z o
o
m
B ooks
In Tour Face
C onfrontational Ceram ics:
T h e A r tis t as Social C ritic
B y Judith Sch w artz
A & C Black
London, England
U niversity o f Pennsylvania
Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
$55
w w w .pennpress.org
A little girl toting a machine
gun, a man on all fours in a
rolling circus cage w ith knives
embedded in his back and the
head o f a man w ith a gas pump
nozzle stuffed in his mouth—
these are ju st a fe w o f the “ in
your face” images among the
provocative w orks by more than
200 artists from 30 countries
assembled by Judith Schw artz
in this overview o f a seemingly
growing and immensely varied
area o f ceramic sculpture.
Schw artz, an associate profes-
sor in the art departm ent at
N ew Y ork U niversity w ho
has been engaged by such works
since her dissertation, has
grouped the sculptures, rather
elastically, by them e—war
and politics, the social and hu-
man condition, gender issues,
the environm ent, and popular
and material culture. Am ong
the artists are such well-known
figures as V ik to r Schrecken-
gost, R obert Arneson, Akio
Takam ori and H oward K ottler
(a m entor to Schw artz), but
m any lesser-known and newer
talents appear as well. T h e ap-
proaches range from satire, such
as Ian Anderson’s
Cleaner than
Mar.
2005 © , to grotesque, as in
Richard Lipscher’s
Watfare
Mask # 2,
1981©.
A sid e from S ch w artz’s in-
troduction and b rief discus-
sions o f each them e, the texts
belong to the m akers, w ith
each piece accom panied by the
artist’s explanation o f the
feelings and beliefs prom pting
the w ork. A m oving exam ple
is T o n y H epburn’s about his
w ork
Bed,
2005, one o f a series
made since is w ife died o f can-
cer in 2003. “ T h e fact is, I had
no choice; I had to make this
w ork. On a bed made w ith mor-
phine b ottle legs, a rugged
clay vessel ‘protects’ a fragile
porcelain vessel. I think the
m etaphor is obvious.”
T o give a sense o f the scope
o f the subject m atter, w e go
from this p ain fu lly personal
w ork to w hat would seem to
be an up-to-the-m inute com -
ment on the catastrophic finan-
cial situation facing m illions
o f Am ericans today, Cheryl
T a il’s
Debt Monster from House-
hold Series,
2001, a terra-cotta
dw elling w ith a grotesque head
and arms em erging from the
ro o f and squeezing it. “ In a tem -
pestuous tim e w hen w e need
to find sanctuary in our hom es,”
the artist w rites, “ w e can find
only destitution, danger and
unease.”—
b . s .
The book accompanied an exhibi-
tion at the IVestChester Arts
Council’s Arts Exchange in M'hite
Plains, New Tork, one o f 68
exhibitions and a symposium spear-
headed by Schwartz that were
staged throughout Westchester
County last fall under the rubric
“A ll Fired Up. ”
M T /M issoula
T h e C la y Studio o f M issoula:
International Cup
Feb. 6 -2 4
www.theclavstudioofmis
soula.org
Ceram ists offer a visual stimu-
lus package w ith or without
the coffee.
N M / Santa Fe
Santa F e C lay:
Abstraction
Feb. 27-M ar. 28
w w w .santafeclav.com
Paring form s to their essential
elements, 30 ceramists craft
rich and varied abstract shapes.
© N Y / N ew York
C o o p er-H ew itt, N ational
D esign M useum :
Fashioning Felt
M ar. 6 -S e p t. 7
w w w .coop erh ew itt.o rg
T h is fabric has appeal in objects
from a range o f fields, including
fashion—such as Christine
Birkl’s
Dress and Jacket—
archi-
tecture and furnishings.
N C / Asheville
B lue S p iral 1:
National IVood Invitational
M ar. 5 -A p r. 25
w w w .bluespirali.com
Leading w ood artists offer
a form idable array o f personal
vision and technical expertise.
026 american craft feb/maro9
