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Edited by Elaine M. Levin Movers & Shakers in American Ceramics: Defining Twentieth Century Ceramics A Collection of Articles from Ceramics Monthly A Ceramics Monthly Handbook

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Page 1: Movers & Shakers in American Ceramics - Network Home · Movers & Shakers in American Ceramics: ... people who created a craft history. After those articles were published, the maga-zine

Edited by Elaine M. Levin

Movers & Shakers in American Ceramics:Defining Twentieth Century Ceramics

A C o l l e c t i o n o f A r t i c l e s f r o m C e r a m i c s M o n t h l y

A Ceramics Monthly Handbook

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Movers & Shakers in American Ceramics:

Defining Twentieth Century Ceramics

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Movers & Shakers in American Ceramics:

Defining Twentieth Century CeramicsA C o l l e c t i o n o f A r t i c l e s f r o m Ceramics Monthly

Edited by Elaine M. Levin

Published by

The American Ceramic Society600 N. Cleveland Ave., Suite 210Westerville, Ohio 43082 USA

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The American Ceramic Society 600 N. Cleveland Ave., Suite 210 Westerville, OH 43082

© 2003, 2011 by The American Ceramic Society, All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1-57498-165-X (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-57498-560-3 (PDF)

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in review.

Authorization to photocopy for internal or personal use beyond the limits of Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law is granted by The American Ceramic Society, provided that the appropriate fee is paid directly to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 U.S.A., www.copyright.com. Prior to photocopying items for educational classroom use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. This consent does not extend to copyright items for general distribution or for advertising or promotional purposes or to republishing items in whole or in part in any work in any format. Requests for special photocopying permission and reprint requests should be directed to Director, Publications, The American Ceramic Society, 600 N. Cleveland Ave., Westerville, Ohio 43082 USA.

Every effort has been made to ensure that all the information in this book is accurate. Due to differing conditions, equipment, tools, and individual skills, the publisher cannot be responsible for any injuries, losses, and other damages that may result from the use of the information in this book. Final determination of the suitability of any information, procedure or product for use contemplated by any user, and the manner of that use, is the sole responsibility of the user. This book is intended for informational purposes only.

The views, opinions and findings contained in this book are those of the author. The publishers, editors, reviewers and author assume no responsibility or liability for errors or any consequences arising from the use of the information contained herein. Registered names and trademarks, etc., used in this publication, even without specific indication thereof, are not to be considered unprotected by the law. Mention of trade names of commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the publishers, editors or authors.

Publisher: Charles Spahr, Executive Director, The American Ceramic Society

Art Book Program Manager: Bill Jones

Editor: Elaine M. Levin

Ebook Manager: Steve Hecker

Graphic Design: Melissa Bury, Bury Design, Westerville, Ohio

Graphic Production: David Houghton

Cover Image: “Squared wheel-thrown bottle” by Marguerite Widenhain

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CONTENTS

IntroductIon Elaine M. Levin’s recollection of past ceramics experiences .........................................vi

Charles Binns and Adelaide Robineau ...........................................2

Arthur Baggs and Glen Lukens .....................................................8

Laura Andreson and Edwin and Mary Scheier ............................15

Maija Grotell and Herbert Sanders ..............................................22

Ralph Bacerra..............................................................................29

Otto and Vivika Heino ...............................................................35

Lukman Glasgow ........................................................................43

Peter Voulkos ..............................................................................49

Paul Soldner ................................................................................59

Judy Chicago: The Dinner Party .................................................69

Stephen DeStaebler .....................................................................73

Juan Quezada ..............................................................................79

An Interview with Otto Natzler ..................................................87

Frans Wildenhain ........................................................................91

Marilyn Levine ............................................................................99

John Roloff ...............................................................................105

Jerry Rothman ..........................................................................113

Adrian Saxe ...............................................................................119

The Legacy of Marguerite Wildenhain ......................................126

Have Kiln Design, Will Travel ...................................................132

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INTRODUCTION

In the 1970s, I began teaching a course on American ceramic history at the extension division of the University of California, Los Angeles. I sent a notice concerning this course to Ceramics Monthly. They quickly wrote to me (no email then) suggesting I write a series of articles on those early twentieth century ceramists who laid the foundation for American studio ceramics. The research for those articles, the first four in this handbook, taught me about the dedicated people who created a craft history. After those articles were published, the maga-zine suggested I continue to write about those others contributing engaging work in ceramics. This book is a compilation of those articles, a reflection on those responsible for shaping American ceramics over the years.

As strange as it may seem today, with the great variety of available informa-tion on ceramics, thirty years ago there were very few magazines and books about American ceramics. Yes, technical information was available but very little about

how the craft developed. Also, what was published had been written years earlier. Charles Binns, Arthur Baggs, and Adelaide Robineau, ceramists discussed in the first two ar-ticles, truly pioneered both the technical and the aesthetic in ceramics. Binns, at Alfred University (New York) and Baggs at the Ohio State University, initiated an academic approach to education—a concept quite apart from the European apprentice system for crafts. Robineau, the first woman to boldly pursue learning to throw on the potter’s wheel (gen-erally discouraged by male throwers), helped transfer some potters from a reliance on factory throwers to establishing their own studios. Glen Lukens, Laura Andreson, Mary and Edwin Scheier, Maija Grotell, and Herbert Sanders continued the concept of educating ceramists in academia, in universities, and in art schools across the country. Grotell also represents the influx of European ceramists coming to America in the late 1930s and ‘40s, when the world was at war. Along with Grotell, who taught at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Otto and Gertrud Natzler, Marguerite Wildenhain in California, and Frans Wildenhain in New York, all reinforced a European aesthetic that proclaimed work in clay as a fine art. This group brought attention to

the lifestyle of the studio potter (continuing and reinforcing Robineau’s direction) and to the beauty of well-crafted functional ware with exciting surface enrich-ments. Early on, Otto Natzler viewed the action of the kiln as a tool capable of creating many different results from a single glaze. Frans Wildenhain’s sculptural forms and commissioned murals brought a concern for nature and the environ-

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ment into ceramics and to his students at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Each of the mid-century American ceramists also contributed something

unique to the field. Andreson introduced using porcelain clays and glazes; Sanders wrote about his experiments with a wide variety of glazes and, especially, modi-fications within crystalline glazes, providing technical information beyond the basics; the Scheiers were influenced by Mexican and South American ceramics, suggesting a greater world view; Lukens fearlessly saw the beauty in unglazed and heavily grogged clay at a time when the over-all glazed surface was ascendant.

Vivika and Otto Heino began teaching and operating a studio on the East Coast, but they were most influential when they moved west. Vivika brought the much needed aesthetics and technology of Alfred University—a continuum of the Binns aesthetic—to the Los Angeles area. When Peter Voulkos and Paul Soldner arrived in Los Angeles to work at Otis College of Art and Design, they had the functional ceramics of Lukens, Andreson, and the Heinos to look to and to go beyond. There is little doubt that Voulkos’ and Soldner’s predecessors conferred a readi-ness on these men, and those they influenced, to proceed into the unknown.

In the mid-1950s, Voulkos and Soldner, along with other ceramists in Southern California, opened portals to a world beyond the traditional. Voulkos’ vertical stacks of thrown, coiled, and handbuilt clay gave permission to others to experi-ment and innovate. Exploring the sixteenth century Japanese firing method, termed raku, led Soldner toward a completely different firing process and low-fired glazes, which a new generation of ceramists would eagerly explore and expand. When Juan Quezada began giving workshops on low-fire ware, ceramists were more prepared to explore this direction, once again moving beyond the prevailing technology, in this case of high-fired stoneware.

In a very short time, the ceramists coming of age in the 1970s and ‘80s understood they had been given permission to seek their personal expressive direction in clay. Lukman Glasgow incorporated Surrealism, humor, and social com-mentary in the juxtaposition of common yet, seemingly, unrelated objects. Stephen DeStaebler’s stacked forms combined the concepts of Abstract Expressionism with figurative sculpture. Marilyn Levine turned to the realistic object as a reflection of both Pop Art and Super Realism. Although not written about in this collection, Robert Arneson’s interpretation of Pop Art and the figure were enormously influential.

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An anomaly because she was not strictly a clay artist, Judy Chicago, never-theless, brought attention and new concepts to the ancient technique of china painting. The resulting exhibit of her work encouraged new interest in overglaze imagery, especially in combination with other materials for surface enrichment. Ralph Bacerra, Jerry Rothman, and Adrian Saxe also looked to the past for inspiration; Bacerra looked east, to Japanese polychrome colors and patterns. Rothman and Saxe turned to Europe, where Rothman was captivated by the flamboyant tradition of eighteenth century baroque ware, while Saxe reveled in the fussiness of French Sevres porcelains. All three reinterpreted those traditions in a manner that spoke to contemporary American culture and the expression of a Post Modernism aesthetic.

Otto Natzler initially explored the kiln as an integral part of ceramic expres-sion. Later, Paul Soldner and Juan Quezada introduced variations on low-fire

technology. In two more articles, the kiln, once again, is the subject. Fred Olsen traveled the world to learn about indigenous kilns, returning to write a book on the subject that had a profound influence on this technology and on his own landscape-inspired sculptural ceramics. In work-shops around the world, he continues to build structures that connect to the local ambience and environment, yet still manage to expertly fire wares. John Roloff, opened the concept of firing to an aesthetic beyond its connection to ware. For Roloff, the kiln becomes the fired object in a ritual that recalls primitive ceremonies worshiping fire and light.

Twenty articles record the work of Movers and Shak-ers, the influential ceramists of the twentieth century. These artists provided the essential technical foundation for an art form that reflects contemporary American social and cultural circumstances. Equal to the challenge of finding an expressive direction and eager to articulate an aesthetic for a relatively new country, these men and women established a ceramic continuum for the next century of ceramists to build upon.

–Elaine M. Levin

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1 Defining TwenTieTh CenTury CeramiCs

Movers & Shakers in American Ceramics

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movers anD shakers in ameriCan CeramiCs 2

Charles Binns and Adelaide

Robineau

We examine the past not only as a source of inspira- tion, but also as a means for understanding the

paths we have chosen. Craftsmen in ceramics have much to learn from history, particularly as it pertains to contem-porary work.

There is some question as to where to begin an examina-tion of contemporary American ceramics. We cannot start with American Indian art; their pottery was an expression of a culture well established before European settlement. The European expressed its own cultural heritage in its pottery. In effect, the two cultural streams ran parallel, with almost no intermixture of ideas.

The early influence of Western Europe on American ceramics cannot be underestimated. French and English fashions were constantly reflected in American work, and the 19th century is strewn with the unsuccessful struggles of small companies attempting to produce ware similar to the popular European ceramics of the day. Signs of change appeared after 1870, when Oriental pottery was seen at exhibitions across the United States. At the Centennial Ex-position of 1876, in Philadelphia, the ceramics of American industry were as a distinct disadvantage when displayed near Oriental porcelains. The grace and beauty of this imported ware made a lasting impression. Intrigued by the striking Oriental glazes, Hugh Robertson of the Chelsea Keramic

Art Works, Massachusetts, became totally absorbed in glaze experimentation to reproduce crackled sang de boeuf (a blood-red glaze). Although he was successful after many years of research, the formulas remained his secret.

The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition also influenced the goals of a group of gently reared Victorian ladies en-gaged in china painting in Cincinnati, Ohio. A few of these women, with family financial support, attempted to go beyond painting designs on greenware to the establish-ment of art potteries, working on the refinements of under-glaze decoration. Rookwood, a pottery founded by Maria Longworth Nichols Storer, Produced some individual and creative work in conjunction with their glaze chemist Karl Langenbeck; economic necessity eventually forced a change in the company’s artistic ideals and production methods.

It was extremely difficult at that time to work as an individual artist in ceramics, since there were very few opportunities in industry and no financial possibilities elsewhere. Public pressure for the styles of the day forced production potteries to forego creative ideas in favor of economic considerations. Only a few determined people of extraordinary talent and vision managed to create indi-vidually expressive ceramics.

Ceramists and art historians generally have acknowl-edged that the father of contemporary American ceramics

Charles Binns throwing on the potter’s wheel.

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3 Defining TwenTieTh CenTury CeramiCs

is Charles Fergus Binns. Perhaps it is fitting that he was an Englishman, for what greater lineage could a potter of the 19th century claim than to be the son of the director of the Royal Worcester Porcelain Works. Born in 1857 in Worcester as plant and technical supervisor, he was given the opportunity to plan and administer the company’s exhibit for the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. If Charles Binns had not ventured to the United States with this exhibit, he might have become director at the Porcelain Works as was his father before him. However, at age 40, he resigned his position, packed up his family, and moved to the United States to assume the post of principal of the Trenton Technical School of Science and Art, New Jersey, a school connected with the Lenox Pottery Company.

The outpouring of factory products due to the Industrial Revolution left handwork and the status of craftsmanship in limbo. Economy and profit had supplanted the stan-dards of design and production. While the Arts and Crafts Movement served to counteract this trend in England, no such group emerged in America. Consequently, it is pos-sible that Binns was seeking a better opportunity to work with his own ideas in clay, or perhaps he was convinced that serious efforts were needed to elevate the standards of craftsmanship in the New World. It did not take long for him to realize that the Trenton Technical School was too

confining an arena for his efforts. In 1900, he was offered the directorate of a new school, the New York State School of Clay Working and Ceramics, at Alfred University. Prior to the establishment of this college, American craftsmen in clay learned technique from master craftsmen; ceramic industry was the training ground, and clay and glaze for-mulas were well-guarded secrets.

Coming from industry as he did, Binns was unusual in that he exhibited personal talent and an artistic philosophy separate from the limited goals of his contemporaries. His personal vision corresponded to the ideals of Chinese pot-tery; the simple forms of Ching dynasty ware, the depth and character of glaze, and the attention to craftsmanship had an enormous appeal. He set this standard of excellence for himself, and later at Alfred University, for his students. Fortunately for American ceramics, he was given thirty-one years at the university to create a training ground, an open atmosphere, and a generation of students who took his ideals for their own.

The years Binns spent at the Worcester Porcelain Works undoubtedly contributed to his emphasis on a scientific approach to the formulation of glazes, and he kept careful notes of experiments and results. Our present understand-ing of the function of each glaze ingredient has, in part, come from his systematic work. Although his approach

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movers anD shakers in ameriCan CeramiCs 4

“Vase with Viking Ships” by Adelaide Rob-ineau, 1908, porcelain form with crystalline glaze, 7¹⁄₄ inches in height.

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5 Defining TwenTieTh CenTury CeramiCs

was scientific, his goal was artistic. “If the artist-potter is to be successful, he must be prepared to compound glazes which are the expression of his own individuality.” His concern went beyond formula to an appreciation of the way a glaze must fit the form. The floral excesses of his time had no place in his work. Subdued glaze colors clothed and yet subtly enhanced the simple lines of forms, and he directed students to have this concept in mind when they approached the wheel.

Although the epitome of a proper English gentleman, Charles Binns’ teaching methods indicate a wider vision than the post-Victorians of his generation. He asked students to submit questions because, he said, “I can tell more concerning what you know by the questions you ask me than by the answers you give to my questions.” He also recognized the need for the student-potter to develop discipline, “to have the courage to destroy that which is below standard, and the self-denial to resist the temptation to sell an unworthy product.”

Not content with guiding a new generation toward the idea of ceramics as a fine art, Binns was impelled to come to grips with old attitudes in the ceramic industry. The vacillations of taste and constant economic crises helped push commercial pottery enterprises toward some realiza-tion that communication concerning common problems would benefit all. On this fertile ground, in 1899, Binns helped found the American Ceramic Society. A journal and

later a bulletin published by the society became required reading for members of the industry.

Earlier, his strong feelings about the need for commu-nication and information compelled him to put thoughts in writing. Ceramic Technology was published in 1896, at a time when there were very few books on the subject. However, he could not rest with just a discussion of meth-ods and procedures and in 1897, he compiled his concepts about pottery as an art form in The Story of the Potter. By the time he wrote his third book, he had found his focus. The Potter’s Craft, published in 1910, combined methods with ideas and became the bible for students of ceramics. “The purpose of this work,” he wrote, “is not so much to put ready-made materials into the hands of the craftsman as to enable him to work out his own plans.”

Here lies Charles Binns’ special contribution; he set the standards for a new concept, the artist-potter. What had been a divided labor in industry—the designer and the mechanic—he pulled together as one, making the craftsman responsible for the complete process. That responsibility created the artist.

Binns retired from Alfred University in 1931, at the age of 74. Before he died in 1934, his students were already carrying out his ideas in their work as artists and also as teachers, concerned with instructing another generation of artist-potters.

During the late 19th century, the arts were considered

ChARlES f. bINNS, bOwl. STONEwARE. h. 2¹⁄₂, DIAM. 7¹⁄₂ IN. (6.4 x 19.1 CM). ThE METROPOlITAN MUSEUM Of ART, gIfT Of MISS hENRIETTA M. CRAwfORD, 1934. (35.91).

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movers anD shakers in ameriCan CeramiCs 6

one of the few dignified areas of endeavor for ladies from proper Victorian homes. Of those who pursued art forms, few showed unusual talent. Adelaide Alsop had the good fortune not only to be talented, but also to receive the nec-essary encouragement from those around her. As a young woman, her abilities as a china painter and watercolor artist were recognized, and she was given the opportunity both to teach and to exhibit her work.

Married in 1899 to Samuel E. Robineau, a Frenchman and collector of Chinese ceramics, Adelaide was to receive encouragement from him throughout her career. Together they purchased and distributed a magazine titled China Decorator, with Samuel as publisher and Adelaide as editor. To make more creative design ideas available to amateur artists, the Robineaus altered the format of the magazine, making suggestions of patterns and decorations for every field of crafts and changing the name of the publication to Keramic Studio. Influenced by Samuel’s European back-ground and by business trips to the Continent, Adelaide openly adapted European styles and ideas for her articles. As art noveau gained recognition, she promoted the value of conventionalized forms in her editorials while continuing publication of naturalistic patterns to please her subscribers, thus encouraging readers to appreciate the newest trends and to incorporate them in their work.

Realizing that china painting was but a small part of the ceramic process, Adelaide was prompted to explore the medium further. She taught herself to throw on the wheel, and with her husband’s assistance, worked out glaze formulas and the operation of a wood-burning kiln. This period of intense concentration on the development of technique prepared her for the next challenge.

Adelaide’s work up to this point had been in stoneware. However, when Samuel translated information on porce-lain, written by Taxile Doat, a prominent artist working at the Sevres porcelain factory in France, Adelaide became determined to work in that medium. The translated por-celain manuscripts were later published in Keramic Studio and finally compiled by the Robineaus in a book titled Grand Feu Ceramics.

As a result of her new interest, Adelaide spent several weeks at Alfred University working under Charles Binns. The Robineaus then attempted a commercial venture cast-ing and carving simple designs in porcelain. Fortunately for American ceramics, the enterprise was a commercial disaster, which sent Adelaide back to her own experimenta-tion with the medium. In doing so, she became one of the first to produce high-fire porcelain bodies and glazes from wholly American ingredients.

Glaze effects on porcelain as well as stoneware had as tremendous an appeal for Adelaide Robineau as they had for Charles Binns. Besides seeking intonations of character

and depth in glaze, she began to try crystalline glazes on her porcelain, ultimately producing a variety of crystalline pat-terns in a number of colored glazes. Geometric designs con-tinued to be popular during that period, and she combined them with crystalline glazes by carving a design around the edges of bowl forms, thus framing the interior glaze. Adelaide progressed from carving in the clay to carving through it. One of the first works in this process was a piece titled “Vase with Viking Ships” made in 1908. This form, 7¹⁄₄ inches in height, features the excised design of Viking ships moving over a sea of matt and semimatt glazes in shades of blue, green, and brown; the motif on the vase is repeated on a stand that supports the tapering shape.

Some of the pieces required as many as seven firings for the desired result. Frequently a poor firing would destroy months of work. Samuel Robineau attended to the firing and suffered with each disaster. As he wrote a friend, “I never felt so discouraged and disgusted in my life . . . every one of the new pieces warped or blistered. Anybody who is foolish enough to do Cone 9 porcelain ought to be shut up in an insane asylum.” However, her skill and his per-severance with the kiln were to be rewarded. The grand prize in ceramics at the International Exposition of 1911 in Turin, Italy, was awarded to Mrs. Robineau for a vase titled “Scarab,” an intricately carved piece of Oriental character. The scarab motif, which covers almost the entire surface of the vase, is the symbol of the tireless toiler, an appropriate

“Scarab,” vase with stand and lid, porcelain, 17 inches in height, by

Adelaide Robineau, 1910. This is perhaps her most famous work,

which is reputed to have taken 1,000 hours of carving.

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7 Defining TwenTieTh CenTury CeramiCs

embellishment for a piece requiring more than 1000 hours of meticulous and patient carving. The design is relieved only by an equally intricately carved diamond shape on the body of the piece, parts of which are repeated on the neck and shoulder and again on the base, which encloses its gracefully tapered shape. The lid supports a sphere, the ball of food the scarab continuously rolls to his underground burrow. Glazed in ivory with detail in shades of pale green, the form is seventeen inches in height.

The vase was produced while Adelaide was teaching at the American Women’s League in University City, Mis-souri. Samuel Robineau’s translation of Taxile Doat’s book Grand Feu Ceramics had attracted the attention of St. Louis businessman Edward J. Lewis, who had the resources and the inclination to create a program for educating women and enhancing their creative and voca-tional opportunities. He founded the league and sought the services of Doat as well as the Robineaus who moved there in 1909. The ceramics department consisted of thirty correspondence students and ten others actually studying at University City. Unfortunately, by 1911 the project was discontinued, and the Robineaus returned to their home in Syracuse, New York.

Adelaide continued her work, intent on finding the for-mula for the difficult Chinese sang de boeuf glaze. Awards for her work came from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1913 and the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco

in 1915. The University of Syracuse honored her with a doctorate in 1917, and she taught classes there from 1920 – 1929. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York began purchasing contemporary ceramics in 1922, her work was the first to be acquired.

In Keramic Studio she continued to push for the highest standards, changing the name of the magazine to Design in 1924. The emphasis in content changed to appeal to the growing number of teachers of art whom she felt needed encouragement to use their creativity with students. Always on the alert for new ideas, she found the Paris Exposition of 1925 especially stimulating. The next ten issues of Design carried articles on the work of European ceramic artists with illustrations of their pieces at the Exposition.

An exhibition of her work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1928 brought the comment from Royal Cortissoz, art critic of the New York Herald Tribune: “Here are taste and technique magnificently fused.” At her death in 1929, he wrote: “She knew the niceties of form. She developed exquisite tones of color. She had the artist’s sensitiveness to texture. . .”

As a memorial to Adelaide Alsop Robineau, the Syra-cuse Museum of Fine Arts (now the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York) founded the Ceramic National Exhibition in 1932, which gave American ceramists their first national recognition. ▲

Stoneware vase, brown aventurine glaze, by Charles Binns, 1933.

ChARlES f. bINNS, vASE. 1933. STONEwARE. h. 10 3/8 IN. (26.4 CM). ThE METROPOlITAN MUSEUM Of ART,

PURChASE, EDwARD C. MOORE JR. gIfT, by ExChANgE, 1933. (33.63).