in retrospect
Ed’s Homestead studio, 2016
in r e tr os pec t
Society for Contemporary Craft Pittsburgh, PA September 9, 2016–March 11, 2017
The Clay Studio Philadelphia, PA March 31– May 28, 2017
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft Houston, TX June 16–September 2, 2017
Edward Eberle Retrospective is made possible by the Jack Buncher Foundation, The Fine Foundation, Cohen & Grigsby, Ted Rowland, BNSF Railway Foundation, and media sponsors WESA and WYEP. Additional support is provided by the Allegheny Regional Asset District, the Elizabeth R. Raphael Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Richard King Mellon Foundation, and the Windgate Foundation. (As of July 2016)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Since its inception in 1971, providing critical support for artists has been at the heart of the work of the Society for Contemporary Craft. Founder Betty Raphael cared deeply about creating exhibitions and sales opportunities that would allow artists to make a livelihood while supporting their creation of new work. Over 45 years, our organization has continued this commitment. Given the desire to showcase as many innovative, high-quality artists in the field as possible, we have tended toward thematic and juried group shows such as the Raphael Prize series. Only a rare handful of artists have been given the entire gallery for a solo show, among them seminal individuals including Peter Voulkos, Lenore Tawney, Nick Cave, and Mr. Imagination. The presence of an artist of Ed’s stature in our city over many decades presented a singular opportunity and an imperative —to honor the impressive breadth and depth of his career with a retrospective as well. A series of intimate conversations about how the show might take shape began on an icy December morning in 2015 in Ed’s Homestead, PA studio. Surrounded by objects on all sides of his large, industrial workspace, Ed reflected on key moments of change and growth as embodied in the vessels before us. Certain objects spoke eloquently of critical turning points. The stories he shared offered insight into the courage that is required for artistic risk-taking and growth over the span of a career, particularly for an artist who is also a husband and father. A key transition took place in 1985 when Ed made the choice to leave behind a monthly paycheck as a teaching artist in order to commit to full-time studio work. “I stumbled into the black and white process,” he said, “and the idea
2
came up. If I do this, I won’t make any money. But I wanted to stay in the studio.”
Pushing further with the work, he described trying to feel his way around with the developing direction of the form. The “magic of the moment” as Ed put it, occurred when he began to concentrate solely on black and white work. Critical feedback received during the 1985 Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh confirmed that he should continue in this direction. Working with the early black and white pieces, he began to evolve from the potter’s conscience of “How many pots can I make in a day?” to questions of “What kind of form will demand of me to work on it for one day or two days?” or “What form would take a week to paint?”
A connection through a former student led to a 1986 trip to New York City where he showed a piece of the black and white work to renowned designer and craft connoisseur Jack Lenor Larson. Larson immediately called Paul Smith, head curator at American Craft Museum, who selected Ed’s work for the influential American Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical. Ed’s work was shown side-by-side with major ceramists of the time including Karen Karnes, Byron Temple, Ken Ferguson, Otto Natzler, and Beatrice Wood, launching Ed onto the national craft scene and a remarkable career. Over the years Ed’s work has evolved through a wideranging exploration of form language —larger and larger scale works, deconstructed forms, conversations between drawings and three-dimensional pieces —but it has remained true to a focus on the human figure. I am fascinated by the way in which highly complex painted figures evolve from his intuitive mark-making process. Out of an initial mark, an entire universe springs to life. For me, personally, many interests intersect on the surfaces of his pots—psychology, the collective unconscious, myth, and
the imagery of dreams. Yet, although these sensuous figures may invite associations from viewers like me, Ed stresses that they are not narrative. “While viewers can build a narrative on my work,” Ed explains, “it’s still imagistic. The act of making,” he states, “that’s where the figures come from, from the process.” Ed’s art extends beyond the visual to music and poetry; several of his poems are included in this catalogue. I particularly like this line from his poem, Clarity in the Dark: “Poetry, as art, is making being from non-being.” The Edward Eberle Retrospective beautifully amplifies this concept, inviting us to bear witness to the exceptional being that has been brought into our lives through this one particular artist’s hand. I want to recognize the significant contributions of our dedicated staff to this project, particularly Director of Exhibitions Kate Lydon and Natalie Sweet, Exhibitions/ Program Assistant, who shepherded this show from that initial conversation through every stage of the project with great care, dedication, sensitivity, and professionalism.
Finally, kudos to designer Paul Schifino, who brought his distinctive artistic sensibility to the book’s design, and photographer Adam Milliron who beautifully documented Ed’s work. The Edward Eberle Retrospective is made possible by the Jack Buncher Foundation, The Fine Foundation, Cohen & Grigsby, Ted Rowland, BNSF Railway Foundation, and media sponsors WESA and WYEP. Additional support is provided by the Allegheny Regional Asset District, the Elizabeth R. Raphael Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Richard King Mellon Foundation, and the Windgate Foundation. —Janet McCall Executive Director
Our thanks as well to Graham Shearing, who played a crucial role in encouraging and supporting this idea from its inception, and developed a companion teapot book. A 20-year project, The Teapot Book: Variations on the Theme, which consists of a selection of Ed’s drawings that have been made into limited editions of high quality prints that provide key insight into an artist’s thinking. I would also like to acknowledge the Jack Buncher Foundation for their lead support in making it possible for us to provide this showcase in a way that Ed’s career and work deserve. Our appreciation as well to our esteemed essay contributors—Peter Held, David Lewis, Rachel Delphia, Graham Shearing, Ian Thomas, and to the collectors who generously lent work, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, William Versaw, and Andy Lang.
3
IT’S NOT JUST BLACK AND WHITE: The Ceramics of Edward Eberle
Potters have made pictures on clay, recording the flow of human history and stories, since time immemorial. This approach accelerated in the 1960s and 1970s, when many ceramic artists shifted from making functional vessels to using clay as a canvas for decoration, autobiographical expressions, or social and cultural commentary. Rudy Autio (1926–2007) led the way, drawing upon his Finnish heritage and life in the West to create paintings in the round; their horses and woman flowing and cascading over the shifting terrain of his asymmetric vessels. Michael Frimkess (b. 1937) and wife Magdelina Suarez Frimkess (b. 1929), favored a postmodernist approach, appropriating and decorating Grecian pottery forms with collaged pop imagery. Inspired by the bold graphics of modern Japanese woodcuts, Akio Takamori (b.1950) filled the inner and outer surfaces of his signature envelope forms with images from world mythologies—both real and imagined— to upend traditional visual perspectives of the vessel. More recently, artists like David Regan, Jason Walker and Sergei Isupov have shown how deft hands, vivid imaginations and their own stories can transform works as wide-ranging as tureens, platters, sculptural busts and animal forms. What binds these highly varied artists is their preference for porcelain or white earthenware. A temptress for royalty, artists and consumers alike, porcelain can be a fickle mistress limiting the scale and structural integrity of works. Yet, for the artist Edward Eberle porcelain has been a primary material and muse. The work in the early 1980s was wedded to traditional pottery forms: cups, bowls, plates, and vases, often made on an intimate scale. His forms became increasingly sculptural in the 1990s and beyond, breaking from function. Eberle’s practice is deeply corporeal and firmly embedded in the physicality of the materials used.
4
By 1989, Eberle had established the course of his career in ceramics. His standard approach consisted of handthrowing porcelain vessels and decorating them with figurative imagistic drawings and geometric patterns applied with black ceramic ink, terra sigillata and sgraffito. Schooled at prestigious academic institutions, he drew on his knowledge of ceramic history, synthesizing techniques and inspirations ranging from Grecian and Native American Mimbres pottery to Modern art, recognizing the significance of its history and human associations.
The influence of these historical antecedents can be seen in his, Men with Various Burdens, circa 1988, while his Guitar Player, circa 1989, draws heavily from Picasso’s well known musical theme. Both portend a developing rumination on geometric banding, focusing our attention on figural elements. Text found in his Guitar Player is expanded upon in Watch the Birds, created in 1991, but this seems an anomaly, given his reliance on predominantly image-driven works. In the latter piece the scribed words in his loosely constructed imagery bordering on the abstract blends into a dissolving story. Equally important, the preponderance of the geometric glyphic banding duels with the drawing for our attention. Watch the Birds is a cautionary warning of humankind’s disregard for the environment, a recurring theme in Eberle’s work. Feathers (Fathers), from 1991, carries this geometric patterning to intricate extremes, while the seemingly random arrangement of nude figures strongly suggests ties to Grecian vase painting. As Eberle’s work progresses, we see added elements emerge; transforming standard ceramics forms into more sculptural constructions. Eros and King, made in 1992, exemplifies this. Crowned by a globe, the middle panel is a helter-skelter arrangement of male figures: upended, reclining, and possibly under the spell of
Akio Takamori
Rudy Autio
Laocoon (Woman Reading), 1984
Pow Wow Ponies, 1985
Collection of Arizona State University Art Museum; Gift of Anne and Sam Davis
Collection of Arizona State University Art Museum; Gift of Diane and Sandy Besser Collection
Photo Credit: Courtesy of ASU Art Museum
Photo Credit: Craig Smith
love. Like many of the works in the exhibition, Eros and King does not offer a clear reading. Its story is multilayered and loaded with psychological resonances. His reliance on imagined meanings reflects his long-standing interest in Jungian psychology and the writings of James Hillman, a renowned psychologist. As we witness throughout Eberle’s developing career, his depictions of the human form and associated metaphoric explorations are non-linear and open to interpretation. The artist’s creativity flourishes in the fertile mindscape between the intuitive and the known. Eberle continued to explore drawn representational imagery and geometric banding into the new millennium, yet his ceramic constructions assumed a conceptual bent. Extramural (2000), an architectural temple structure, is violently ruptured, bringing the outside in revealing its dark interior. Creating a dramatic frisson, the breach separates mother and child. A spherical form with transecting lines nests in its murky interior. Is this a symbol of our collective unconscious, a storehouse of intrinsic wisdom which, can be shared by all, or an archetypal symbol of world creation? Despite his more sculptural forays, the artist remains committed to using traditional forms. His Catching Water, Fetching Breath (2007), highlights his continuing drawing prowess, both outside and inside the bowl, and features a traditional kintsugi Japanese repair with gold. Eberle demonstrates his virtuosic skill and spatial mastery by creating space not bounded by the vessel’s wall with dense black interwoven with gradations of greys to unfold an unbroken panorama of humanity. The 40-year evolution of his path from functional craft to more conceptual mixed-media forms parallels the larger shift of the studio field, from pure function to pure expression. Eberle ventures into conceptual art with this mixed media collage of disparate elements. Water (2016), continues a recurring theme in his work, partially derived from one of the key ingredients in the chemical
composition of clay, as well as the human body. We note it’s reappearance in a work of the same year, California Water Jar, exemplifying a shift from stand-alone ceramics to a mix of materials, signifying the artist’s expanded vision. Artists who have chosen to work in clay do so for a variety of reasons: personal concerns, political and social activism, and perhaps a search for a human balance in a progressive all-consuming technological culture. Contemporary narrative content creates dramatic vignettes addressing issues of identity, gender, and alienation. Creative content possesses the potential of emotionally charged, mysterious, unsettling, at times dystopian objects of contemplation. The stories Eberle weaves may not necessarily correlate directly to his own experiences, rather, draw upon universal mythologies and human psycho-dramas. The artist creates a humanitarian stage, unapologetically conveying involvement and detachment, self-expression and transcendence, stoicism and altruism. Objects emit power beyond the limits of their materiality, becoming iconic through shared stories, triggering associative memories. Life hinges between tumultuous and exalted contradictions. Eberle veers away from simple readings of his work; his stream of conscience processionals elicits the dichotomies of an increasingly complex society. —Peter Held, independent curator Phoenix, Arizona
In the course of Peter Held’s impressive three-decade career as a museum director and contemporary art curator, he has organized more than 200 exhibitions, including seven national traveling shows. Held is the editor and essayist for 10 books including Infinite Place: The Ceramic Art of Wayne Higby (2013); Innovation and Change: Ceramics from the ASU Art Museum Collection (2009), and Akio Takamori: Between Clouds of Memory (2005). He has received three of the highest accolades possible within the field from the Friends of Contemporary Ceramics; the Smithsonian’s James Renwick Alliance, and the National Council for Education on the Ceramic Arts. In June, 2014, he retired from his position as curator of ceramics, Arizona State University, Ceramics Research Center, and owns an art appraisal and consulting business.
5
EDWARD EBERLE: Ancient Wizard
I have, in my own collection, a small, almost fragmentary, work by Ed Eberle, a shard, in fact, which he has elevated into a full blown work of art with enigmatic painting, and completed, on the reverse, with his customary signature and date. It reminds me of the great poem ANATHEMATA, by the visionary poet David Jones. The title of that poem is translated as ‘things set aside and consecrated for a deity; offerings devoted to a divinity or to sacred purposes’. I doubt whether in Eberle’s work a deity has any place, but myth and symbol, alchemy, mathematical speculation and, to use the old word for astronomy, ‘celestial mechanics’ come together in his speculations toward his artistic summa. When I think of Ed, as I often do, I see him in his successive studios, in the light, working as if he were an alchemist, or wizard, if you will. He is surrounded by a diminishing perspective of work, in varying stages of completion. A wheel, on which he throws porcelain, is nearby, another desk has a range of paintbrushes he has fashioned himself, magic wands arguably, for his use. Beyond that cabinets of reference pieces, and stacks of ceramic forms, awaiting his paintbrush
6
Ancient Wizard, 1998 Recto and Verso
or to be incorporated into the assembled constructions for which he is known. And further still, flat files of paper and finished paintings, executed with the limited range of pigments he has adopted.
Ancient Wizard, the piece I own, depicts the Wizard, for which I read Maker, surrounded with what printmakers call remarques (another definition: A remarque is a small, personalized drawing or symbol that an artist adds on a print. The presence of a remarque increases the print’s value.) Here are depicted those things set aside for contemplation, smudged, indefinite for the most part, but symbolic: the life of action and the life of the mind brought together. Our wizard is pouring out water from a jug: the piece is dated 1998. Eighteen years later, in this exhibition, his latest work continues to explore this deeply symbolic element. —Graham Shearing Graham Shearing is a writer, collector and critic living in Pittsburgh for nearly thirty years. He has been most recently engaged in the production of an illustrated portfolio of some of Edward Eberle's drawings, variations on the theme and concept of the teapot, which is scheduled to appear at the same time as this exhibition.
7
First Piece, 1984 two views
8
Clockwise from top right:
a Bird, a Fox and a Rabbit, 1985 City/Country, 1985 a Dream, 1985 One Man Cup, 1985
9
City Man with a Cat, 1986
10
Conversations with a cat,
1994
I talk to my cat and she talks right back. But we really don’t say much of anything — no substance, no gist, our jargon consists of mono-syllabic phrases. I love her and she loves me as long as I feed her with praises.
11
Men with Various Burdens, c. 1988
12
Guitar Player, c. 1989 two views
13
The King, The Owl, The Eye and The Pit, 1990
14
Moonrise— a Study of Texture and Form, 1991
15
(Described stream of consciousness on side of round vase) Let a case be made that the birds will inherit the Earth for they will be the only multi celled animal equipped to survive the ravishes done to the planet Earth by man who ought to have known better— but, did not stop. And it does our memory no good to know that it only took the Earth, with the bird’s cooperation, three-3-years to make right all of man’s ignorance. And so it was.
Watch the birds, 1991
16
Feathers (Fathers), 1991
17
re Men: King, Warrior, Lover, Magician, 1991 two views
18
William Tell Father-SonTrust Metaphor, 1991
19
20
Eros and King, 1992 two views
21
Chest, 1993
22
White Box, 1993
23
Unsolved Drawing that Led to Large Porcelains, 1993
24
Various Doors, 1994
25
UNFORGETTABLE:
An Encounter with Ed Eberle
I first met Ed Eberle in March 2007. Rain washed the gritty Pittsburgh silt from Rt. 28 as we darted into the parking lot of an industrial building perched too close to the highway. Many stairs later, we reached his top-floor studio. Water drummed and puddled on the flat roof beyond the windows, and white storm clouds provided the only illumination. The monochrome interior mirrored the city’s shades of gray, but it was punctuated by a plethora of white and black porcelain pots. Ed had a new series of monumental bowls. Two, already fired, rested on banding wheels, poised for examination. A third sat green and vulnerable, a work in progress with ghostly traces of fresh terra sigillata. Ed stood unassumingly and let his work do the talking. Mythical figures covered the interior and exterior surfaces, splashing over the rims as if the scenes were flowing in and out of the vessels. They conjured unspecified antecedents: ancient and elemental. We selected one of the fired bowls, Water (“7 x 95”), to acquire for Carnegie Museum of Art: the fourteenth example of Ed’s work to
26
Water (“7 x 95”), 2006 Porcelain, terra sigillata 9½ x 15½ x 16½ in., Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Helen Johnston Acquisition Fund Photo: Tom Little
enter the collection. We have since added more to a corpus that documents his career for posterity; it is a great pleasure to steward his work. I love encountering it beyond the bounds of Pittsburgh as well, in museums from Charlotte to Los Angeles. Such is the reach of a major artist. I applaud the Society for Contemporary Craft for organizing this publication to celebrate such talent in our midst. Most of all, I congratulate Ed. No one is more deserving of such a tribute. —Rachel Delphia Rachel Delphia is the Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at Carnegie Museum of Art, where she focuses on 20th and 21st century design and craft. Her recent projects include Silver to Steel: the Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk.
27
Birds in a Drop of Water, 1994
28
Twenty-five Years to Bachelard, 1995
29
Handwriting Container, 1996
The Delight of Bending a Line, 1996
30
Double Take Revised, 1998–2014
31
The Satyr and The Nymph, 1998
32
Airy Emanation, 1995
Airy emanation rising majestically in a form of triumphs, of power, of peace... Multitudes of wings fly in support, wings larger than any imagination. The hand of the earth reaches up for the other-worldly speak of what must be man’s knowledge.
33
Extramural, 2000
34
Four Fires, 2000
35
Down by the Stream, 2001
36
022103, 2003
37
Whiplash II Revised, 2005
38
How to Draw Sculpture Figure I, 2006
39
40
Catching Water, Fetching Breath, 2007 five views
41
Figure 20, 2008
42
Point of View, 1990 Excerpt (chorus)
You know you’ve heard this somewhere before. The time and the place you can’t recall. The sign, the shape, the black and white, the colors burn in the back of your mind. Your senses turn, your eyes awake, you can see me.
43
Molecule, 2008
44
#31, 2009
45
DON’T READ THIS— Look at Ed’s Art Instead
We are surrounded by art, even when we don’t realize it— which is most of the time. It is a language we all share. Buildings are art. The streets of our cities are art. Our clothes and tables and dishes and cars are art; and so too is the language we talk and the music we hear. Art is discourse. It is the way we humans speak with one another. If none of us had the capacity to listen or see the languages of artists, art would cease to exist. Museums would cease to exist. So would orchestras, and books, and art galleries. We all carry private languages within ourselves—silent spoken language, visual language, sound. The purpose of artists is to create a language that discourses with the language and sensibility that each of us has inside ourselves. More often than not, creating art is a lonely business. And how we respond to art is a lonely business too. Whether we are in a gallery or in a concert hall, we are essentially alone with art. One on one. Try finding Ed Eberle in his studio. You are in an empty parking lot next to an old church, in an old and depressed industrial town. 46
There is nothing to indicate the presence of a major artist except his name on the door of a building across the street. You ring the bell. A man with a white beard lets you in. He is shy and silent. You enter a big room painted white. There are large odd-shaped vessels on stands. They are white too—white porcelain. There is something timeless about them. Enigmatic, these vessels are asking you to discover them. They are covered with drawings, executed with astonishing skill in black lines fine as silken filaments; enigmatic animated drawings of men and women, animals, birds, foliage… alive, eager to enter into and engage with your private mind. What do they mean? Ask the man who let you in, and be rewarded with a shy silent smile. After all, we can’t ask the artist of an ancient Greek vase in New York’s Metropolitan Museum what his chariots mean. You are on your own; his silent visual language, and your own. —David Lewis David Lewis is an architect, urban designer, teacher, writer and artist living in Pittsburgh, PA. Born in 1922, he grew up in South Africa. He has been a U.S. citizen since 1967. He and his wife Judith currently live in the Homestead neighborhood —where he also creates his art.
47
Under the Influence of the Moon, 2013
48
Time, 2013
49
Quietude or Dance, 2014
50
Populated, 2014
51
Concerto, 2014
52
Ship, 2014
53
Water, 2016
54
California Water Jar (ironic) 2056, 2016
55
Cylinder 1121, 2016
56
Cylinder 1129, 2016 above
Cylinder 9115, 2016 right
57
AFTERWORD
It has been 15 years since my time as an assistant to Ed Eberle. Throughout these passing years, there is rarely a time when I sit at a wheel, or am in a studio for that matter, that a fragment from those formative experiences doesn’t pass through my mind in some fashion or another. While I was fortunate to have impacting academic experiences, it is the short 3 months during the summer of 1999 with Ed that has had the greatest impact on my understanding of what being an artist is. Each day Ed and I would acclimate by contemplating the pieces from the previous day, make a work agenda and talk about ceramics and life. During this time, Ed illustrated to me firsthand the power of respect. He would ask me for my impressions of the work he was making and made me feel that my views and interpretations had merit. As a 20-yearold maker, I found this deeply empowering. To have a professional listen to my thoughts and observations made me realize the life changing power that a mentor/mentee relationship can have on a young artist. As I work with my own assistants from time to time, I make a concerted effort to listen to them as I was listened to in hopes to pass a lineage of this quiet, yet meaningful, exchange. In addition to throwing vessels to be painted, I aided in making clays, firings, documenting work and packing pieces for shipping to galleries. While academia has its place, and there is a mentor/mentee relationship that develops in that context, there is a considerable difference between being taught to be an artist and being submersed into a functioning, successful practice of another. Devotion to one’s practice cannot be underestimated. Watching Ed’s faithfulness to his works, from that point further, propelled my commitment physiologically from being an art student
58
to being an artist. I delusionally thought that I had already done this as a student, but once I saw firsthand how a studio was to function, I had to reevaluate my preconceived notions of what a studio practice was.
Throwing to another person’s specifications was a wonderful way to increase my skills in a very short period of time. I strove to please Ed, and was deeply honored that anything that I produced could be good enough for his signature. My throwing changed during that time. Not only my abilities enhanced, but my sensitivity towards interpretation of form, the potentiality of surface and the ideological stance I had taken with ceramics. To this point my interactions with the wheel were solely to serve function, but after my time with Ed I saw the wheel as a boundless tool for expression and ideation.
There was certainly a struggle that followed my time at Ed’s: one of fear of being too derivative. I desired to work with porcelain, but as I embarked on finding my own voice with clay I found that I had apprehension with thrown porcelain forms featuring any degree of mark making on the surface, even though this methodology is rich in the history of ceramics and not isolated. I also had a fear of placing myself in his shadow. While it is not uncommon for there to be a stylistic similarity that happens in an apprentice/master relationship, it was one I struggled to stay away from as I searched for my own individuality as an artist. While this fear quieted over time, it would still sneak in, and it has not been until the past few years that I have seen this as a part of my personal history within my work. I now welcome any reference to Ed, and view it as a thing to celebrate, rather than push against. Our work, its point of reference and our lives are too individual for me to ever
make his work, even if I had tried. If there are any similarities to his forms or a linage in the surfaces can be felt, they speak to my unchangeable personal history. While this all may seem inconsequential, it is part of the story that helped shape who I am. This profound experience is one that I hope to share as I take on assistants, and it is one that I hope others help to share. If we open our lives and our studios to the younger generations of makers and thinkers outside the constraints of academia, what would be the potency of their experiences? My time as an assistant was short, but impassioned, and deeply impacting. Having worked with Ed was the single most powerful experience I have had in regards to gaining an understanding of the art world and what a studio practice is. I can only dream that someday I too will have a lasting impact on another as he has had on me. —Ian Thomas
Ian F. Thomas is an artist, musician and writer living in Slippery Rock, PA and working at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. Ian holds a BFA from Slippery Rock University and an MFA from Texas Tech University.
59
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST First Piece, 1984 Porcelain, terra sigillata 3H x 2L x 2L in.
re Men: King, Warrior, Lover, Magician, 1991 Porcelain, terra sigillata 7 x 6½ x 4½ in.
Handwriting Container, 1996 Porcelain, terra sigillata 6½ x 7 x 4½ in. Courtesy of William Versaw
a Dream, 1985 Porcelain, terra sigillata 3H x 3I x 3I in.
One Man Cup, 1985 Porcelain, terra sigillata 3 x 3 x 3 in.
William Tell Father-Son-Trust Metaphor, 1991 Porcelain, terra sigillata 4½ x 6½ x 7 in.
a Bird, a Fox and a Rabbit, 1985
Porcelain, terra sigillata 12½ x 6¾ x 6¾ in.
Porcelain, terra sigillata 3 x 3¼ x 2G in.
Chest, 1993
City/Country, 1985
Porcelain, terra sigillata 10¼ x 16 x 14 in.
Porcelain, terra sigillata 3½ x 3¼ x 3¼ in.
White Box, 1993
City Man with a Cat, 1986
Mixed Media 8½ x 5½ x 2¾ in.
Porcelain 1 x 10 x 10 in.
Men with Various Burdens, c. 1988 Porcelain, terra sigillata 7¼ x 6 x 6 in. Guitar Player, c. 1989 Porcelain, terra sigillata 2 x 5¼ x 5¼ in.
Double Take Revised, 1998–2014 Porcelain, terra sigillata 26 x 17 x 17 in.
Porcelain, terra sigillata 2¼ x 5¼ x 5¼ in.
Extramural, 2000
Porcelain, terra sigillata 7 x 5¼ x 5½ in.
Moonrise –a Study of Texture and Form, 1991 Porcelain, terra sigillata 7½ x 8 x 5 in.
Watch the birds, 1991
Time, 2013 Porcelain, mixed media 53 x 34 x 34 in.
Four Fires, 2000
Quietude or Dance, 2014
Porcelain, terra sigillata 20 x 13 x 12½ in.
Porcelain, terra sigillata 4½ x 7¼ x 4½ in.
Courtesy of William Versaw
Populated, 2014 Unsolved Drawing that Led to Large Porcelains, 1993 Ink, inkwash, hematite, clay gesso 14½ x 20¼ in.
Birds in a Drop of Water, 1994 Porcelain, terra sigillata 2 x 6½ x 6½ x in.
Down by the Stream, 2001 Porcelain, terra sigillata 2¾ x 18½ in.
Various Doors, 1994 Porcelain, terra sigillata 19 x 15 x 15 in. Courtesy of William Versaw
Twenty-five Years to Bachelard, 1995 Porcelain, terra sigillata 18 x 12 x 8 in.
Feathers (Fathers), 1991 Porcelain, terra sigillata 13¼ x 6½ x 6½ in.
The Delight of Bending a Line, 1996 Porcelain, terra sigillata 2½ x 5½ x 5½ in.
60
Porcelain, terra sigillata 5¼ x 4½ x 6¼ in.
Concerto, 2014 022103, 2003 Porcelain, terra sigillata 8½ x 5 x 4 in. Courtesy of Andy Lang
Porcelain, terra sigillata 5¼ x 4½ x 6¼ in.
Ship, 2014 Porcelain, terra sigillata 6¼ x 6½ x 4¾ in.
Private Collection
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Purchase: gift of Lindsay Catron in memory of her Parents, by exchange, 95.112.A-B
Porcelain, terra sigillata 6 x 5 x 5 in.
2013 Porcelain, terra sigillata 26¼ x 13½ x 13¼ in.
Porcelain, terra sigillata 18 x 11½ x 11½ in.
Whiplash II Revised, 2005 The King, The Owl, The Eye and The Pit, 1990
#31, 2009 Porcelain, terra sigillata 22 x 22 x 4 in. Under the Influence of the Moon,
The Satyr and The Nymph, 1998 Eros and King, 1992
Molecule, 2008 Porcelain, terra sigillata 48 x 20 x 4 in.
Porcelain 25 x 17 x 16 in.
How to Draw Sculpture Figure 1,
Water, 2016 Composite drawing, porcelain 12¼ x 7 x 7 in.
2006 Charcoal, chalk, inkwash on paper 15 x 18 in.
California Water Jar, 2056, 2016 Porcelain, wood, glass, silk 6¾ x 9½ x 5¾ in.
Catching Water, Fetching Breath,
Cylinder 1121, 2016
2007 Porcelain, terra sigillata 9¾ x 17¼ x 16¾ in.
Paper 42½ x 21½ x 21½ in.
Figure 20, 2008 Porcelain, terra sigillata 19½ x 20 x 4 in.
Cylinder 1129, 2016 Paper 42½ x 21½ x 21½ in.
Cylinder 9155, 2016 Paper 29 x 13 x 13 in.
Works in progress at Ed’s Homestead studio, 2016
61
BIOGRAPHY EDWARD EBERLE Born: Tarentum, PA 1944 Lives: Pittsburgh, PA EDUCATION 1972 M.F.A., New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY 1967 B.S., Edinboro State College, Edinboro, PA TEACHING 1975– 85 Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 1971 – 75 Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA Instructor to Associate Professor in Ceramics and Drawing AWARDS 1993 Individual Fellowship, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Harrisburg, PA 1989 Individual Fellowship, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Harrisburg, PA 1987 National Endowment on the Arts, Visual Artist Fellowship, Washington, DC 1986 Individual Fellowship, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Harrisburg, PA SELECTED ONE PERSON 2014 Hoyt Center for the Arts, New Castle, PA 2008 “from Prow to Gravity”, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL 2007 Edward Eberle: New Work, Concept Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
62
2006 Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL 2005 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY 2002 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY 2001 Concept Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA 1999 Edward Eberle-Drawing on Paper and Porcelain, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
2014 Bodies at Rest: Figurative Clay from RAM’s Collection, NCECA, Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI
The Perfect Collection: A Shared Vision for Contemporary Craft, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics, The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection, Museum of Art, Houston*
2003 Ceramic Faculty Selects: Clay from the Permanent Collection, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
The Human Condition, The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison*
Gestures, site-specific sculpture, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA Transmission, Museum of Art, Macon, GA
The Phenomenology of Ten Vessels, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
2013 Stark Contrasts: Black and White Ceramics from RAM’s Collection, Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
1998 Concept Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2011 Pittsburgh Biennial, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Great Pots, Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ*
Westmoreland Museum of Art, Greensburg, PA
2009 Go Figure! The Human Form in RAM’s Collections, Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
2002 The Legacy of Innovation: a Tribute to Ken Ferguson, Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2008 Frank Ross Legacy Exhibition, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, for NCECA, Pittsburgh, PA
2000 Allan Chasanoff Ceramic Collection, Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC*
2007 Opposites Attract, Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, MD
Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950–2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA*+
1997 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL Temple Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 1991 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA 1971 Graduate Show, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY SELECTED GROUP 2016 EXPOSED: Heads, Busts, and Nudes, Ferrin Contemporary, North Adams, MA* 2015 Mindful: Exploring Mental Health Through Art, Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA+
2006 Inspired Utility: Exceptional Ceramic Vessels, Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA National Biennial Ceramics Invitational, Parkland College, Champagne, IL Treasure Hunt: Works From RAM’s Storage, Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI 2005 Excess, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA 2004 Clay Invitational 2004, Jan Weiner Gallery, Kansas City, MO Double Vision, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN*
21st Century Ceramics in the United States and Canada, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, OH
1999 The Art of Craft: Contemporary Works from the Saxe Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA* 1986 Poetry of the Physical, American Craft Museum, New York, NY*+
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR Boca Museum, Boca Raton, FL Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA Hoyt Center for the Arts, New Castle, PA Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Museum of Art, Houston, TX Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Clark, Garth and Cindy Strauss. Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics, The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection, Museum of Art, Houston, Yale University Press, 2014. Clark, Garth. The Artful Teapot. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001. Del Vecchio, Mark. Postmodern Ceramics, London: Thames & Hudson, 2001. Dietz, Ulysses. Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy. Guild: Madison, WI, 2003 Douglas, Mary F., Editor. Allan Chasanoff Ceramic Collection. Charlotte, NC: Mint Museum of Craft + Design, 2000. Kenton, Mary Jean. “Edward Eberle,” American Ceramics 10/1 (1992). Koplos, Janet. “Edward Eberle at Garth Clark,” Art in America, May 199 Pepich, Bruce W. “Edward S. Eberle,” Art Gallery International, May/June 1989. Shearing, Graham. “Edward S. Eberle: The Way of Teapots,” Metropolitan, Mar/Apr 2007. Shearing, Graham. “Edward Eberle,” American Craft, Aug/Sept 2005. Scott, Paul. Painted Clay — Graphic Arts and the Ceramic Surface. London: A & C Black, 2001. Wells, Gary. “A Mythic Realm in Black and White,” American Ceramics, 6/1 1988. Drawn to the Surface: Artists in Clay and Glass. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 1987. Poetry of the Physical. New York: American Craft Museum, 1986.
Biographical information has been selectively compiled and is not meant to be exhaustive.
Catalogue* Traveling +
63
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
HEART OF CRAFT CIRCLE
David Blair Chair
Emily and Ronald Bianchini
Annette and John Atwood
Susan Yohe Vice Chair
Marianne Bokan-Blair and David Blair
Clyde Wilson Pickett Secretary
Judy and Michael Cheteyan Susan Golomb
Rita Resick Treasurer
Donna Hansen and Ralph Kemp
Annette Atwood
Carolyn and Paul Hrach
Christine Bethea
Judith A. Kelly
Tracy Certo
Jan Kerr and Clark Nicklas
Bridgette Cofield
Elsa Limbach
Albert Donnenberg
Lois M. Madden
Mark Flaherty
Wendy and Peter Mars
Susan Golomb
Janet L. McCall
Peter Mars Clark Nicklas
Margaret McDonald and Russell Schuh
Michele O’Leary
Diane Mohr
Ed Rockman
Janice L. Myers-Newbury
Janice Faller Schermer
Cheryl and Brian Parzych
William Stein
Alexandra Raphael
Dorie Taylor
Catherine Raphael
Marisol Wandiga Valentin
Patty and David Silberstein
Lorene Drake Vinski
James Turnbull
Randall Vollen
Elizabeth Wainwright and Russ Kemerer
We acknowledge with appreciation the following staff and volunteers for their contributions to this retrospective: Janet L. McCall Executive Director
Alice Warfield
LEGACY CIRCLE Donna Hollen-Bolmgren * Gerri Kay *
Natalie Sweet Exhibitions/ Program Assistant Rachel Saul Rearick Assistant Director-Education
Porcelain, terra sigillata 7 x 5¼ x 5½ in.
DESIGN: PAUL SCHIFINO, SCHIFINODESIGN.COM PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY: ADAM MILLIRON, ADAMMILLIRON.COM PRINTING: PRINT TECH, PRINTTECHOFWPA.COM
Norah Guignon Marketing Manager Loretta Stanish Director of Development Sara Ryan Individual & Corporate Giving Manager Lisa Bunting Customer Service/ Administrative Assistant Yu-San Cheng Finance Manager Rebecca McNeil CFO— Arts Finance Cohort Megan Crowell Assistant Director—Retail Operations Jessica Heberle Store Associate Jhenny Adams Studio Apprentice, 2017 Amy Masters Studio Apprentice, 2016
Elizabeth Rockwell Raphael *
Christian Morris Artist-in-Residence
*deceased
Janette McCall Volunteer Pam Morrison Volunteer Tammy Schweinhagen Volunteer
ISBN 978-0-9960989-1-5
64
Flysheet
The King, The Owl, The Eye and The Pit, (detail) 1990
Kate Lydon Director of Exhibitions
Emma Wallis Janet L. McCall Executive Director
ADDITIONAL IMAGE
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS: NATALIE SWEET, PAGES 24 AND 39 MARK PERROTT, BACK COVER
Kiln room, Homestead studio, 2016
SOCIETY FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT 2100 Smallman Street Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222 PHONE: 412-261-7003 FAX: 412-261-1941 contemporarycraft.org
Ed in his Millvale studio, 1990 Photo Credit: Mark Perrott, copyright 1990