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Artist/Maker
Frans Rudolf Wildenhain
(German, 1905 - 1980)
Datec. 1970s
MediumStoneware with glaze
DimensionsOverall: 22 in. × 13 1/2 in. × 8 1/2 in. (55.9 × 34.3 × 21.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Catherine W. Palmer
Object number1989.38
On view
DescriptionFranz Wildenhain studied pottery in Germany at the Bauhaus, a respected school of art known for its avant-garde integration of arts and crafts with industrialized production and modernist aesthetic that existed from 1919 to 1933. After leaving Germany for America following World War II, Wildenhain taught pottery at the Rochester Institute of Technology for twenty years. His work is grounded in the American Studio pottery movement of the second half of the twentieth century. This movement, which reacted against the exoticism, exuberance, surface decoration, and glitter that defined the Art Deco period, instead celebrated simplified, abstract forms created from more rustic materials and glazed with an earthy palette. As painters moved away from figuration in the 1950s and ’60s toward more expressive forms, so too did ceramicists break with tradition to embrace their medium as a sculptural form not necessarily dictated by function (SOURCE: Wellin Museum permanent collection label, Summer 2016).
Collections
Additional Details
Exhibition History
2012
Clinton, NY. Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Case Histories: The Hidden Meaning of Objects," October 6, 2012 - Present (no cat.).
Clinton, NY. Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Case Histories: The Hidden Meaning of Objects," October 6, 2012 - Present (no cat.).
Provenance
1989 Hamilton College by gift from Mrs. Catherine W. Palmer; to Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College
Markings
Adhesive label at bottom of foot marked in blue ink and typeset: Artist F. Wildenhain / Title Decor- Urn / 3. Ceramic / Media [downward pointing arrow] Price 150.- / N.F.S.
Published References
FRIENDS OF ART NEWSLETTER (Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, vol. 1, no. 3, April 1990, "Acquisitions").
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Date: 1918
Medium: Charcoal, pen and ink, watercolor, and gouache wash on paper
Object number: 1995.73
Donald De Lue
Date: 1931, cast 1986
Medium: Bronze on marble base
Object number: 2020.11.3
Karl Blossfeldt
Date: 1929
Medium: Rotogravure
Object number: 2009.2.2