If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Lyle Jamieson is known for figurative pieces like Sassy, one of a series of hollow vessels in the shape of the female form. He sees his finished work as a relationship between the wood and the form created from it. “The grain reacts to the rounded surfaces of the human form. I try to reveal the beauty, color, and design of the wood; to bring the human figure into the mix has been stimulating and satisfying.”
Design and planning are essential to Jamieson’s process; before he starts turning a block of wood he sketches an outline of the piece directly on the block. For the figurative pieces, Jamieson uses large, straight-grained logs of salvaged Michigan hardwoods. While he has been turning only since 1990, his appreciation for wood as an aesthetic medium comes from the childhood lessons he received from his father, a wood pattern maker.
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004
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Barry Macdonald finds inspiration in a wide variety of vessel forms, including those made of clay or glass, such as vases, urns, bottles, and jars. In Bottle, Macdonald took an object ordinarily made of glass, retained its form and glossy, glass-like finish, but transformed it into wood. Through this creative process he captured some of the unique character of the original object yet created an element of surprise by rendering it in wood.
Before establishing himself as a self-taught woodturner and furniture maker, Detroit-born Barry Macdonald earned degrees in chemistry, music history, and English literature from Wayne State University.
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004
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Binh Pho, a Chicago-based artist, fuses traditional Asian iconography and philosophy with contemporary aesthetics in an ancient medium, combining painting, woodturning, sculpting, airbrushing, and piercing techniques to create commanding art forms.
Pho’s associations in the U.S. were crucial to his artistic development, but the struggles and experiences that preceded his move to the States from Vietnam continue to inform his work. Attempting to escape the communist regime, Pho traveled on foot through the bamboo forests near Laos. In Kimono #3, Pho references this experience in the beautifully painted bamboo on the kimono, and the pierced spaces surrounding the vessel to create a sense of looking into a mystical bamboo forest.
Pho is driven by a philosophical urge to share an aesthetic that promotes a deep respect for nature. It is not just the history found in the grain of the wood, but the deep respect for the tree itself that fascinates and motivates him. He puts a soul into every piece he creates. As an artist, Pho has made it his mission to reveal the beauty in wood, to give the tree new life and allow it to live again in a new way.
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004
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Bob Womack’s creations reflect a harmony between the sculptor and his material. He is best known for his amalgamation of smooth and textured surfaces, of natural and designed forms, and for his use of unusual domestic hardwoods. When selecting the material, careful thought is devoted to its color, texture, grain, and shape.
Womack achieves the organic, asymmetrical shape of Basket Bowl by incorporating free-form carving techniques, using a chainsaw and bandsaw to establish a rough form, followed by smaller tools for the more refined areas. The result is an object that looks as if it was actually grown in nature. In this case, the extraordinary smooth surfaces are played against the naturally occurring burl, creating a drama within the work that enlivens the piece further.
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004
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In Cradles in the Sea, William Moore and Christian Burchard experiment with combining wood and copper in a seamless union of materials exposing the depth of human imagination. Moore’s carefully patinated copper, joined with Burchard’s extremely thin gourd-like wooden forms, creates a piece evocative of a fantastic sea creature or plant: alive, appearing to dance on its long tapering stems. The assembled piece is surreal and whimsical, but nonetheless retains a strong rational form. It is alluring because it seems to belong to a world separate from ours. Despite its alien nature, it remains familiar.
Receiving degrees from the University of Michigan, William Moore has spent many years exploring the sculptural potential of the vessel form, often using a combination of wood and non-ferrous metal turned on the lathe. Both the form and choice of materials play a role in the reception of the piece created. Christian Burchard has been working with Pacific madrone burl for several years. He likes the way it changes when it dries, allowing the wood to “find its own shape.” The resultant form is often warped, creating “attitude, gesture, and, when grouping these shapes together, relationships.”
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004
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Flaring base with spherical food storage bowl on top. The base is cut with evenly spaced rectangular holes. The lid is incised with a repeating design.
Subject Matter
Food vessel.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
Following the Chinese imports of the climbing kiln and the fast wheel, potters of Gaya and Silla in the fifth to the sixth century turned out tens of thousands of high-quality, thin-walled, stoneware pedestal food vessels like these. These two examples retained their original lids. One lid is surmounted by a Buddhist chattra (a canopy-shaped knob) and decorated with a herringbone pattern of small incised dots. The other has a button-shaped knob and is decorated with incised saw-toothed patterns and stamped bands of circles. Although they were also used in elite households, such pedestal bowls have survived in large numbers because they were buried with the deceased.
The incised and stamped designs on these vessels are thought to derive from cast-bronze artifacts. The shape is likely based on a Chinese bronze vessel known as a dou, which was probably transmitted to the Three Kingdoms through pottery examples in Manchuria and the Chinese colony of Luolan in northern Korea. Bowls of the same shape and pattern have also been found in tombs near present-day Osaka in Japan: the Yamato clans who ruled during the Tumulus Period (300–552) in Japan were close relatives of the Gaya people, who were conquered by Silla in 562.
(Label for UMMA Korean Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Shallow bowl with celadon glaze. Four concentric circles grace the exterior of the bowl, with a chrysanthemum roundel centered in the inner circle. Above these designs, three thinly incised bands stretch across the bowl parallel to the rim. In this location on the inside of the bowl is a cross-hatched pattern, flanked by one incised line above and two below. Also decorating the inside of the bowls are four sprays of litchis.
Subject Matter
Bowl with chrysanthemum and litchi designs.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
Celadon originated in China, but the technique of decorating it with inlaid motifs is a Korean invention. Designs are first carved in the leather-hard clay body, and the resulting cavities are filled with a white or black slip (liquid clay). The excess slip is then wiped clean from the surface and the entire vessel coated with thin, semitransparent celadon glaze. The best glaze was thin with few bubbles, producing a bright sheen that clearly showed the elegance of the inlaid designs. On this high-quality bowl (6), a sparse network of fine crackles enhances the beauty of the grayish blue glaze.
The four white floral sprays depicted inside the bowl beneath a narrow band of white arabesque scrolls are litchis, a sweet fruit native to southern China that would have been a luxury import to the Goryeo court. On the exterior, four double-ring chrysanthemum roundels in black-and-white inlay decorate the body beneath a narrow band of three lines of white inlay. The use of black-and-white inlay on the exterior but only white on the interior creates a subtle visual contrast between the two sides. The pictorial design exemplifies the balance between restraint and exuberance achieved in the best pieces of inlaid celadon.
(Label for UMMA Korean Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
Compared to the similar, earlier bowl (6) with the litchi design on the left, this one (7) is the lesser in technique and color. Parts of the body are discolored due to misfiring, and the glaze near the foot is marred. Although the pictorial design shows balance and restraint, the inlaid work is somewhat stiff and uninspired compared to that observed in the litchi bowl. This later bowl is best viewed as a transitional piece between the golden age of inlaid celadon in the second half of the twelfth century and its demise in the fourteenth century.
Among the innumerable shades of celadon, the clear, blue-green tone seen here comes closest to the kingfisher blue or jade green that is most prized by connoisseurs past and present. The underlying blue tone of the glaze is particularly noticeable where it has gathered near the foot. The surface is exceptionally smooth and without crackle. While this cup once had a matching footed saucer or stand and is thought to have been used for wine, it could have also been used for serving poured tea at court, where tea drinking was part of the daily routine in Goryeo times. The decoration subtly and intimately communicated to the cup’s user, coming into view just as the cup was brought up to the lips.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Shallow stoneware bowl with white slip and colorless glaze. The interior is decorated with a stamped rope-curtain pattern, incised bands of lines and a repeating stylized lotus petal pattern. In the center of the bowl lie three inlaid chrysanthemum florets. Three scars on the inside of the bowl indicate the piece was fired in a stack for large-scale production.
Subject Matter
Bowl with chrysanthemum florets, rope curtain design, and stylized lotus petals.
Label Copy
The surface ornamentation of Buncheong ware of the Joseon period was achieved by manipulating white slip (liquid clay) on a clay body to achieve surface ornamentation. Using a pointed wooden tool, the artist combined inlaid, stamped, and brushed decoration. The interior of this bowl is inlaid with three chrysanthemum florets and lotus petals using a pointed wooden tool. A wooden stamp carved with a row of circles was pressed repeatedly into the curve of the inside wall, creating a dense rope–curtain pattern. The artist incised lines to demarcate the zones of decoration. After incising and stamping, the interior was filled with white slip and wiped clean. White slip was brushed quickly over the exterior, leaving brush patterns called hakeme in Japanese. The entire vessel was then thinly coated with glaze and fired. Three scars on the interior indicate that the bowl was fired in a stack in the kiln, a process that allowed for larger-scale production. Buncheong ware was widely appreciated in Japan, where these scars would become points of appraisal and debate among connoisseurs of tea wares.
(Label for UMMA Korean Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Deep porcelain bowl with wide foot, fine body, and colorless glaze.
Subject Matter
Bowl for food or drink.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
The Joseon dynasty abolished the state-sanctioned Buddhism of the Goryeo rulers and adopted Neo-Confucianism as the official doctrine. The new dynasty’s first great reformer, King Sejong, who reigned from 1419 to 1450, adopted plain white porcelain as the official ware, rejecting the celadon of the previous dynasty. With Neo-Confucianism came a new aesthetic of austerity, frugality, and pragmatism in the decorative arts.
This deep, thinly potted bowl (6) is typical of undecorated white porcelain produced for the Joseon court in the fifteenth century. Early wares such as this bowl are rare today and prized for their fine clay body, soft white color, and clear glaze. The generous volume and well proportioned form of this bowl reflect the Neo-Confucian ideals of the period.
The vast majority of undecorated Joseon porcelains—by one account, as much as ninety-five percent—are everyday dishes and bowls, such as this example (7). Produced at a provincial kiln, this bowl has a flaring mouth and steeply curving sides that taper down to a wide, stable foot. A ring of small scars on the glaze of the interior indicates that the bowl was fired in a stack. Like other bowls produced during the final days of the Joseon dynasty, the vessel walls are thicker, the clay body coarser, and the glaze a deeper blue than the pure white porcelain bowls of the early Joseon period. But true to its Neo-Confucian roots, this bowl retains the simple solid form and functionality of Joseon-period ceramics.
(Label for UMMA Korean Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
A dome-shaped cermaic lid for a bowl. Outfitted with a mushroom-shaped handle with a hole in the center. Carved details around the bowl are two circles, one smaller than the other, with a striped triangle pattern.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Born July 10, 1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the son of George Washington Whistler, a draftsman and civil engineer. In 1842 the senior Whistler was employed by the Russian government to help build a railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow. James Whistler thus spent seven years of his youth in Russia (1842-49). In 1851 he entered West Point Academy but was discharged in 1854, for deficiency in chemistry. He worked as a draftsman from 1854 to 1855 in the U. S. Coast Survey, Washington, D.C., where he also learned to etch. In 1855 he left the United States for Paris and, after five years in France, settled in London. He never returned to the United States. He enjoyed great success in his life, as a painter and printmaker, but also struggled for acceptance and endured times of financial hardship.
Whistler studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia and at West Point Academy, but probably received his earliest artistic training from his father. In 1856 he entered the studio of Marc-Gabriel Charles Gleyre in Paris and became acquainted with Henri Martin, Henri Oulevey, George du Maurier, E. G. Poynter and L. M. Lamont. In 1858 Whistler met Fantin-Latour at the Louvre. Fantin-Latour took him to the Cafe Molière, where he met Legros, Carolus-Duran and Astruc and to the Brasserie Andler, the meeting place of Courbet and his followers. Fantin, Whistler, and Legros formed their own society, the Société des Trois in the same year. Later, in 1865, Albert Moore replaced Legros as the third member of the Société.
Whistler submitted the painting, At the Piano, to the Salon in 1859. Rejected by the Salon, the painting was exhibited in Francois Bonvin's studio. This was also the first painting by Whistler exhibited in Britain, at the Royal Academy, in 1860. Among Whistler's principal patrons early in his career include F. R. Leyland and W. C. Alexander and among major works he produced at this time are portraits of family members of these two men.
In England, Whistler became acquainted with the pre-Raphaelite circle of artists. He began collecting Japanese art and curios in the early 1860s and also is known to have visited the Salon des Refusés in Paris when many of the Impressionist painters were exhibiting there. Whistler's many connections with contemporary artists and wide interests make him an artist difficult to pigeonhole.
Two events in Whistler's life perhaps shed some light on his character: he sued John Ruskin for libel in 1877 (the fees incurred during the case forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1879) and in 1890 he published a book "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies."
Whistler married Beatrix Godwin, widow of E. W. Godwin, in 1888. She preceded him in death in 1896. Whistler died in London on July 17, 1903.
One-man exhibitions: 1874 London, Flemish Gallery; 1904 Memorial exhibition, Boston; 1905 Memorial exhibition, London and Paris
Memberships:
Elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, 1884; president, 1886-1888
First president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers, 1898-1903
Officer of Legion of Honor, France
Member of Société Nationale des Artistes Françaises
Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy
Chevalier of the Order of St. Michael of Bavaria
Honorary member of Royal Academies of Bavaria, Dresden, and of St. Luke in Rome
Sources: Groce, G. C. and D. H. Wallace, eds. "The New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860." New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957; MacDonald, M. F. "James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours." New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; McNamara, C. and J. Siewert, "Whistler: Prosaic Views, Poetic Vision." London: Thames and Hudson, 1994; Opitz, Glenn B., ed. "Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers," 2nd ed. Poughkeepsie: Apollo, 1986; Spencer, R. "Whistler: The Masterworks." London: Studio Editions, 1990.
A partial view of a four-story building, concentrating on pairs of windows on each story and a wrought iron fence on the ground level. Windows have window boxes or balconies; on the ground level are several dogs on either side and a pair of milk cans at the center in front of the fence.
Subject Matter
Whistler focused on lithography over etching during the 1890s, making his etched views of Paris, that were never printed in editions, quite rare.
Whistler uses a partial representation to evoke the whole, playing on the theme and variation offered by the pairs of windows on each floor of the building, as well as for the dogs and cans in the foreground. Another playful touch is the way he employs his "butterfly" signature on the left side to balance the join on the downspout on the right side of the image.
Label Copy
Rue Vauvilliers
circa 1892–93
Etching on laid Japan tissue
Only state (Kennedy 439)
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker, 1954/1.410
Whistler’s commitment to transfer lithography was so thoroughgoing in the 1890s that etchings like this one are extremely rare. Here he returns to the theme of street views, paring the building down to its essential elements in a depiction so minimal that the work borders on pure abstraction; his command at this stage was such that he achieved what he sought in a single state. Near musical in its play of theme and variation, the four-story building becomes an opportunity to juxtapose pairs of windows; the theme varies on each floor, from window boxes on the top floor through a series of balconies on the floors below. Pairs of dogs and milk cans on the street level playfully complete the image on the ground floor where the visual masses of the windows are anchored by the iron fence near the facade. Whistler creates a sense of the wall of the edifice through the placement of his butterfly signature, which is balanced on the right by the abstracted dark knob of a join between two sections of downspout.
These late Paris plates often suffered from negligent care. Whistler carried the prepared plates around wrapped in paper, which abraded the ground; the resultant pitting to the surface meant he had to exert extraordinary control when biting the plate, and rather than submerge it in an acid bath, he used a feather to selectively direct a controlled stream of acid. When Whistler turned to the American artist Frank Short (1857–1945) to print them for him, he directed him to wipe the plates cleanly, eschewing the atmospheric effects contributed by plate tone. He justified this rejection of his characteristic use of plate tone by saying, “what was good enough for Rembrandt is good enough for me.”
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
This black glazed vessel stands raised on four feet and has a high neck.
Subject Matter
The first quarter of this century saw the rise of a number of art potteries in the United States, a facet of the international Arts and Crafts Movement. Founded in Detroit in 1907 by Mary Chase Stratton (employing her married name of Perry at a later date) and Horace James Calkins, the Pewabic Pottery concentrated on hand-built vessels whose shapes were largely derived from traditional Asian ceramics. Under Marry Chase Stratton’s artistic direction, these refined forms were combined with a rich variety of iridescent glazes that became the Pottery’s hallmark.
Most of the works in the Museum of Art’s Pewabic collection come from Margaret Watson Parker, a Detroit-area collector and associate of Charles Lang Freer. Mrs. Parker’s bequest to the University of Michigan included numerous Pewabic works selected personally for her by Mary Chase Stratton for their quality and beauty. Several additional pieces of Pewabic ware came to the University from the collection of H.O. Havemeyer.
Inscription
impressed medallion mark PEWABIC DETROIT and "103.17" painted in red
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
This squat tea caddy has brown and black glaze, two small ornamental handles, and an ivory lid.
Subject Matter
Tea caddies are used to store finely ground tea powder, and can be used in tea ceremony.
Label Copy
Chairé (tea caddies) are used to store finely ground tea powder. Usually made of dark clay and glazes without ostentatious decorations, teas caddies are highly prized in the wabi tea ceremony, in which simplicity and a refined rusticity are cultivated and often contrasted with more opulent styles. The culture of wabi was widespread among the samurai class and was often marked by an intricate layering if materials, meanings, and both visual and literary puns.
This tea caddy is a type called daikai (large sea), and its unusually large size suggest that it was perhaps intended for a tea ceremony with many guests, The two beautiful shifuku (silk pouches) are pried pieces of art themselves and would have been presented along with the tea caddy at a ceremony. The patchwork shifuku must have been a treat for the guests, since it brings together five pieces of dazzling brocade.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
