing different accents etc. We love him dearly. Tucson has always had more than its share of talented people. I'll try to take some pics of Maurices stuff that we have soon. He made a beautiful square urn for my Uncles cremated remains we have in our livingroom. We spred the remains in the Tucson Mtns. but kept the Urn.
Mahalo & Ciao

[ Edited by: drgoat456 2009-01-15 10:29 ]

Paul Soldner

http://www.paulsoldner.com/Soldner.html

Some of Maurice Grossman's work and a Clement Mother & daughter piece. Both Tucson artists.

Robert Arneson

http://www.verisimilitudo.com/arneson/

Next post....let's dive into some Polynesian works...

WOW...that Eva is awesome, thanks for the history lesson. I love abstract art. Keep those cards and letters coming!!!

Here are a just a few "VERY" tasty Polynesian images that I have on file...I don't believe all of these are clay, but they all certainly could be. Most of the Polynesian clay images that I have seen tend to be ceremonial (some, maybe kava) bowls...clay slathered on trophy heads, and some other vessels, but really not much. I am dying to see more if anybody has anything they could add to this thread. Please...oh please! At any rate, there is sooo much imagery from the islands that has not been tapped into yet...it's just mind blowing.

Check this bowl, top left and the one below it...yummy!