Left:
B ucket Vessel,
2007, wheel-thrown
and altered terra-cotta
with slips and glaze
{h. 7 in, w.
it
in,d. 9 in).
E r t e m a n ’s s u r f a c e a p p lic a tio n s
c o n s p ir e in th e c r e a tio n o f th e
p a in t e r ly r e s u lt, a lb e it o n e th a t
n o m e r e p a in te r c o u ld r e p r o d u c e .
at commercial outlets such as Barneys. Ertem an also created a set
o f lim ited edition carved nested bow ls for T iffa n y ’s as part o f a
special m arketing program for handmade objects in the manner o f
Louis Tiffany. She now designs tableware only on commission, or
on a consultancy basis, as she did for Crate and Barrel, working with
a factory in Thailand. Throughout her career, she has maintained
her studio w ork, w hich she sees as bridging the worlds o f design
(planned, intentional) and craft (spontaneous, material driven).
U nlike, say, B etty W oodm an, w hose exuberant, brilliantly
painted deconstructed vessels represent a paradigm o f contem po-
rary art-based ceramics, Erteman adheres to a rigorous purity o f
form , in which functionality, though retained, w orks as a transcen-
dent concept. There is no pretension to sculpture, but the sensibility
is there, nonetheless. T h e restraint Erteman shows in her w ork ex-
tends to her palette, long restricted to black and w hite and neutrals.
N ow touches o f ochre and, more dramatically, a vivid Y ves Klein
blue are being used for some pieces. “ I am a person not interested
in blue at all,” says Ertem an, but “ for some reason I w as interested
in that inky indigo as related to black.”
Erteman’s skills as a ceramist, along with her generosity o f spirit,
have led her into teaching—at G reenwich House Pottery, the Brook-
lyn M useum and as artist in residence at the Am erican School in
Singapore. In a project funded by
u s a i d ,
she has also traveled to the
Tibetan Autonomous Region in Yunnan, China, under the auspices
o f A id to A rtisans, an organization that helps connect artisans in
em erging nations w ith their market. T h is project, operated in con-
junction w ith the M ountain Institute, w hich supports mountain
cultures worldwide, brought Erteman to the Tibetan plateau, where
for tw o w eeks she w orked w ith local potters w hose hand-built,
pit-fired black N ixi pottery has been made the same w ay for 2,000
years. T h e object o f the program w as to help the potters—“ T h ey
have no w heels and little electricity,” explains Ertem an—improve
their wares for the new market o f Chinese tourists who increasingly
flood these form erly unreachable regions. Ertem an taught them
h ow to apply slip, make the pot lids fit better and keep the bottom s
flat. She also conceived the idea for a n ew design based on the
famous black and w hite agate d zi bead, w hich Tibetans revere for
its believed amuletic properties. Ertem an cut out paper templates
for vases that delighted the potters, w ho could then hand-build
them. T h e resemblance, in concept, to Ertem an’s early black and
w h ite carved pieces is undeniable, evidence perhaps that ceram ic
art, good design and art itself derive as much from organic, even
intuitive, sources as from rationality and craft.
Andrea DiNoto is a New 'York-based writer on art, craft and design.
+
K ath y Ertem an’s w orks w ill be on view at G reenw ich House
Pottery in N ew York C ity (O ctober 5 - Novem ber 15) and the
CAS
G allery o f Kean U niversity in Union, N ew Jersey (Novem ber 3 -
Decem ber 27). KathyErtem an.com .
objects such as incense
holders and candlehold-
ers for domestic spiritual
use. But what really res-
onated with the potters
was Erteman’s idea for
a vase based on the dzi
bead that Tibetans re-
vere. “1 learned that the
potters were extremely
receptive to new ideas
and designs as long as
they were Tibetan in
spirit, that is, relevant
to Tibetan culture in
someway.”
Gaining the potters’
confidence so that she
was invited to sit on
their side of the bench,
Erteman (in red vest)
was also able to show
them how to improve
their craftsmanship,
making lids that fit bet-
ter and creating smooth-
er surfaces and flat bot-
toms. Their pots were
displayed and sold in a
room next to the work-
ing studio.
Though Erteman had
the services of a transla-
tor, Sunn Uo (woman
with white hat), in
many ways she found
that communication was
not a problem. “Crafts-
man to craftsman we un-
derstood each other.
Our daily practice and
how we saw the world
was basically similar.
Whether you’re on the
Tibetan Plateau or in
New York City, we
were all committed to
the life of making ceram-
ics. We were able to
understand that with-
out words.”*
044 american craft aug/sepo?
