Themes

Themes - Fractured Vessels


QTVR OBJECT (624k)

Much of the collection is concerned with the analysis of the vessel, which involves both a literal and theoretical deconstruction of the object. Physical fragmentation takes place in Christopher Staley's Dark Side Teapot and Angus Suttie's Green Vessel Form. Many vessels resemble Cubist paintings as their forms have been fractured into multiple planes-Caruso's Amore e Psiche and Edward Eberle's Demonstrative Teapot V. Complex forms are made more so with surface decoration in Jeff Perrone's abstract teapot and Paul Mathieu's dish set that literally creates a painting when arranged properly. Here, form and surface are used to create alternate realities in the same object.

Another study in perception is Howard Kottler's Paisley Cup wherein form is subordinate to pattern and its optical effects. Form is a primary expression of artistic content, whereas decoration is not. Kottler's reversal of art and craft hierarchy points to ceramists' struggles in gaining art world acceptance. Representing ceramic tradition, the cup and other functional forms provided a model for contemporary expression. Ron Nagle and Ken Price are noted for their abstractions of the cup that blend painting with sculpture and formalism with hobby art. Other artists such as Kathi Müller-B-, Tony Hepburn, and Ron Baron use found objects to define ceramic art. Their juxtapositions of broken porcelain, slip-cast laundry bottles and flea-market china chAllange notions of hierarchy and evolution when the raw becomes the refined and the mass-produced becomes the handmade.

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The Mint Museum of Craft + Design is supported by the Annual Fund Drive of the Arts & Science Council - Charlotte/Mecklenburg, Inc.; the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency; the City of Charlotte; and its members.