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Introduction

Raid the Icebox Now with Paul Scott

New American Scenery
September 13, 2019 - December 30, 2021

This installation juxtaposes early 19th-century Staffordshire ceramic transferwares drawn from the shelves of RISD Museum storage with new Cumbrian Blue(s) artworks. Replacing the porcelain works typically on view in this gallery, New American Scenery melds historic printed tablewares, altered antique ceramics, and reclaimed Syracuse China plates with new screenprints to update early transferware subjects for the 21st century.

In the early 1900s, Staffordshire wares with images of American landscapes became hugely desirable objects, and for the first time, mass-produced industrial tablewares were elevated within museum hierarchies to rival the finest Meissen, Sevres, and Chinese porcelain. The high status of these works did not persist, and the period following World War II saw most relegated to museum storage, where they have gathered dust ever since. My New American Scenery artwork, created for this project, draws attention to the beauty, significance, and influence of original transferware material while examining the postindustrial landscapes of 21st-century America. Themes include industrial dereliction, borders, the physical manifestations of climate change, energy generation and consumption, and the ongoing legacies of invasion, slavery, and racism.

Paul Scott is an English artist who lives and works in Cumbria, UK. He appropriates traditional blue and white transferwares to make artwork for 21st-century audiences. Using selective erasure, new prints, collage, breakage, and re-assemblage, he alters historic tablewares to depict the contemporary landscape. At the same time he also commemorates and celebrates a rich, complex historical genre which is inextricably linked to wider visual and political cultures. New American Scenery is made possible by a lead grant from the Alturas Foundation with additional support from Ferrin Contemporary and Arts Council England.

To view the gallery guide, https://publications.risdmuseum.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/Paul%20Scott%20Gallery%20Guide%20Web.pdf

Raid the Icebox Now is made possible by a lead grant from the National Endowment for the Arts with additional support from Pace Gallery, Taylor Box Company, and a generous in-kind gift from Meyer Sound Laboratories. RISD Museum is supported by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with the generous partnership of the Rhode Island School of Design, its Board of Trustees, and Museum Governors.

Events

Talks and Conversations Ways of Looking

Ways of Looking: New American Scenery

November 10, 2019 / 3-4 pm
Talks and Conversations

Artist Tour

New American Scenery with Paul Scott
November 14, 2019 / 10-10:45 am
Talks and Conversations

Pottery and Porcelain Club Lecture

Paul Scott: New American Scenery
November 14, 2019 / 11 am-12 pm
Talks and Conversations Ways of Looking

Ways of Looking: Paul Scott

Virtual program via Zoom
April 16, 2020 / 6-7:30 pm

More Events

Projects & Publications

Publications

Raid the Icebox Now

Read Online

Selected Objects

English

Plate, ca. 1825

Ralph Stevenson & Williams, manufacturer

City Hotel, New York Plate, ca. 1835

Ralph Stevenson & Williams, manufacturer

Pitcher, ca. 1838

Enoch Wood and Sons, manufacturer

Cape Coast Castle Platter, ca. 1840

Joseph Stubbs

Fair Mount near Philadelphia Plate, ca. 1827

Buffalo Pottery, manufacturer

Landing of Roger Williams Pitcher, ca. 1907

Enoch Wood and Sons, manufacturer

Cup Plate, ca. 1840

Thomas Green, manufacturer

W. Penn's Treaty Plate, 1830-1859

Joseph Stubbs

Sauceboat and Stand, 1790-1830

Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, manufacturer

Roger Williams Jug, 1886

Joseph Stubbs

State House, Boston Plate, ca. 1827

Ralph Stevenson & Williams, manufacturer

Washington and Governor Clinton Plate, ca. 1825 - 1827

Joseph Stubbs

Boston State House, ca. 1827

William Guy Wall, designer

New York from Brooklyn Heights Plate, ca. 1825

English

Louisville, Kentucky Platter, ca. 1838

Joseph Stubbs

Philadelphia, Upper Ferry Bridge over the Schuylkill Plate, ca. 1827

James and Ralph Clews, manufacturer

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Cup Plate, 1825-1830

James and Ralph Clews, manufacturer

Pittsfield Elm, Winter View Plate, ca. 1825-1830

Enoch Wood and Sons, manufacturer

Castle Garden and Battery, New York Cup Plate, ca. 1840

Enoch Wood and Sons, manufacturer

The Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Plate, ca. 1840

Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, manufacturer

Rhode Island Tercentenary Commemorative Plate, 1936

English, Staffordshire

Cup Plate, ca. 1820

Rowland and Marsellus

Transferware Plate with Scenes of Providence, 1894
No Image Available

Paul Scott, designer

Sampler Jug No. 1, Stay Dirty, 2019

Paul Scott

Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, The Uranium Series No. 1, Messa No: 1, Mine Road Cove, AZ (3), 2020

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

Raid the Icebox Now with Paul Scott : New American Scenery

September 13, 2019 - December 30, 2021
View Checklist PDF

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