NEW YORK CITY — Welcome to your Monday update on the latest news to come out of the world of contemporary ceramic art! This week we have two Voulkos-related items for you. The first is a panel about his contributions to our field, the second is a rather handsome Voulkos vase that’s set for auction in LA around the same time as the panel in New York. Synchronicity!
The Museum of Arts and Design in New York is hosting a panel discussion about one of the patron saints of the contemporary ceramic art world. Voulkos, Then and Now will take place Thursday, October 20 at 7 p.m. Admission is just one thin $10 bill for general audiences, $5 for museum members and students.
For those of you who love to get all philosophical about ceramics, you’ll be pleased to know that the discussion will focus directly on this aspect of Peter Voulkos’ work. The museum states that Voulkos reshaped expectations around the ceramic medium, an influence that is still felt today as artists and makers use clay for its expressive possibilities. The panel will discuss this and also how Voulkos relates to gender and American identity.
The panelists are:
Glenn Adamson, moderator and co-curator of Voulkos: The Breakthrough Years.
Andrew Perchuk, Deputy Director of the Getty Museum and co-curator of Voulkos: The Breakthrough Years.
James Melchert, former student of Voulkos in the 1950s; Artist; Professor of Art, Emeritus, U.C. Berkeley, 1964 –1994, and former Director of the Visual Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts.
Nicole Cherubini, artist working primarily in ceramic sculpture and mixed media. Cherubini’s solo exhibitions include the Perez Art Museum Miami (Miami, FL), the Santa Monica Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA) and the Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia, PA), among many others.
Arlene Shechet, artist. Solo exhibitions include the RISD Museum (Providence, RI); the Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, NC); the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS) The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery (Sarasota Springs NY); the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (Denver CO); and a twenty-year survey of her work at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (Boston, MA) in June 2015, among many others.
This program is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Voulkos: The Breakthrough Years.
Do you love or loathe this news from the world of contemporary ceramic art? Let us know in the comments.
Peter Voulkos, Vase, ca. 1956, gas-fired stoneware with iron oxides and glazes, 14.25 x 9 inches, signed on underside. Offered at an Oct. 9 auction by Los Angeles Modern Auctions. Estimate: $10,000 — $15,000.
I hope the panel will be recorded and made public. It will be interesting to see if the panel pushes the discussion beyond the personality of Voulkos. A discussion of his aesthetics in relation to the ceramics of today would be a valuable contribution to enlarging considerations in the field today .
I wholeheartedly agree with Jim. The easy chat is about his personae and demons and great stories. They are entertaining as serve a purpose of carrying the narrative of the early days of the clay revolution, but these are the rare opportunities to set the discourse bar higher; to delve into the emerging aesthetics of the artist in his day and the meanings created by the new language that emerged. This is what shaped new thinking in the field as well as setting the stage for the new look(s).