Warren MacKenzie
goldmark
£10
Warren MacKenzie
goldmark 2018
Warren MacKenzie Warren MacKenzie started working with clay in the United States, but it is fair to say that he really became a potter in England. This exhibition therefore marks something of an artistic homecoming. It underlines one major source of his work, which draws heavily upon English, American, and Asian models. And in more personal terms, it recalls MacKenzie’s apprenticeship at the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, and his friendship with Bernard Leach. MacKenzie is a most modest man, uncomfortable with accolades no matter how well-deserved, yet it is undeniable that he has for a long time been the major American figure in the country pottery tradition identified with Leach and Shoji Hamada. MacKenzie was a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago planning to become a Bauhaus-style painter and designer when a bureaucratic detour led him to a ceramics class. It was uninspiring, aimed only at the creation of prototypes for industrial production. But when a fellow student brought in a copy of Leach’s A Potter’s Book MacKenzie found his career path and life’s work. Through another happy occurrence, when Warren and Alix MacKenzie, his wife, came to visit Leach and ask if they could become apprentices, they were initially rebuffed because their skills were so rudimentary; but then a long conversation during a nighttime kiln firing watch turned things
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62. Platter Oatmeal, brown & green 11 x 42 cm
around and led to an invitation. The opportunity to live with Leach in his house led to endless conversations about pottery and other matters, to seeing and handling pots of all kinds including some by Hamada, and to meeting Hamada and members of the St. Ives artistic community such as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, as well as prominent potters such as Michael Cardew, Hans Coper and Lucie Rie. The time in St. Ives proved a defining experience for MacKenzie. The MacKenzies returned from England as skilled potters, with the ability to turn out production ware quickly and precisely. MacKenzie, however, has never valued technique as an end in itself. Rather, it is the starting-point for drawing out the possibilities of a particular form in a long sweep of making, by executing a series of works that display sometimes minor, sometimes dramatic variations. Coming up with something completely original is not the goal: fullness of expression is what counts. MacKenzie has always been a functional potter who wants his work to play its part in the daily life of the home, realizing its fullest beauty through use. That is his basic creed: the artist and user joined together as part of a community, with the pot as a vehicle of communication not only through sight but through tactile, hands-on experience. His efforts to keep his own work affordable have become complicated as his reputation has grown – he finally had to close the honors system sales shop next to his studio after raids from buyers aiming only at resale – but he retains his heartfelt faith in the value of pots that are
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used rather than treated only as commodities or enshrined in museums. To see MacKenzie at the wheel is to see someone with a comfortable assurance that is a wonder. To observe his work over time is to see someone never resting secure, but always testing himself, always experimenting. Alix MacKenzie did most of the surface designs for the pots they threw and glazed individually. In her work the influence of Klee is clear but so is an original, personal gift that beautifully married surface embellishment and physical form. Warren MacKenzie has always liked to say that his gifts as a decorator are limited, but since his wife’s death in 1962 he has found any number of ways to enliven his pots, beyond the choice and application of glaze and occasional kiln-induced effects. MacKenzie is well aware that he is no unschooled folk potter, born in Asia and raised practicing calligraphy, but that does not stop him from doing Asian-inspired designs, using a visual language he accepts as part of a tradition he admires. He has also developed all kinds of other approaches, with the edge of a piece of cardboard a favorite for straight-edged geometric marks, and a bewildering assortment of kitchen implements and ordinary objects such as bottle caps to create patterns in the clay. MacKenzie has never really been tempted by ceramic sculpture. He prefers to concentrate on plates, bowls, teapots, vases, cups, mugs, platters and the like. Yet he can be surprisingly elastic in how he approaches them, as when he
51. Pedestal Jar Yellow 14.5 x 12 cm
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remarked that pretty much anything with a hole in it can be considered a vase. Even with his long lifetime and extraordinary productivity he makes it possible to understand his belief that there is no exhausting the possibilities of the basic forms. For MacKenzie, the key creative act takes place at the wheel, as the clay is worked freely and unselfconsciously. He is always working toward the right mixture of control and relaxation, and those rare moments when all the elements come together, but any success can only be provisional. There is always the next pot, and the next, and odds are that any attempt to repeat what seems a satisfactory achievement will quickly prove formulaic and lifeless. Change is fundamental. To understand MacKenzie and his achievement properly it is necessary to do as he does, to consider the pots as carefully as possible. The lidded boxes, for example, have sliced edges with just the right amount of unevenness to avoid being geometrically perfect but artistically dull. It helps when the glaze comes out a perfect salmon color, with the tiny pinholes adding texture and visual appeal, or when the glaze is dipped and runs in just the right way to create a look that is uneven but has character. An apparently simple, straightforward bowl with repeated flutes or facets on the sides can possess a classical sense of harmony in its size, proportions, and shape in relation to the color and all the other basic elements that MacKenzie works so hard to bring into a satisfying harmony. There need be – should be – nothing fancy, no attention-grabbing effects.
55. Tri Box Shino 14 x 11.5 cm
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And the final test is always tactile, not purely visual. Connoisseurship is no doubt an old-fashioned word, associated with pretentiousness and elitism, but it is easy to imagine every MacKenzie pot as the subject of a discussion of its qualities and its quality – as in those long-ago conversations with Leach over the day’s production or a pot pulled down from a shelf – with every single element subjected to relentless scrutiny and endless questioning. Too shiny? Too matte? Too awkward in the relation between the applied decoration and the overall shape? Too mechanical and stiff? Too loose? And, by the way, does that teapot, so beautiful to the eye and so pleasing to hold, actually pour properly? MacKenzie’s passion for pots has always been boundless. He is serious about ideas, and has been known to engage in discussions about ceramics that become rather heated. But he has a lively sense of humor and so do his pots, although given his exalted reputation that perhaps has not been adequately noted. Of course the humor is expressed in pot language, perhaps in the way a small blue dot or two play against whirls of darker glaze, or in the droll simplicity of a small knob atop a teapot or jar. The journalist Tom Brokaw wrote a best-selling book, The Greatest Generation, about Americans who grew up during the Depression and then served during World War II. MacKenzie is a key figure in what might be called the Greatest Generation in modern American studio ceramics, along with others such as
36,35,37. Goblets Kaki, Blue, Celadon 12 x 8 cm
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Peter Voulkos, Betty Woodman, Ken Ferguson, and Karen Karnes. MacKenzie is steadfast in his preferences, but he has also been appreciative of the wide range of work by his contemporaries, expressing admiration, for example, toward Voulkos and his intense, direct engagement with clay. He has also been extraordinarily generous to younger potters, sharing the spotlight in gallery exhibitions and sales, and helping out in many other ways including the great gift of hospitality and sociability – aided immeasurably in that respect by his second wife, Nancy, a fiber artist who died in 2014. In the digital age, artists may employ conventional painting, drawing, sculpture or craft media, but are just as likely to specialize in performance and installation, with some video production added to the postmodern mix. The idea of craft can easily be sentimentalized, and there is reason to preserve a certain skepticism when ceramics now appear to be enjoying their fifteen minutes of fame in the art world. It is worth recalling, however, an observation MacKenzie made in a lecture more than twenty years ago. He said that although young people are exposed to a different world, the ideal of using the functional pot as an expressive tool to reflect individual interests ‘will always be contemporary, and the challenge of making such pots will always be exciting.’ That statement helps explain why MacKenzie’s pottery remains important, as an expression of a remarkable man, to be sure, but more fundamentally as the embodiment of an approach to art and life. Robert Silberman Writer, curator and professor of Art History at University of Minnesota
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99. Drop Rim Bowl Cool grey 11.5 x 24.5 cm
3. Lidded Jar Fluted. Tenmoku 22 x 15 cm
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53. Fluted Teapot Yellow over celadon 19 x 20.5 cm
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8. Square Box Blue 13 x 13.5 cm
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98. Fat Vase Textured. Shino 22.5 x 22 cm
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58. Charger Drip/dot. Grey, kaki & blue 6 x 34 cm
48. Bowl Fluted. Tenmoku 9 x 19 cm next page
57. Charger Shino & black 5 x 34 cm
97. Large Lidded Jar Fluted. Shino 30 x 17 cm
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103. Large Serving Bowl Textured. Grey 12 x 24 cm
80. Split Rim Bowl Two pinch. Matte yellow 9 x 16.5 cm
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67. Cylinder Vase Grey & yellow 31 x 12 cm
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14. Drop Rim Bowl Trailing. Shino 29 x 13 cm
40. Yunomi Drip/dot. Grey, kaki & blue 8 x 8.5 cm
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65. Small Fluted Bowl Yellow 8 x 12.5 cm
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46. Pedestal Bowl Shino. Iron slip 11.5 x 19 cm
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Biography 1924 1941 1943 1946
Born, Kansas City, Missouri Started attending Chicago Art Institute after graduating high school Drafted into the army for 3 years Returned form the army and started pottery lessons as all the art classes were already full. 1947 Married Alixandra Kolesky 1948 Graduated from art school and started work at St. Paul Gallery & School of Art, Minnesota 1949 Summer in Europe with 2 weeks at the Leach Pottery, St. Ives. 1950 Travelled to England to apprentice with Bernard Leach, stayed for 2½ years, working with Bill Marshall. Met Hamada, Lucie Rie & Hans Coper whilst in England – also artists Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth & Terry Frost 1952 Returned to America and held the 1st US Shoji Hamada show 1953 Purchased a farm in Stillwater, MN and established a pottery. Also started work at University of Minnesota as the ceramics teacher 1954-57 Lecturer in ceramics at University of Minnesota. Continued working at the university, eventually becoming Associate Professor of Ceramics from 1961-66 and staying on as Professor of Ceramics there until 1984. 1974 Travelled to Japan with a group of potters. Visited Hamada, met Shimaoka 1976-79 President of the National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts 1981 Elected Honorary Fellow of the American Crafts Council 1982 Elected Honorary Fellow of the National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts 1984 Marries Nancy Spitzer Elected International Fellow of International Academy of Ceramics 1984-90 Regents Professor, University of Minnesota 1990 - Studio artist, Stillwater, MN
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1986 1995 1997 1997 1998 1999 2001 2004
2006 2006 2007 2010
First recipient of the Minnesota Governor’s Award for Crafts Exhibition Warren MacKenzie at Gallery Shunn, Tokyo. Received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Minnesota Crafts Council Exhibition Warren MacKenzie at Gallery Shunn, Tokyo. Awarded a Gold Medal by the American Crafts Council Received McKnight Distinguished Artist Award from the McKnight Foundation of Minnesota. Exhibition Warren MacKenzie at Gallery Shunn, Tokyo. Exhibition Nancy and Warren MacKenzie at gallery gen, New York. Exhibition Warren MacKenzie to celebrate the grand opening of Gallery Shunn at Nihombashi Mitsukoshi, Tokyo. Lecture at New York University, New York on ‘Japan and Its Effect on Contemporary Ceramics’. Exhibition Warren MacKenzie and the Midwest Five at gallery gen, New York. Exhibition Warren MacKenzie: Legacy of an American Potter at Rochester Art Center, MN Exhibition Warren & Nancy MacKenzie and Midwest Potters at gallery gen, New York.
Selected Bibliography Clark, Garth. American Potters: the Work of Twenty Modern Masters. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1981. Futter, Catherine, and Robert B. Silberman. Warren MacKenzie: Legacy of an American Potter. Rochester, MN: Rochester Art Center, 2007. Haworth, Dale K. and Karen F. Beall. Warren MacKenzie and the Functional Tradition in Clay. Northfield, MN: Carleton Art Gallery, Carleton College, 1994. Holohan, Michael, and Horty Shieber. Warren MacKenzie: Sphere of Influence. Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Department of Art and Design, 1994.
45. Split Rim Bowl Celadon 8 x 17 cm
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47. Penta Fluted Bowl Shino 11 x 24 cm
Leach, Bernard. Six Master Potters of the Modern Age. New York: Babcock Galleries, 1995. Lewis, David. Warren MacKenzie, an American Potter. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1991. MacKenzie, Warren, David Lewis, et al. Warren MacKenzie, Potter: a Retrospective. Minneapolis, MN: University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, 1989. Silberman, Robert B. and John Szarkowski. Warren MacKenzie: 1999 Distinguished Artist Award. Minneapolis, MN: McKnight Foundation, 1999.
Work in Public Collections The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Chunichi Shimbun Collection, Nagoya, Japan Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College Art Collection, Grinnell, Iowa Joslyn Museum, Omaha, Nebraska Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, California Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota Minnesota History Museum, St. Paul, Minnesota Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, Minnesota Museum of Applied Art, Helsinki, Finland Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York National Folk Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C. St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
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Text: © Robert Silberman, 2018 Photographs: © Jay Goldmark & Vicki Uttley Design: Goldmark / Porter
Goldmark, Uppingham Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424
ISBN 978-1-909167-51-3
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Our profound thanks to Anthony Schaller of Schaller Gallery without whose generous assistance this exhibition would not have been possible.
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