Newcomb Art Museum - Crafting Utopia: The Art of Shaker Women

Clay in Place

Completed
Jan 18, 2018 – Mar 24, 2018
Since primeval times, clay has persisted as a medium explored by visual artists across the globe. Earthen materials, which are a springboard for the contemporary works by Mexican artists in the companion exhibition Clay in Transit, also have a local history and one particular to New Orleans: Newcomb Pottery (1895-1940).

Yet long before Joseph Meyer experimented from 1896 to 1927 with clay recipes for Newcomb pottery, clay was an ubiquitous material in New Orleans. The mud of the Mississippi River was a source for the characteristically soft red bricks found in the city’s home constructions. And, alluvial deposits in St. Tammany parish, near Lake Pontchartrain, yielded slightly harder paving bricks, recognizable even today in the sidewalks of the Garden District.

Historically, the pottery produced at Newcomb relied on clay from these two places as well as the Bayou Tchulakabaufa in Biloxi. Instead of a single source, terra cotta was created from a mixture of red and buff clays. Experiments with regional materials were conducted throughout the years, and clay for the pottery also occasionally came from coastal Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Indiana.

While much has changed stylistically since the post-war period when the medium of ceramics shifted toward non-functional approaches, clay has endured as a material that reflects its concurrent environment and milieu. The museum’s collection mirrors these shifts in style, and the exhibition Clay in Place highlights both traditional and contemporary ceramics and their different approaches to function and place.

Works on view include Newcomb Pottery (1895-1940) and Newcomb Guild (1940-1952), and recent pieces by selected alumni, faculty, and former faculty. Among the dozen-plus artists featured are pioneering clay sculptor Peter Voulkos, who conducted a workshop on campus in 1978; jewelry designer Mignon Faget; four former heads of the ceramics program, Katherine Choy, Sadie Irvine, Mary Sheerer and Ellsworth Woodward; co-founder of Studio in the Woods, Lucianne Carmichael; and Rachael DePauw, winner of the 2007 Jaunita Gonzales Prize in Ceramics.

Featuring artwork by Aurelia Coralie Arbo, Henrietta Davidson Bailey, Lucianne Carmichael, Katherine Choy (Choy Pau Yu), Rachael DePauw, William DePauw, Jr., Mignon Faget, Francis A. Ford, Jules Gabry, Juanita Louise Gonzales, The Gela Painter, Jane Irwin Gibbs, Jonathan Hunt, Sarah Agnes Estelle “Sadie” Irvine, Harriet Coulter Joor, Katharine Kopman, Marie de Hoa LeBlanc, Cynthia Pugh Littlejohn, Ada Wilt Lonnegan, Ruth Maddox, Joseph Fortune Meyer, Leona Fischer Nicholson, Mary Given Sheerer, Erin “Effie” Shepard, Anna Frances “Fanny” Simpson, Kenneth Eugene Smith, Jeffrey Thurston, Lauren “Lola” Victor, Peter Voulkos, Sabina Elliot Wells, Ellsworth Woodward.

Displayed in conjunction with “Clay in Transit: Contemporary Mexican Ceramics”, Curated by Laura Blereau.

For more information, please visit the Clay in Place website

Exhibition Objects (53)

Browse as a List

Amaryllis Platter 2018.3.1

Image of Apulian Red-figure calyx-krater

Apulian Red-figure calyx-krater 1901.1-C

Image of Attic Black-figure Lekythos Vase with Bull being led to Sacrifice Design

Attic Black-figure Lekythos Vase with Bull being led to Sacrifice Design 1901.3-C

Image of Chocolate Cup with Dogwood Design

Chocolate Cup with Dogwood Design 2010.12.9

Image of Chocolate Pot with Mock Orange Design and Lid

Chocolate Pot with Mock Orange Design and Lid 2010.12.7

Fling Toward 2018.2.2

Flower Cup 2018.1.1.a

Flower Cup 2018.1.2.a

Flower Saucer 2018.1.1.b

Flower Saucer 2018.1.2.b

For 2017.257

Frame with Image 2017.256b

Frame with Image 2017.256a

Green Vase 1973.165-C

Image of Jar with Lid and Dewberry Design

Jar with Lid and Dewberry Design 2009.1-C

LV.2016.04.04A 2017.45

Image of Mug with Abstract Pattern Design

Mug with Abstract Pattern Design 1973.46-C

Image of Mug with Banded Oak Tree Design

Mug with Banded Oak Tree Design 1973.49-C

Mug with Lily Buds Design 1973.51-C

Image of Newcomb Centennial Commemorative Plate

Newcomb Centennial Commemorative Plate A.2000.1592

Image of Newcomb Chapel Plate with Bachelor Button Design

Newcomb Chapel Plate with Bachelor Button Design 1982.399-C

Pelican 2016.186

Plate with Fly Catcher Design 1973.63-C

Image of Plate with Grapes and Roosters Design

Plate with Grapes and Roosters Design 1973.62-C

Plate with Portrait of Woman 1979.392-C

Image of Plate with Spanish Dagger Yucca Design

Plate with Spanish Dagger Yucca Design 1977.1-C

Polymelia 2017.70

Image of Silver Vase with Metallic Finish

Silver Vase with Metallic Finish 1973.139.A

Skewered Form 2017.71

Image of Small Green Vase with Carved Leaf Design

Small Green Vase with Carved Leaf Design 1973.138-C

Stack 2016.76

Sunflower Tile 1995.609-C

Tower 2018.2.1

Trivet with tulip design 1973.98-C

Image of Tyg with Kappa Alpha Fraternity Heraldic Design

Tyg with Kappa Alpha Fraternity Heraldic Design 1973.76-C

Vase 1994.601-C

Vase with Grand Isle Design 1973.67-C

Vase with JLN Medallion Design 1973.132-C

Vase with Lady Slipper Design 1982.430-C

Vase with Matte Green 1973.183-C

Vase with Moon and Moss Design 2000.45A

Image of Vase with Moon, Moss and Oak Design

Vase with Moon, Moss and Oak Design 1973.68-C.DUP

Image of Vase with Oaks and Moss at Dawn Design

Vase with Oaks and Moss at Dawn Design 1979.389-C

Vase with Orchid Design 1982.423-C

Image of Vase with Stylized Mallow Design

Vase with Stylized Mallow Design 1973.3-C

Image of Vase with Vertical Tier of "Espanol" Design

Vase with Vertical Tier of "Espanol" Design 1973.115-C

Vase with Waterlily Design 1973.24-C

Vase, "Formal" 1973.170-C

Vase, Ali Baba Design 1973.11-C

Vase, Cumulus Ware 1973.217-C

Vase, Gulf Cumulus Ware 1973.238-C

Vase, Gulf Rainware 1973.226-C

Vase, Gulf Spindrift Ware 1973.282-C

Exhibition Images (3)

Artists (33)

Browse as a List

Ada Wilt Lonnegan (1879 - 1963 (October 15), New Orleans, LA)
Anna "Fanny" Frances Connor Simpson (New Orleans, LA, 1880 - 1930)
Aurelia Coralie Arbo (New Orleans LA, 1909 - 1993)
Cynthia Pugh Littlejohn (Napoleonville, LA, 1890 - 1959 (July 1), New Orleans, LA)
Ellsworth Woodward (Seekonk, MA, 1861 - 1939, New Orleans, LA)
Erin "Effie" Shepard (New Orleans, LA, 1883 - 1917)
Francis A. Ford (New Orleans, LA, 1916 - 1984)
Gela Painter (active 510 BCE - 490 BCE)
Harriet "Hattie" Coulter Joor (Navarro County, TX, 1875 - 1965 (March 28), Lafayette, LA)
Henrietta Davidson Bailey (New Orleans, LA, 1874 - 1950, New Orleans, LA)
Jeffrey Thurston (Sacramento, CA, 1984 - )
Jonathan Browne Hunt (Flemington, New Jersey, 1876 - 1943, Denver, CO)
Joseph Fortune Meyer (Burthiers, Haute-Saone, France, 1848 - 1931, New Orleans, LA)
Juanita Louise Gonzales (New Orleans, LA, 1903 - 1935)
Jules Gabry (1850 - 1897, Biloxi, MS)
Katherine [Choy Po-Yu] Choy (Shanghai, China, 1927 - 1958, Port Chester, NY)
Kenneth Eugene Smith (Scio, New York, 1907 - 1980, Indiana)
Leona Fischer Nicholson (Francisville, LA, 1875 - 1966)
Lola Victor (San Diego, CA, 1993 - )
Lucianne Carmichael (Toronto, Canada, 1931 - 2016, New Orleans, LA)
Marie de Hoa LeBlanc (New Orleans, LA, 1874 - 1954, New Orleans, LA)
Marie Levering Benson (Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, 1877 - 1958, New Orleans, Louisiana)
Mary Givens Sheerer (Covinton, KY, 1865 - 1954 (December 3), Cinncinati, OH)
Mignon Faget (New Orleans, LA, 1933 - )
Newcomb Artisan
Newcomb Guild (New Orleans, LA, 1940 – 1952)
Peter Voulkos (Bozeman, MT, 1924 - 2002, Bowling Green, OH)
Rachael DePauw (St. Louis, MO, 1984 - )
Ruth Maddox (New Orleans, LA, 1907 – 1966, New Orleans, LA)
Sabina Elliott Wells (Charleston, SC, 1876 - 1943, Hoopers Creek, NC)
Sarah Agnes Estelle "Sadie" Irvine (New Orleans, LA, 1887 - 1970, New Orleans, LA)
Unknown Artist
William DePauw (Warren, MI, 1972 – )

Browse the Exhibitions

Clay in Place