Decades: Ceramics from the Permanent Collection

This exhibition brings our Permanent Collection into the vanguard of ceramics history by examining formal and thematic developments in the American ceramics movement since its onset in the early 1950s. Beginning with collaborations by Peter and Henry Meloy and early works by Rudy Autio and Peter Voulkos, the show highlights work that broke with clay’s decorative and utilitarian heritage to usher in what is now known as the Vessel movement.

In the subsequent decades, artists like Branson Stevenson, Frances Senska, Tony Hepburn and Ken Little turned toward a sculptural understanding of clay, guided more by the physical properties of the medium than principles of quality manufacturing. These artists laid the groundwork for the more whimsical work produced by artists in the 1980s, such as Tom Rippon and Jay Rummel. Examples of their work appear alongside treasures by Douglas Baldwin, David Shaner, and Kurt Weiser. Some of the most daring advances in artistic sensibility and glazing and firing techniques were made in this era, and the works on view will elate ceramics enthusiasts as well as newcomers to the clay medium.

More contemporary trends like the emergence of personal narrative and mythology will be on view in works by artists defining the field today, many of them recent graduates of UM’s own ceramics program, including Megan Bogonovich, Sue Tirrell, Alex Kraft, Ryan Mitchell, and Trey Hill.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website