5/11/2007 1:10:24 PM
By Christina Killion Valdez
The Post-Bulletin
Pottery makerWarren MacKenzie and his pottery.
There's an art to explaining Warren MacKenzie's work.
Is it art? Is it pottery with an artistic element?
'You'll have to ask him that,' said Kris Douglas, chief curator at the Rochester Art Center where a nationally-touring exhibit of MacKenzie's work will debut May 19.
'I think his philosophy is to make work that can be used and appreciated,' Douglas said. 'Where some people see his work as art first, then functional pottery, he sees it first as functional pottery then as art.'
MacKenzie, who lives and works in Stillwater and rarely signs his traditional, wheel-thrown stoneware, is recognized around the world as a master of 20th Century ceramic art.
His work is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., The National Folk Art Museum in Tokyo, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Bernard Leach Study Collection in Bath, England, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis.
And while there is a tendency to place his work on a pedestal, MacKenzie suggests otherwise.
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here's an art to explaining Warren MacKenzie's work.
Is it art? Is it pottery with an artistic element?
"You'll have to ask him that," said Kris Douglas, chief curator at the Rochester Art Center where a nationally-touring exhibit of MacKenzie's work will debut May 19.
"I think his philosophy is to make work that can be used and appreciated," Douglas said. "Where some people see his work as art first, then functional pottery, he sees it first as functional pottery then as art."
MacKenzie, who lives and works in Stillwater and rarely signs his traditional, wheel-thrown stoneware, is recognized around the world as a master of 20th Century ceramic art.
His work is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., The National Folk Art Museum in Tokyo, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Bernard Leach Study Collection in Bath, England, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis.
And while there is a tendency to place his work on a pedestal, MacKenzie suggests otherwise.
"All my pots are made for use," MacKenzie said. "To put them on a shelf, or worse than that, into a glass case is a disaster. It's not alive. You can't react with them except visually. You can't touch or understand them like you do when you wash them in the sink and see something that you didn't see before."
At the same time, his pots are art in the truest sense. "I don't deny it can be, at the highest level, a communication with the person who uses it, putting it in the realm of fine art," MacKenzie said.
The upcoming exhibition of more than 350 of McKenzie's works explores the artist's development as a potter from his entire career.
"They've gone back and found one pot that I made when in school at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1948 ," MacKenzie said. "And I've given them a group of pots from my most recent production about two months ago."
As a potter, MacKenzie said he never changes anything after firing, which can be seen in the exhibit. "Some of the early ones are not very good," he said. "They are embarrassing to see, but they are part of what I did at the time."
Among his favorite works in the exhibit is one that at first he was most disappointed with, he said. "I always lusted after a wood-fired effect."
So he tried to create it without a wood kiln. "I sprinkled wood ash on wet glaze and expected it to melt the glaze more and look just beautiful," he said. "When it came out it there was no melting. It looked like dried concrete."
Frustrated, MacKenzie said he planned to refire it for the desired effect, until his first wife and collaborator in pottery, Alix Kolesky, suggested he live with it for a while.
"She saw what came out of kiln," he said. "Every time I open the kiln I'm disappointed. It's not what I expected. Then you live with them and realize there are a few good ones in there."
The exhibit will be set up at least in part to show how people are living with MacKenzie's work, including a full dinner set. There will also be an audio station, photographs, didactic materials, films, gallery guide and an illustrated catalogue.
Unable to even guess how many pots he's created, MacKenzie, who is in his 80s, said, "I'm slowing down now."
In his peak producing years he said he did 12 firings a year with 600 pots in a firing. He continues to do about 10 firings a year of 600 pots.
"I didn't sign anything for a long time, now I decided certain pots I need to use a stamp," MacKenzie said. "People who collect by signature rather than looking at the pot and deciding they like it find them desirable so they can prove they're mine. They're probably the people who will put it under a glass case as well."
Go & Do
• "Warren MacKenzie: Legacy of An American Potter" will be on display May 19-Aug. 26 at the Rochester Art Center. The opening reception starts at 7 p.m. May 19. Admission is $12, $10 for Art Center members.
CORRESPONDING EVENTS INCLUDE:
• Ceramic Artist Trunk Show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 19 in the Grand Lobby. Shop an expanded selection of works and talks with ceramic artists.
• Panel discussion, including MacKenzie, at 3 p.m. May 19. Admission is free.
• Warren MacKenzie catalogue signing 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. May 19. Catalogues will be available for purchase.
• Free Family Days: The Art of Clay from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. June 2. Families can make clay creations and view wheel-throwing demonstrations by local artists.
All events are at the center, 40 Civic Center Dr. S.E. Information: 282-8629 or visit www.rochesterartcenter.org.
