Presented by Daniel K. Ackermann, Ph.D.
Director of Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
From imported Madeira sipped from glass at mahogany tables to local whisky swigged out of redware jugs, explore the decorative arts that defined the early Southern drinker.
Presented by Chelsea Dacus,
Assistant Curator of the Arts of the Indigenous Americas, Africa, the Pacific, and Antiquities, and Assistant Curator of Ancient Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Presented by Aimee Froom, Ph.D.
Curator, Arts of the Islamic World,
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
A. Brandt Zipp will introduce Thomas W. Commeraw, one of the most well-known African-American craftsmen of his day. A stoneware potter working in the earliest decades of the new United States, he and his fellow New York City stoneware manufacturers were looked to as the gold standard of their craft, shipping large amounts of ware up and down the eastern seaboard.
Thomas W. Commeraw was completely forgotten by American society in the wake of his death. This presentation will tell Commeraw’s fascinating story from the perspective of the person who serendipitously rediscovered him in the twenty-first century and then brought his story back to life.
A bus has been arranged to take people to the Delores Martin's home. Use Sign up Genius to reserve a place on the bus. Cost $20. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0A4DACAF2BA7F94-48308842-ihcc
Car Pools are also being arranged. Contact Andy Fossler with questions. [email protected]
Marion Oettinger Jr. will give a concise overview of Latin American ceramic through time and space, from pre-Columbian times to the modern era, concentrating on form as well a function.
William R. Sargent will discuss how Western attitudes towards Chinese ceramics can be discerned through their representation in visual art, from their first appearance in Europe to modern times. Paintings and prints are a rich resource of information, helping to identify markets for Chinese ceramics, their uses, and lending credence to dating. They are a record of the past that cannot be recreated by shipping documents, estate inventories, auction records, journals, or diaries. Using these visual records, which reflect changes of taste, interior design, display, and collecting habits, we can trace the impact of Chinese export ceramics on Western culture.
Benjamin Miller will share how the latter part of the 19th century saw a furious exchange of commerce and aesthetics between America and Asia. Nowhere was this more influential than in the decorative arts, where visual vocabulary and technical abilities rapidly proliferated between continents. In America, craftspeople wasted no time incorporating these fresh ideas into their practice, leading to an explosion of creativity and innovation.
Presented by Robert Aronson, fifth generation owner of Aronson Antiquairs. Delftware has been a national symbol of Holland for almost 400 years. Initiated by the demand for the waning importation of Asian porcelain from the 1640s, Delftware quickly became an iconic national product and one of the greatest Dutch achievements.
Robert’s lecture will give a global perspective of the circumstances under which the city of Delft became the center of European ceramics production and will show many beautiful objects that were produced in the two following centuries. He is pleased to speak to the IHCC members and answer any questions you have.
This is a IHCC members only event. Please mark your calendar. As an aside, this will follow the scheduled Friday Focus from 1:30-2:30.
Ron Fuchs II, Co-editor of Ceramics in America will explore the global history of one of the earliest pieces of Chinese porcelain to reach the US- a blue and white dish broken and thrown away by June 1610 in Jamestown, Virginia.
Why is a punch bowl like a pamphlet? Curator Amanda Isaac explores the persuasive powers of punch bowls as she investigates the origins and later travels of two important Chinese porcelain examples.
As artists, we build on the history of our medium. Sometimes there is
a reverent homage to the past, and other times the connection is a
"stretch". However, we are constantly influenced by our current
surroundings juxtaposed to historical references. With reference to
the extensive ceramics collection at the MFAH , I will discuss
a few currently producing ceramic artists who are infusing imagery of
historical ceramics into a new direction based on their cultural
backgrounds. Do the past and the present merge or collide? See what
you think.
