Shapes from out of nowhere : ceramics from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. collection.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ellison, Robert A., Jr., collector.

Spinozzi, Adrienne, writer of introduction.

Adamson, Glenn, writer of supplementary textual content.

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), host institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art pottery--20th century--Exhibitions.

Art pottery.

Ceramic sculpture--20th century--Exhibitions.

Ceramic sculpture.

Pottery--20th century--Exhibitions.

Pottery.

Pottery--Private collections--New York (State)--New York--Exhibitions.

Art--Private collections.

Pottery--Private collections.

New York (State)--New York.

Genre:

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

271 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 32 x 26 cm

Other Title:

Ceramics from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. collection

Place of Publication:

New York : August Editions, 2021.

Summary:

An overview of 20th-century non-representational ceramics from the earliest years of the modernist revolution to the postwar period through to the present, Shapes From Outta Nowhere features over 150 works from New York City-based collector Robert Ellison. It explores the featured artists' rejection of symmetrical, utilitarian forms in clay in favor of the sculptural and abstract, and challenges the boundaries between function, non-function, design, drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture. Built over a period of 40 years, this collection reflects the personal and discerning eye of a collector focused on the exploration of shape and form. Ellison's introduction to abstraction in clay was the work of George E. Ohr, whose late 19th-century creations represent the first shift in a challenge to form itself. Ohr was the catalyst for this new direction in clay, and his vision foreshadows 20th-century postwar experimentation in fine art. The book showcases the sculptures by Ohr along with artists from the second half of the 20th century to the present, including works by Axel Salto, Ken Price, and Peter Voulkos, the progenitor of the American studio movement.

Contents:

Essays.

Introduction / Adrienne Spinozzi

Off balance, on form / Glenn Adamson

Shapes from out of nowhere / Robert A. Ellison Jr.

Artist biographies / Elizabeth Essner

Collection.

Taking shape

Budding variations

Tangles, limbs

Architectural moves

Reaching up

Fluidity, impulse

Primal clay

Refined, ruinous

Function / non-function

The folded gesture.

Notes:

Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 22-August 29, 2021.

Artists include: Robert Arneson ; Rudy Autio ; F. Carlton Ball ; Lynda Benglis ; Kate Blacklock ; Aaron Bohrod ; Nina Borgia-Aberle ; Alison Britton ; Kathy Butterly ; Peter Callas ; Syd Carpenter ; Cristina Carver ; Katherine Choy ; Dieter Crumbiegel ; William Daley ; Elisa D'Arrigo ; Harris Deller ; Richard De Vore ; Kim Dickey ; Gary DePasquale ; Ruth Duckworth ; Raymon Elozua ; Gary Erickson ; Ken Ferguson ; Amara Geffen ; John Gill ; Chris Gustin ; Babs Haenen ; Ewen Henderson ; Wayne Higby ; Margaret Ponce Israel ; Karen Karnes ; Howard Kottler ; Gregory Kuharic ; Anne Marie Laureys ; Gareth Mason ; John Mason ; Leza McVey ; Jim Melchert ; Jørgen Mogensen ; Ursula Morley Price ; Gertrud Natzler ; Otto Natzler ; Win Ng ; William Parry ; Ken Price ; Aneta Regel ; Jacquelyn Rice ; Mary Rogers ; John Rohlfing ; Stanley Rosen ; Jerry Rothman ; Axel Salto ; Brad Schwieger ; Koike Shōko ; Paul Soldner ; Rudolf Staffel ; Christopher Staley ; Susanne Stephenson ; Geoffrey Swindell ; Toshiko Takaezu ; Irvin Tepper ; Kyoko Tonegawa ; Robert Turner ; Peter Voulkos ; Frans Wildenhain ; Marguerite Wildenhain ; Betty Woodman ; William Wyman ; Arnie Zimmerman.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781947359062

1947359061

OCLC:

1164391378