Warren MacKenzie: Boxes and Jars

Warren MacKenzie

BOXES AND JARS

Front Cover: Oatmeal Lidded Jar with Brush, Stamped, 2013, Stoneware, 8.50h x 8w in.

Back Cover: Pair of Small Button Boxes, Stamped, 2017 Photographer: George Bouret Catalogue Design: Sophia Marsh

Warren MacKenzie BOXES AND JARS

March 5 - 27, 2022

Lucy Lacoste Gallery 25 Main Street, Concord MA lucylacoste.com | info@lucylacoste.com

Warren MacKenzie in his studio, 2018

Warren MacKenzie

1924 - 2018

Warren MacKenzie made thousands of pots a year, working daily at his Stillwater, Minnesota studio up until his recent death at the age of 94. He studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago, then changed to ceramics after serving in WWII. Influenced by the Japanese Mingei folk craft movement, MacKenzie made pots for everyday use by ordinary people. His interest in functional pottery began when he and his first wife, Alix, made regular trips to the Field Museum and became captivated by the “pots that had been used in people’s lives and in their homes” (MPR News 2007).

My main interest is in the form, surface and gesture of making. I am working with some of the same elements that a painter or sculptor use but the results are completely different. A potter first attracts the eye through form, color, textures, gesture, and possibly decorative devices. Eventually, due to the nature of the work, such things as weight, balance, tactile reactions, and suitability to function begin to engage us. Out of a kiln load of hundreds of pots, only a few reach out to the user. Out of this small number, even fewer will continue to engage the senses after daily use. These seem to tap a source beyond the personal and deal with universal experience . . . Some pots just feel right, and a person who is open will know them. If given time to absorb the inner nature of the work and its maker, this person can share in the creative act that produced the piece. - Warren MacKenzie

Gray Button Box From a Private Collection, Late 1990's - Early 2000's Stoneware, 5 1/2h x 5 1/2w x 5 1/2d in.

Yellow Button Box From a Private Collection, Late 1990's - Early 2000's Stoneware, 6h x 6 1/4w x 6 1/2d in.

Gray Button Box, Stamped Stoneware 6h x 5w x 4 1/2d in.

Pair of Small Button Boxes, Stamped, 2017 Stoneware 3.75h x 3w in.

Shino Button Box, Stamped Stoneware 6.25h x 5w in.

Tall Shino Button Box, Stamped Stoneware 7h x 4 1/2w in.

1. Round Lidded Jar with Lines, Stamped, Stoneware, 6h x 5.75w in.

2. Amber Lidded Jar, Stamped, Stoneware4h x 5.50w in.

3. White Lidded Jar with Gray Stripe, Stoneware, 4 1/2h x 6w x 6d in.

4. Gray Lidded Jar, White Drips, Stoneware 4.50h x 5w in.

1

2

3

4

Jar, Amber with Drawn Triangle 2005 - 2010, Stoneware 7.50h x 7w in.

Green Lidded Jar Stoneware 6.50h x 6w in.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Shino Lidded Jar, Stoneware, 5.75h x 5w in.

Shino Lidded Jar, Stamped, Stoneware, 6.50h x 5.50w in.

Shino Lidded Jar, Stoneware, 5h x 5.50w in.

Flowing White Shino Lidded Jar, Stamped, 2014, Stoneware, 6.50h x 6w in.

1

2

3

4

Vase, Tenmoku, 2016 Stoneware 6h x 4 1/2w in.

Fluted Shino Jar, Stamped Stoneware 6 1/2h x 12 1/2w in.

Tall Vase with Finger Wipes Stoneware, Stamped 12h x 4.50w in.

Shino Vase with Etched Lines Stoneware 8.50h x 4.50w in.

Faceted Shino Vase Stoneware, Stamped 10h x 5w in.

White over Shinol w/ Iron Splash Late 1990's - Early 2000's, Stoneware 5.50h x 9.50w in.

Short White Vase, Stamped 1990's, Stoneware 5h x 4.25w x 6d in.

Vase w/ Gray and Copper Glaze Early 2000's, Stoneware 7.50h x 5w in.

Green Circle Jar and Drawn Triangle Tenmoku Vase, Pair Stoneware, Stamped Left: 7h x 4.5w in. Right: 6.75h x 6w in.

Shino Vase, Stamped Stoneware 8 3/4h x 12 1/2w in.

Faceted Tenmoku Vase, Stamped Stoneware 9.50h x 6.25w in.

Warren MacKenzie 1924 - 2018 Education 1949-52 Apprenticeship, Studio of Bernard Leach, St. Ives England 1947 Art Institute Chicago Academic Appointment University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 1954-1990. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 1952-35 Instructor, St Paul Gallery and School of Art, St. Paul MN

Warren MacKenzie was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1924 and grew up in Wilmette Illinois. He enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago as a painting student, yet after serving in World War II, he returned to study on the GI Bill only to find the painting classes full. He decided to sign up for ceramics, which was a fortuitous decision as he met his first wife Alix there and found his calling. Together they made many trips to the Field Museum of Natural History to study ancient cultures.

Everything fell into place once he read the Potter’s Book by Bernard Leach which described how life and work could be intertwined, as MacKenzie has written, ‘with the goal being to make objects of utility and simple beauty’. After his apprenticeship with Bernard Leach, who revived studio pottery in the Arts and Crafts era, the MacKenzie’s moved to Minnesota, buying land in Stillwater, where Warren established his studio in and remained for the rest of his life.

MacKenzie taught at the University of Minnesota from 1954 – 1990, rising from instructor to Regents Professor Emeritus, then receiving an honorary doctorate in 2015. He taught generations of makers, not to be a copy of himself, yet to come up with their own aesthetic solutions. MacKenzie, went on to exhibit as an equal, with both Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada, the Japanese national treasure who MacKenzie found so inspirational.

After the death of his wife Alix in 1962 from cancer, he raised their two daughters Alix and Shawn while continuing to teach at the University and make pots. In 1984 MacKenzie married the fiber artist Nancy Spitzer, who passed away in 2014.

MacKenzie was named one of the 12 greatest potters in the world by Ceramics Monthly in 1981. He also won the McKnight Distinguished Artist Award in 1999, considered to be the highest honor for artists in Minnesota. His name is synonymous with functional pottery all over the world. He taught workshops and master classes in the United States, South America, England, Canada, Scandinavia and Japan. Warren is credited with making Minnesota the ‘Clay State’ or ‘Mingeisota’ as it became known, a play on the Japanese folkcraft idea of mingei which means ‘art of the people’.

MacKenzie’s work can be found in the collections of museums worldwide including the Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; the Minneapolis Institute of Art, St. Paul MN; the Smithsonian, Washington D.C.; the Victoria and Albert, London, England; and the Japan Folk Craft Museum, Tokyo, Japan. He is especially beloved in Japan for embracing the Mingei Japanese Folk Pottery tradition.

It was a privilege and great pleasure to know Warren MacKenzie personally and show his work from 2002 until his death in 2018, and on. To me, Warren MacKenzie’s goal was to reduce everything to the simplest. When he achieved that—the work become elemental and transcendent, a great example of contemporary art. - Lucy Lacoste