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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 the RISD Museum storage with new Cumbrian Blue(s) artworks. Replacing the porcelain works typically on view in the Lucy Truman Aldrich 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, however, and the period following World War II saw most relegated to museum storage, where they have gathered dust ever since. New American Scenery draws attention to the beauty, significance, and influence of original transferware material while examining the post-industrial 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 that 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.

Raid the Icebox Now is made possible by a lead grant from the National Endowment for the Arts with additional support from the RISD Museum Associates, Judy and Robert Mann, 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

No Image Available

Paul Scott, designer

Sampler Jug No. 1, Stay Dirty, 2019
RISDM 35-052 v_01.jpg

Enoch Wood and Sons, manufacturer

The Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Plate, ca. 1840
RISDM 37-055 v_01.jpg

William Guy Wall, designer

New York from Brooklyn Heights Plate, ca. 1825
RISDM 35-074 v_01.jpg

Ralph Stevenson & Williams, manufacturer

City Hotel, New York Plate, ca. 1835
RISDM 67-241 v_01.jpg

English, Staffordshire

Cup Plate, ca. 1820
RISDM 35-109 v_01.jpg

Enoch Wood and Sons, manufacturer

Castle Garden and Battery, New York Cup Plate, ca. 1840
RISDM 35-216 v_01.jpg

Enoch Wood and Sons, manufacturer

Cup Plate, ca. 1840
RISDM 35-136 v_01.jpg

Joseph Stubbs

State House, Boston Plate, ca. 1827
RISDM 35-223 v_01.jpg

James and Ralph Clews, manufacturer

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Cup Plate, 1825-1830
RISDM 35-151 v_01.jpg

James and Ralph Clews, manufacturer

Pittsfield Elm, Winter View Plate, ca. 1825-1830
RISDM 35-134 v_01.jpg

English

Louisville, Kentucky Platter, ca. 1838
RISDM 16-127 v_01.jpg

Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, manufacturer

Roger Williams Jug, 1886
RISDM 35-264 v_01.jpg

Ralph Stevenson & Williams, manufacturer

Pitcher, ca. 1838
RISDM 35-147 v_01.jpg

Joseph Stubbs

Boston State House, ca. 1827
RISDM 35-243 v_01.jpg

English

Plate, ca. 1825
RISDM 35-093 v_01.jpg

Joseph Stubbs

Fair Mount near Philadelphia Plate, ca. 1827
RISDM 35-195 v_01.jpg

Enoch Wood and Sons, manufacturer

Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast Africa Platter, ca. 1840
RISDM 1987-080 v_01.jpg

Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, manufacturer

Rhode Island Tercentenary Commemorative Plate, 1936
RISDM 2016-102-23 v_01.jpg

Rowland and Marsellus

Transferware Plate with Scenes of Providence, 1894
Z0040686.jpg

Ralph Stevenson & Williams, manufacturer

Washington and Governor Clinton Plate, ca. 1825 - 1827
RISDM 35-094 v_01.jpg

Thomas Green, manufacturer

W. Penn's Treaty Plate, 1830-1859
RISDM 1996-76 v_01.jpg

Buffalo Pottery, manufacturer

Landing of Roger Williams Pitcher, ca. 1907
RISDM 35-185 v_03.jpg

Joseph Stubbs

Sauceboat and Stand, 1790-1830
RISDM 35-076 v_01.jpg

Joseph Stubbs

Philadelphia, Upper Ferry Bridge over the Schuylkill Plate, ca. 1827
RISDM 35-091 v_01.jpg

English

The Dam and Water Works Plate, ca. 1835

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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