Peter Voulkos and the Idea of Avant-garde Modernist Clay
About
Dr. Ezra Shales shares the abstract expressionist ceramic sculptures of Peter Voulkos (1924-2002). Voulkos epitomizes the individual genius of "Abstract Expressionist Ceramics" in most scholarly literature and an inflection point between craft and art, and potters transitioning into artists. This talk will contextualize his work concerning work by artists Isamu Noguchi, Joan Miró, Lucio Fontana, and Karen Karnes, and examine his continued use of the potter's wheel as an expressive tool.
Free. Registration for this in-person program is requested.
Ezra Shales, PhD., is a Professor of Art History at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and previously had appointments at Alfred University and the Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen in Norway. His research, publications, and exhibitions explore the intersection of design, craft, and art in modern and contemporary culture. Shales is the author of The Shape of Craft (Reaktion, 2017) and Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era (Rutgers University Press, 2010) and is currently revising his third book for Bloomsbury, tentatively titled Is This a Pitcher I See Before Me? in which he celebrates communal drinking vessels as vehicles to express the American identity.
This program is presented in collaboration with the Pottery and Porcelain Club of Rhode Island and the RISD Museum.
The Pottery and Porcelain Club of Rhode Island, a membership organization, was founded in 1947 "to study and promote interest in pottery and porcelain." Scheduled meetings feature lectures by scholars and collectors as well as a study group led by scholars.