AMERICAN LEGENDS OF CERAMIC ART 1975–1995

AMERICAN LEGENDS OF CERAMIC ART 1975–1995

The Barbara and Ed Okun Collection

AMERICAN LEGENDS OF CERAMIC ART 1975–1995 The Barbara and Ed Okun Collection

Rudy Autio (1926–2007) Richard DeVore (1933–2006) Ken Ferguson (1928–2005) John Glick (1938–2017) Wayne Higby (born 1943) Karen Karnes (1925–2016) Warren MacKenzie (1924–2018) Ken Price (1935–2012) Don Reitz (1929–2014) Daniel Rhodes (1911–1989) Rudy Staffel (1911–2002) Toshiko Takaezu (1922–2011) Robert Turner (1913–2005) Peter Voulkos (1924–2002) Beatrice Wood (1893–1998) Betty Woodman (1930–2018)

932 Railfan Road Santa Fe, NM 87505 santafeartauction.com 505.954.5858 @santafeartauction

AMERICAN LEGENDS OF CERAMIC ART: 1975–1995 The Barbara and Ed Okun Collection

A quiet dynamic had taken root in American ceramics in the 1970’s, mainly unnoticed by the larger art world, but visible to those who paid attention. A bridled generation was unleashed with new ideas, concepts and directions in American ceramics.

Ceramic art can be found in every art gallery and museum in 2020, often created by high profile artists with massive studios, offering ceramics among their oeuvre. However these artists’ interest in ceramics grew from the foundation set by the hard and dedicated work of the “specialists,” a generation of creators who worked in only one material, striving for perfection and invention and respect as artists. Making pottery outside the perceived norm took courage. This was particularly true for the women artists. To even think that a “pot” could transcend its function was heresy. Sheer determination by this generation would finally change the country’s appreciation of ceramics forever and 21st century artists would reap the benefits.

It is no surprise that this group of artists were all born between the World Wars. By the late 1950’s there would evolve a new confidence among Americans, a “can do” approach and an optimistic forward outlook to the future. The artists working in clay would have had the same foundation of education and training: endless hours of wedging clay, preparing materials, grappling with the wheel, centering, the chemistry of glazing and controlling the firing. It took a lot of work just to become familiar enough with the material to then make it your own, if you could. For those who feel the power of the clay, there is no other material and their commitment is unwavering.

Americans are mavericks, always ready to trail blaze and discover the next frontier, wanting more and willing to work for it. Most of all they want their voice recognized. To limit creativity is a sin and none of these artists was going to be that kind of sinner. Coming into a new awakening, they were growing conceptually, while still having their hands firmly planted in the clay.

There was no critical audience yet, no shadow hanging over them and influencing them in any way. They were filled with their own discipline and refined skills, and through simple “benign neglect” their creativity was pure. America was seeing the birth of its ceramic art.

Exposure came next. Museums and curators were ready. First out was the massive, mind-blowing “Objects: USA,” an amazing collection from the Johnson Wax family showing American craft at its finest. Curated by Lee Nordness, the exhibition traveled for years to every corner of the country, giving Americans their first glimpse of a new age of craft. The catalog from this seminal show remains vital today.

It would be almost a decade before the next blockbuster exhibition, “A Century of Ceramics in the United States: 1878-1978.” Curated by Garth Clark and Margie Hughto, this show opened at the Everson Museum in Syracuse and then traveled for years. A film of the exhibition narrated by Orson Welles looped endlessly on PBS, influencing generations and is still running to this day. The catalog from the “Century of Ceramics” show became the collector’s bible and remains an essential reference, cited in any significant study of ceramics published today.

“The Contemporary American Potter” opened in 1980 at the University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art (now the Stanley Museum of Art). Garth Clark’s exhibition focused solely on the American Potter and astounded audiences by demonstrating pottery’s potential as an art form on its own terms. After touring for nearly

three years by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES), the show left audiences wanting more.

Collectors and dealers, a special group who understood what was happening and wanted to share it with their local clientele and friends, led to further development for American ceramics. They were few but dedicated, and their connection with the artists ran deep.

In 1973 Barbara Okun opened her first gallery in St Louis, showcasing contemporary paintings, sculpture, and eventually ceramics. In 1979 she formed a partnership with Sissy Thomas, opening the Okun-Thomas Gallery and adding more masters of ceramic art. Having rotating exhibitions for nearly a decade, Okun-Thomas brought to St Louis not only the artwork, but also the artists, who would then have the opportunity to meet the collectors who appreciated and acquired their work. Strong relationships would grow between all, keeping this world friendly and supportive. One piece in the Okun’s collection, Betty Woodman’s “St Louis Carp Platter,” inspired by the colorful fish at the Missouri Botanical garden, earned its name after being used to serve carp at one of the opening receptions.

Starting their collecting in the late 1950’s, Barbara and her husband Ed assembled a collection of work in all mediums, but there was a special “vein of gold” in the ceramics they acquired. In 1991 the couple moved to the Santa Fe community of Tesuque, where they, working with the architect Charles F. Johnson, created a uniquely sculpted contemporary Pueblo style home overlooking the New Mexican Badlands. This majestic home showcased the collection with incredible sensitivity, taking you from room to room, always with a scenic view on one side and a point of view in art on the other.

Barbara and Ed opened the Okun Gallery of Contemporary Art in Santa Fe in 1992 and continued exhibiting their aesthetic to a new part of the country. Barbara passed away in 2007 and Ed eventually divided his time between downtown Santa Fe and the home in Tesuque where the collection remained installed until this year.

Living in town, Ed had more access to the art world he loved, the museum and gallery openings, dinners with artists, and Santa Fe friends. Ed passed away in 2019. A beloved couple, Barbara and Ed Okun will both be remembered as part of the original Santa Fe inner art circle.

Barbara and Ed Okun played a national role in the evolution of ceramic art and contemporary craft. Working on the Boards at numerous institutions for over two decades, and introducing new art in Barbara’s three galleries, they were key figures in the development of a greater sophistication in the field. Barbara launched many artists who are now considered masters in their respective fields and their dedication to assisting younger artists helped to ensure that future generations would grow.

This opportunity to look into a captured slice of late 20th century American ceramic art will not happen again. Seeing this American aesthetic, still together with artworks that speak to one another of time, place and ambition, is something that usually only happens in museums. This catalog of the Barbara and Ed Okun Ceramics Collection attempts to capture and keep alive a memory of what Americans can achieve. Whether they create the work or support the artist, they all contribute to the virtues of American life.

Mark Del Vecchio, Curator

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RUDY AUTIO (1926 –2007)

“There was an energy in the air. We were all part of that influence – hailed by critics as a new wave in ceramic art.”

Creating large and impressive stoneware vessels, Rudy Autio merged Western folklore with a sensuous and gestural drawing style that likened his work to Fine Art Masters Chagall and Matisse.

Few ceramists of the time were colorists and Autio, working out of Montana his entire career, brought bold colors to his slab-built two-sided vessels, a double canvas of floating women and horses.

Rudy Autio Girl Tossed by Reindeer, 1981 stoneware with iridescent glaze 30 x 24 x 18 in. (76.20 x 60.96 x 45.72 cm.)

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RICHARD DEVORE (1933–2006)

“My work didn’t really evolve to any clarity of concept until the mid-1970’s. I chose the format of pottery for allegory, the corporeal, metaphor, and actually more.”

For more than 40 years, DeVore imbued the vessel format with subtle, psychological resonance through his mastery of form, glaze and texture. Limiting himself to only three types of sculptural vessel – tall vases, shallow dishes and slightly deeper bowls – and glazes in tones ranging from black to flesh-tone pinks and beiges, DeVore alluded to the body as well as to landscapes, creating infinite variations on these themes.

Richard DeVore Bowl with Inner Ring, 1981 stoneware with glazes height 7 3/8 x diameter 10 in. (18.73 x 25.40 cm.)

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Richard DeVore Sand Dollar Bowl, 1979 stoneware with glazes height 3 1/4 x diameter 7 1/2 in. (8.26 x 19.05 cm.)

Richard DeVore Torso Form #197, 1979 stoneware with glazes height 13 1/4 x diameter 10 1/2 in. (33.66 x 26.67 cm.)

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KEN FERGUSON (1928–2005)

“What made me change?

Barbara Okun over in St. Louis wanted a show. She had told me a few times ‘you’re an artist’… and I believed it.”

It was the mid-1970’s when Ken Ferguson, after nearly two decades of making strictly functional work, would begin to work more slowly and deliberately, allowing himself to loosen and achieve the physical ease of form he had been seeking. His work has a deliberate awkward grace while intensifying his forms with scale. Always respectful of his functional roots, Ferguson melded figurative and vessel elements into a powerful unified whole.

Ken Ferguson Green Hare Platter, 1993 stoneware with chrome oxide glaze height 4 x diameter 21 1/2 in. (10.16 x 54.61 cm.)

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Ken Ferguson Monumental Teapot, 1983 shino-glazed stoneware 23 x 12 x 9 1/2 in. (58.42 x 30.48 x 24.13 cm.)

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Ken Ferguson Nude with Black Stockings Platter, 1981 salt-glazed porcelain height 2 1/2 x diameter 18 7/8 in. (6.35 x 47.94 cm.)

Ken Ferguson Self Portrait Platter salt-glazed porcelain height 2 1/2 x diameter 17 1/8 in. (6.35 x 43.50 cm.)

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JOHN GLICK (1938–2017)

“I cannot show one piece and say ‘this speaks for my beliefs in clay.’ I am attracted to simplicity, as well as complexity: my work continually reflects my re-examination of how these two poles can coexist.”

In a career spanning over five decades, Glick was perhaps best known for his ever-evolving, innovative one-of-a-kind dinnerware designs, subdued in the Japanese style of pottery.

However in addition to functional ware, Glick also created purely sculptural work since the 1960’s. In the 1990’s he began his “mantel” series of still-life compositions, which he referred to as “a collection of memories.”

John Glick With Hecate…, 1994 stoneware with glazes 34 x 34 x 5 in. (86.36 x 86.36 x 12.70 cm.)

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WAYNE HIGBY (B. 1943)

“Earth, sky, time, light, space: my work is a meditation on the relationship between mind and matter.”

One of the most innovative artists of the post-World War II ceramic studio movement, Wayne Higby’s vision of the American landscape appears in vessel forms that have garnered him international recognition. Dreamlike imagery of canyons and lakes redefine his oversize vessels with sweeping movement of the rim, finished with a refined crackle surface achieved through the raku technique.

Wayne Higby Canyon Bowl, 1977 raku 12 1/2 x 20 1/2 x 14 5/8 in. (31.75 x 52.07 x 37.15 cm.)

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KAREN KARNES (1925 –2016)

“I was fortunate to be in on the beginning of the ceramics movement and to have had the freedom to work from my own impulse.”

Karen Karnes’ remarkable career stretched over more than a half century and she is often identified as a traditionalist due to her adherence to the functional traditions of pottery and her use of salt-glazing and wood-firing. However she is an example of the development of modern art ceramics with her involvement in two innovative communities in the 1950’s and 60’s; Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina and Gatehill College in Stony Brook, New York. In 1967 Karnes would learn salt-firing, working the complicated method for another two decades, making it her own surfacing her distinctive and signature lidded vessels.

Karen Karnes Dark Brown Lidded Vessel, 1976 salt-glazed stoneware height 10 1/4 x diameter 10 in. (26.04 x 25.40 cm.)

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WARREN MACKENZIE (1924–2018)

“It is only when the user feels the presence of the hand of the potter that communication truly exists.”

Apprenticing with famed British potter Bernard Leach in the early 1950’s, Warren MacKenzie created work that was a confluence of Japanese and English folk pottery. Always keeping the connection of pottery form and the human spirit in mind, his works are meant to be used in order to be understood and ultimately appreciated. The Japanese word mingei, means “art of the people”, a word that was at the heart of MacKenzie’s work, striving for beauty born of unself-conscious humility.

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Warren MacKenzie Dessert Serving Set, 1986–1987 stoneware with glazes Grey Plates: diameter 7 in.

Grey Celadon Plates: diameter 7 in.

Oval Bowls: 2 1/4 x 6 1/4 x 5 3/4 in.

Footed Bowls: height 3 x diameter 4 1/2 in.

Cake Serving Plates: diameter 9 in.

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KEN PRICE (1935–2012)

“The cup essentially presents a set of formal restrictions-sort of a preordained structure, it can be used as a vehicle for ideas.”

You cannot pin down Ken Price in any way but to say that for him ceramics was his material of choice.

Evolving through the ceramics world of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, Price worked tirelessly to not be pigeon holed as a potter. But he did love pots and he did love making them. In Price’s work he makes art about pots. As an artist he did not consider himself a potter. In 1978 Price created “Happy’s Curios”, a masterful installation that took four years to produce. The show was both a perceptive statement between the thin shifting line between decorative art and fine art as well as an orchestration of color, surface and line. It is here that the little “tequila cup” was created for a small sampling of the highly intense liquor. These rare gems would gradually find their way into very few hands, frequently a gift of the artist to special friends. The art world would embrace Price in a big way through time but in these two little unassuming cups you can see all the thought and understanding of a understated form by a premier form maker who is now rated as an important American artist.

Ken Price Tequila Cup #32, 1979 earthenware with glazes 2 x 2 1/2 x 1 1/8 in. (5.08 x 6.35 x 2.86 cm.)

Ken Price Tequila Cup #30, 1979 earthenware with glazes 2 x 2 1/2 x 1 1/8 in. (5.08 x 6.35 x 2.86 cm.)

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DON REITZ (1929–2014) “Making pots isn’t about making pots.

What making pots is about is your self – it is a way of life. About the way you think, about the way your mind is; it’s about what has affected you all your life.”

Don Reitz’s work is characterized by a tension between his respect for classical form and a brash, impetuous approach to working with clay. Trained to make classically thrown and delicately glazed pots, over time his work would assume a muscular anarchy. No longer content to rely on the wheel alone, he pushed, pulled and prodded mountains of clay into abstract vessels incised with markings essential and personal to the artist himself.

Don Reitz Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright Platter, 1984 earthenware with glazes height 3 1/4 x diameter 21 1/2 in. (8.26 x 54.61 cm.)

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DANIEL RHODES (1911–1989)

“The ceramic medium has a rich potential. It is so various and adaptable that each culture and each succeeding generation finds in it a new means of expression.”

Daniel Rhodes entered the graduate program at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and in 1942 became the first person to graduate from that school’s Master of Fine Arts ceramics program. Professor Rhodes would then work at Alfred University for the next 25 years sharing his incredible knowledge of all aspects of ceramics creation with generations of students.

His five significant books were the resource of every ceramic artist for decades. Never limited by function, Rhodes large scale works reference and deconstruct the vessel form with high-fired stoneware walls resembling natural erosion.

Daniel Rhodes Untitled, 1977 stoneware 19 x 12 1/4 x 4 3/4 in. (48.26 x 31.12 x 12.07 cm.)

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RUDY STAFFEL (1911–2002)

“Even when I was a painter, I was always interested in light. Something about light coming through glass, wax, or snow. I wanted to achieve a passage of light.”

Beginning his career as a painter, moving into glass and eventually into ceramic, Rudy Staffel used the knowledge he gained to create his unique “Light Gatherers” made of hand constructed porcelain elements, pushed and pulled into variations of translucency. Staffel made his porcelain vessels in an effort to achieve the maximum translucency, the same as with glass or paint. He also manipulated the material via piercing, stretching, folding and even engraving. His works are almost exclusively white, are rarely glazed, and when he occasionally adds color it is limited to blue or green.

Rudy Staffel Light Gatherer Bowl, 1978 porcelain 5 5/8 x 10 1/2 in. (14.29 x 26.67 cm.)

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TOSHIKO TAKAEZU (1922–2011) “You are not an artist simply because you paint or sculpt or make pots that cannot be used. An artist is a poet in his or her own medium. And when an artist produces a good piece, that work has mystery, an unsaid quality; it is alive.”

Toshiko Takaezu studied at the Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan training with the celebrated Finnish ceramist Maija Grotell. In 1964 she set up her studio in semi rural western New Jersey for the next 40 years. Takaezu embraced the notion of ceramic pieces as artworks meant to be seen rather than used, closing off the top of her vessels, leaving a vestigial nipple-like opening and creating a canvas for glazing: brushing, dripping, pouring and dipping. In Takaezu’s surfaces you can see the blended expressive bravura of painters such as Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline combined with the calm, meditative expression of Japanese pottery.

Toshiko Takaezu White Closed Vessel, 1979 stoneware with glazes height 10 1/4 x diameter 8 3/4 in. (26.04 x 22.23 cm.)

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Toshiko Takaezu Tall Closed Vessel, 1979 stoneware with glazes height 23 1/4 x diameter 9 in. (59.06 x 22.86 cm.)

Toshiko Takaezu Dark Closed Vessel, 1979 stoneware with glazes height 8 1/4 x diameter 6 in. (20.96 x 15.24 cm.)

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ROBERT TURNER (1913–2005) “What I wanted was something you couldn’t tell whether it was being supported by the lower piece or springing from the lower piece. There was an uncertainty about it.

It brings the ephemeral in, I think, and the mystic, the mystical. And that’s where I wanted to go.”

Achieving near perfection in his pottery by the mid 1960’s, Robert Turner began to reconfigure the essential geometry of the pot. With form no longer following function, Turner became a leading maker of organically abstract “art” pots during the 1970s and 80’s. Drawn by the power of African sculpture, Turner traveled to Nigeria and Ghana, which proved transformational. West Africa moved him deeply by the way in which art was ingrained in daily experience and by the beauty of traditional forms of architecture, pottery, ceremonial objects and decoration. After his return Turner began to produce a series of distinctive vessel forms named after African kingdoms and peoples— Ashanti, Ife, Akan. Limiting his vocabulary to a handful of distinctive shapes Turner also restricted the colors and glazes to three basic hues: blue-black, red-brown, and tones of white. Surfaces are often sandblasted creating chromatic variations and inviting tactile surfaces.

Robert Turner Akan, 1981 stoneware with glaze height 12 3/4 x diameter 10 1/2 in. (32.39 x 26.67 cm.)

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Robert Turner Ashanti Lidded Jar, 1979 stoneware with glaze height 11 3/4 x diameter 9 3/4 in. (29.85 x 24.77 cm.)

Robert Turner Dome, 1982 stoneware with glaze height 8 1/2 x diameter 8 in. (21.59 x 20.32 cm.)

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Robert Turner Circle to Square Bowl, 1978 stoneware with glaze Dimensions: 6 1/4 x 9 1/4 x 9 1/8 in

Robert Turner Ife, 1982 stoneware with glaze Vessel: 13 3/4 x 10 in. (34.93 x 25.40 cm.), Key: 6 1/2 x 6 x 1/2 in. (16.51 x 15.24 x 1.27 cm.)

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Robert Turner White Sea Form, 1978 stoneware with glaze height 8 1/2 x diameter 8 1/2 in. (21.59 x 21.59 cm.)

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PETER VOULKOS (1924–2002)

“Clay is a very intimate material.

It’s very fast-moving, it has silence, and it is immediately responsive to the touch.”

The enfant terrible of ceramics, Peter Voulkos is the Father of the American abstract expressionist ceramics movement of the mid to late 1950’s. After working solely in metal from 1965–74, Voulkos shifted gears in the mid-70’s and concentrated on two basic ceramic forms: the “stack pots” and his large “platters”, both exuberantly thrown thick walled works with surface drawing of incisions and pass-thru’s. Voulkos’s hands embodied his ceramic knowledge; his physical strength combined with his poking and prodding of the clay, his work has a unique and personal aggressive quality.

Either at the wheel or just shaping clay by hand as in his “Kiln Doll”, a bronze casting of a ceramic form he rarely let out of his studio, Voulkos remains the true rebel of the American ceramics movement of the 20th century.

Peter Voulkos Kiln Doll, 1992 bronze 10 x 4 3/4 x 2 3/8 in. (25.40 x 12.07 x 6.03 cm.)

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BEATRICE WOOD (1893–1998)

“There’s an intoxication when your hands are there and the clay comes up.

It beats almost anything else.”

Although born in the 19th century, Beatrice Wood had the outlook of the artists 30 years her junior. Beginning as an actress and then a painter, Wood’s career ran alongside the entire 20th century. Her involvement with the Dada Movement labels her the Mama of Dada and her relationship with Marcel Duchamp spanned the artist’s life. Witnessing the art world firsthand at the early part of the 20th century, Wood would live to 105 years old, passing away in 1998. At the age of 40 Wood began her ceramics career initially taking night classes at Hollywood High School in California. Always appreciating but never wanting to create the tightly thrown and formal ceramics of her latter tutors, Gertrud and Otto Natzler, Wood created historical ceremonial vessels that undulated and moved. Surfaced with rich deep in-glaze lusters discovered through endless experiments of glaze chemistry, her work uses light sculpturally. A spirit like no other, Wood remains unique in her approach and execution that always transcends time and place.

Beatrice Wood Tall Green Gold Luster Bottle #28, 1982 earthenware with luster glazes height 11 1/2 x diameter 5 1/2 in. (29.21 x 13.97 cm.)

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Beatrice Wood Large Liquid Gold Luster Chalice, 1982 earthenware with luster glazes height 10 1/4 x diameter 10 1/8 in. (26.04 x 25.72 cm.)

Beatrice Wood Double Handled Blue Green Luster Bottle, 1988 earthenware with luster glazes height 6 3/4 x diameter 5 in. (17.15 x 12.70 cm.)

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Beatrice Wood Vessel with Masks, 1983 earthenware with crate and luster glazes height 8 1/2 x diameter 8 in. (21.59 x 20.32 cm.)

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BETTY WOODMAN (1930 –2018)

“I think I’m sort of happy to call myself a potter, but it’s a different thing if you call me a potter.”

Betty Woodman’s work reflects a strong interest in and commitment to the traditions of pottery.

No matter the source of her inspirations, Woodman’s prime commitment is to the nature of clay itself. The forms she selects, the surfaces and structures are all chosen to exploit fully clay’s plasticity and to keep the first wet, soft forms alive in the “memory” of the fired piece. In pursuit of this freshness of surface and form Woodman became one of the most facile manipulators of clay in America, building her work with exclusively thrown elements, forming handles and adding surface ornament with seeming effortlessness and speed. Steeped in the history of ceramics, Woodman takes freely from ancient Greece, Rome, China, Islamic design, European Decorative Arts and the work of such Fine Art Masters as Matisse and Picasso. In 2006 Woodman would achieve the ultimate acclaim, a retrospective show at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the first such retrospective for a living, female ceramist.

Betty Woodman Camellia Pillow Pitcher, 1982 white earthenware with glazes 18 x 20 x 12 1/2 in. (45.72 x 50.80 x 31.75 cm.)

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Betty Woodman Futuristic Bread Basket, 1981 white earthenware with glazes 8 1/2 x 28 x 8 1/2 in. (21.59 x 71.12 x 21.59 cm.)

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Betty Woodman Fast Food Server, 1981 white earthenware with glazes 10 x 18 x 10 in. (25.40 x 45.72 x 25.40 cm.)

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Betty Woodman St. Louis Carp Platter, 1982 white earthenware with glazes 2 1/2 x 31 1/4 x 11 in. (6.35 x 79.38 x 27.94 cm.)

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Betty Woodman Italian Basket, 1980 white earthenware with glazes 12 1/2 x 15 x 6 1/2 in. (31.75 x 38.10 x 16.51 cm.)

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Betty Woodman Triple Pillow Vessel, 1975 white earthenware 9 1/2 x 21 x 8 1/2 in. (24.13 x 53.34 x 21.59 cm.)

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Barbara and Ed Okun

932 Railfan Road Santa Fe, NM 87505 505.954.5858 curator@santafeartauction.com santafeartauction.com