REVIEW
Left:
Three Forms,
2002
salt-glazed stoneware
20.5 x 4.5 in. (left)
30.5 x 6.25 in. (center)
23-5 x 6.25 in. (right)
Above:
Teapot,
1957
glazed stoneware
5.5 x11.5 x8 m.
M odernism
A s It W as
M eant to Be
r e v i e w b y
RobertSilberm an
A Chosen Path: The Ceramic
Art of Karen Karnes
Ceramics Research Center
A S U A rt Museum
Tempe, Arizona
September 17,2010 - January 8 ,2011
asuartmuseum.asu.edu
W H AT BECOMES A LEGEND M OST?
Karen Karnes is more than
admired in the ceramics world;
she is beloved. She has won
respect for the exceptional quality
of her work and for her generosity
of spirit as a teacher and an artist.
“A Chosen Path: The Ceramic
Art of Karen Karnes,” curated by
Peter Held and first presented at
the Ceramics Research Center at
Arizona State University before
embarking on its two-year nation-
al tour, is a reminder of what a
pleasure it can be to encounter,
in person, the full range of work
created by such a figure.
Ceramics historian Garth
Clark’s foreword to the catalog
(edited by Mark Shapiro and
featuring an outstanding group
of writers) goes right to the heart
of the matter by emphasizing
that Karnes is a modernist first,
last, and always. From a few
striking pots made six decades
ago while she was in Italy to
recent works such as
Three
Forms
(2002) that blend the func-
tional and the figural, there is an
artful simplicity in her work.
It’s not just pure modernism but
purist modernism - appealing,
complex, and powerful.
The biographical facts that
make Karnes so fascinating,
such as her upbringing in a
politically progressive family
and, in particular, her time at
Black Mountain College and
at the Gate Hill Cooperative at
Stony Point, New York (with
M .C. Richards, John Cage, and
David Tudor), don’t necessarily
help all that much when one is
confronted with her work.
Karnes is not identifiable as a
Black Mountain College or
Stony Point ceramist beyond
what Clark calls her “restless,
reinventing avant-garde spirit.”
In spite of her admiration for
the Abstract Expressionist
painters, she is not an Abstract
Expressionist either, at least not
in the Peter Voulkos fashion.
Some of her earliest pots
could be mistaken for work
made by others; they are well-
executed examples of mid-
century modernism that only
hint at her artistic personality.
As the Karnes style emerges,
with its full volumes, carefully
gauged proportions and pro-
files, and enlivening touches
- the loop-de-looping handles
on her classic casseroles, the
030 american craft apr/may 11
www.downmagaz.com
Photos: Anthony Cunha
