American Ceramic
Circle Symposium: Ceramics and Cross-Cultural Exchange
Seattle, Washington ~ November 1-4, 2007
Wednesday October 31, 2007
Arrival
Sheraton Hotel
1400 Sixth Avenue
(206) 621-9000
Accommodation Information
Thursday November 1, 2007
Pre-Symposium
Trip (Limited to 40 ACC members)
10:00a.m. Buses depart hotel
10:30 Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA
Tour with Director Michael Munroe
Russell Wright: Living with Good Design
The Bellevue Arts Museum is the Pacific Northwest’s center for the exploration of art, craft and design through exhibitions and educational programs, emphasizing the work of regional artists.
12:30p.m. Lunch- McCormick & Schmicks
2:00 Tour Private Collection
The collection is mostly French in the Empire style. The decorative arts include a special focus on porcelain vases, bowls and dinner services from the Sèvres manufactory and furniture made by Pierre-Antoine Bellange, gilt bronze clocks, candelabra and wall lights. The paintings include a number of works by French genre painter Martin Drölling (1756-1817). Other artists in the collection include Marcantonio Franceschini, Jan Van Os, Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, a studio work of J-L David and a number of drawings by Empire architect Charles Percier.
3:30 Buses depart for hotel
5:30-7 Cocktail reception at hotel, 2nd floor Willow Room, A
Friday November 2, 2007
7:45-8:45a.m. Coffee, tea and pastries at the hotel. 2nd Floor Willow Room
8:45 Buses depart for Seattle Art Museum
9:00-9:20 SAM Plestcheeff Auditorium
Welcome by Jeffrey Munger, Chairman of the
American Ceramic Circle
Welcome and brief introduction to the ceramics
collections of the Seattle Art Museum by
Mimi Gardner Gates, Director
There will be a five-minute question and answer period following each lecture.
9:25 -10:10 Johann Kräftner, Director of the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna and
the Collections of Prince von und zu Liechtenstein,Vaduz
Baroque Luxury Porcelain
Porcelain was one of the most valuable luxury goods and status symbols of the Baroque period. Therefore it is not surprising that Asian porcelain as well as the porcelain products of the first European manufactures were united in precious porcelain cabinets which developed into the most luxurious objects of representation. These cabinets replaced or were merged with the mirror cabinets to further enhance their effect. All the series of engravings showing views of castles and residences also included the porcelain cabinets. In many cases these engravings are today the only documents on their existence.
10:15-10:35 Break (coffee, tea, water)
10:35-11:15 Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, Curator, The Arnhold Collection; Guest Curator, The Bard Graduate
Center; Guest Curator, The Frick Collection, New York
Delicate Diplomacy
An introduction to the exhibition Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porcelain for European Courts, opening at the Bard Graduate Center in New York on November 15, 2007. Porcelain gifts manufactured at the royal Meissen manufactory left Dresden in ever-increasing numbers beginning in 1711, setting a standard by the 1740s that became the European norm. Tastes and preferences varied from country to country, as did the reciprocal gifts and favors made in return. This porcelain story features major and minor personalities, travel and intrigue, and porcelain of great beauty and innovation.
11:30–12:15 Group A – Lunch, Arnold Board Room
Group B – Visit the museum. Julie Emerson, The Ruth J Nutt Curator of Decorative Arts, and Paul Martinez, Exhibition Designer, will be in the newly installed Porcelain Room, 4th floor
12:15-1:00 Group B – Lunch, Arnold Board Room
Group A – Visit the museum. Julie Emerson, The Ruth J. Nutt Curator of Decorative Arts, and Paul Martinez, Exhibition Designer, will be in the newly installed Porcelain Room, 4th floor
1:10-1:50 Glenn Adamson, Head of Graduate Studies, Research Department, Victoria and
Albert Museum, London
Rethinking the Arcanum: Simeon Shaw and the Science of Ceramics
This lecture will discuss issues of secrecy and public knowledge in the British and American ceramic industry. Particular attention will be paid to representative figures such as George Psalmanazar, Bonnin & Morris, Thomas Frye, Josiah Wedgwood, William Cookworthy, and Simeon Shaw—all of whom were involved, in their own ways, with the question of “intellectual property” within ceramics. The talk will trace shifts in attitude on this subject, arguing that over the course of the long 18th century, the alchemical approach to porcelain and other ceramic “mysteries” gave way to a more open exchange of information and commodities.
1:55-2:25 Charlotte Jacob-Hanson, Independent scholar and ACC grant recipient, Germany
Savoir faire, finesse and flair: the bird-painting of Louis Victor Gerverot
After learning his first skills as an apprenticed porcelain painter at Sèvres, the young Gerverot left France in 1766 for Germany and began a long career that took him to numerous manufactories. By 1769 he was in Weesp (Netherlands), where his own highly unconventional style of bird painting began to evolve, one which was far removed from French traditional or any other style of the day. Returning to Germany, Gerverot entered his most creative and prolific period at Höchst (ca. 1771-1773), painting tea and coffee services plus other tablewares for this manufactory. A comparison of Gerverot’s Dutch and German work (including works that have only recently come to light), side by side, furnishes visual evidence of his extraordinary talent and techniques, while bringing to light important characteristics by which his hand can be identified.
2:30-2:50 Break (coffee, tea, water)
2:55-3:15 SAM Gallery Talks
1. Nicholas Dorman, Chief Conservator – Conservation Lab
2. Yukiko Shirahara, Curator of Asian Art – Special
Exhibition, Japan Envisions the West: 16th-19th
Century
Japanese Art from Kobe City Museum
3. Sarah Berman, Research associate and guest curator, Ancient Mediterranean and Islamic ceramics
3:20-3:40 Gallery Talks, same as above
3:45-4:05 Gallery Talks, same as above
4:10 Buses depart for hotel
4:45-6:15 Collectors’ Tea, Grand Ballroom D, 2nd floor, Sheraton Hotel
Dinner on your own.
Saturday November 3, 2007
7:45 – 8:45 Coffee, tea and pastries at the hotel, Cirrus Room 35th floor.
8:45 Buses depart for the Seattle Art Museum
9:00 – 9:25 Annual Meeting, ACC Members only
There will be a five-minute question and answer period after each lecture.
9:30 – 10:10 Karen Mathews, Visiting Lecturer, Art History, University of Washington
The Traveling Culture of Ceramics in the Islamic World: Artistic Exchange between East and
West in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods
This talk will address the cultural exchanges that took place between the Islamic world, Western Europe, and the Far East in the realm of ceramics production. The territories of Islam were advantageously situated at a crossroads between East and West, and the cultural interaction that this location encouraged is reflected in all Islamic artwork, but particularly ceramics. Given their portability and relative affordability, ceramics of all kinds circulated from East to West and vice versa as everyday objects of trade and as luxurious, courtly gifts. Techniques, motifs, styles, and artisans traveled seamlessly through these realms, and this talk will explore why certain types of objects, Chinese porcelain, Islamic lusterware, etc., became so popular as export and import objects in the Middle Ages and early Modern world.
10:15-10:35 Break (coffee, tea, water)
10:40 – 11:15 Thomas Michie, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Ceramics on the Edge: California Studio Pottery, 1930-50
The beginnings of studio pottery in California were sporadic and largely removed from developments in other parts of the country. This presentation traces the contributions of pioneers, such as Glen Lukens and Laura Andreson, and the rapid growth of the field in the 1930s spurred by European émigrés, such as the Natzlers and Marguerite Wildenhain. The rise of art school curricula and university-based ceramics departments in the 1940s and 50s paved the way for a generation of ceramists, culminating in the varied post-War careers of Harrison MacIntosh, Peter Voulkos, John Mason, and others.
11:20-11:55 Beth Lo, Professor, Ceramics, Sculpture, and Drawing, University of Montana
The Ceramic Artwork of Beth Lo: Asian Influences and Traditions
In this presentation, Beth Lo will show examples of her work with some ceramics that have influenced her, such as Han and Tang Dynasty figures, blue-and-white porcelain, vase forms, calligraphy, origami, and socialist realist imagery. She will also discuss the values that these visual traditions embody.
12:00 – 12:50 Group A – Lunch, Arnold Board Room
Group B – Browse museum
12:50- 1:40 Group B – Lunch, Arnold Board Room
Group A – Browse museum
1:45-2:15 Josh Yiu, Foster Foundation Assistant Curator of Chinese Art, Seattle Art Museum
A European concept in Chinese guise: on the origin of the garniture de cheminée
This talk examines the origin of a popular European interior decoration during the 17th and 18th centuries, namely the garniture de cheminée, which normally consists of three baluster-shaped jars and two beakers placed on the mantelpiece and/or the cupboard. Despite the common belief that garnitures of vases derived from Chinese temple altar sets, Josh Yiu argues that Chinese vases were only assembled as garnitures once they arrived in Europe.
2:30 Buses depart for tour of a private collection
3:00 Private Collection tour of Pre-Columbian art
Tour by the collector with a focus on ceramic and stone arts of the Maya
View the famous “Scribe Plate”, Guatemala, Nakbe region, c. 672-830, 14 ¾” diam. The plate depicts an artist (who may also be a god) leaning over, quill pen in hand, to write in a codex.
4:30 Buses depart for hotel
6:30 Buses depart for cocktail reception and annual dinner, The Sunset Club
9:30 Buses depart for hotel
Sunday November 4, 2007
Post-Symposium Tour (Limited to 40 ACC members)
10:00a.m. Bus departs hotel
10:15-11:00 Tour Private Collection
A collection of Asian art with a focus on Japanese porcelain 1630-1750.
11:10-12:00 Tour Private Collection
A collection especially known for its Chinese celadons.
12:00 Bus departs
Seattle Asian Art Museum, Volunteer Park
The Seattle Art Museum’s original home, this famous art deco building opened in 1933. It remains one of the region’s most admired architectural landmarks. Today it houses the premier Asian collection of the Seattle Art Museum. Director Mimi Gates and curators Yukiko Shirahara and Josh Yiu will welcome you.
1:00 Bus departs for hotel
~ The American Ceramic
Circle wishes to express heartfelt thanks to
Christie’s, Northeast Auctions, Skinner, and Sotheby’s auction houses
for their continuing sponsorship of our annual symposium. ~
