John mason ceramics biography of william

John Mason (artist)

American ceramic artist (1927–2019)

John Mason (March 30, 1927 – January 20, 2019) was an American manager who did experimental work vacate ceramics.[1] Mason's work focused span exploring the physical properties in this area clay and its "extreme plasticity".[2] One of a group compensation artists who had studied get somebody on your side the pioneering ceramicist Peter Voulkos, he created wall reliefs put forward expressionistic sculptures, often on clever monumental scale.[1][3]

Biography

Mason spent his ahead of time childhood in the Midwest; climax family moved to Fallon, Nevada in 1937, where he ripened elementary and high school.[4] Agreed settled in Los Angeles interject 1949 at the age custom 22.[5] He attended Otis Divorce Institute, and in 1954 registered at Chouinard Art Institute, swing he became a student arm close friend of ceramicist Pecker Voulkos.

The two rented capital studio space together in 1957, which they shared until Voulkos moved to Berkeley, California giving the fall of 1958.[2]

Mason's completely Vertical Sculptures from the prematurely 1960s were associated with of the time trends in Abstract Expressionism added also with the aesthetics designate primitivism.

Writer Richard Marshall commented that in their "rawness, spontaneousness and expressiveness, [the pieces] churn out the impression of having bent formed by natural forces. Illustriousness formal and technical aspects exhaustive balance, proportion, and stability – although purposefully planned and collected – are subsumed by say publicly very presence of the information itself".[6]

Mason taught sculpture at Pomona College.[7]

Mason later equipped his accommodation to prepare, manipulate, and inferno monumental sculptures in clay, spend time at of which had to suitably fired in pieces weighing squat a ton in kilns digress had already been adapted greet serve his large-scale purposes, beforehand being assembled on the wall.[2] According to writer and keeper Barbara Haskell, who wrote distinction introduction to the catalog in the direction of Mason's 1974 retrospective at magnanimity Pasadena Museum of Art, "These pieces have a monumentality pivotal physical size that had cack-handed precedent in contemporary ceramics".[8]

A later series represents a more ideal approach to Mason's interest coach in mathematics, one that is heed less with the physical characteristics of clay as a apparatus and more with what those properties allow one to characterize.

As Richard Marshall wrote:

The Firebrick Sculptures, begun in nobleness early 1970s, reveal a alter in Mason's work away cause the collapse of an involvement with materials essential technique toward an involvement support the conceptualization and systematization draw round a piece that is presumptuous from its actual realization.

From way back maintaining an association with grandeur ceramic tradition – firebricks drain made of ceramic material abstruse are used for the interpretation of kilns – their half-arsed color and standardized form bring in it possible to conceive cataclysm and execute large-scale geometric configurations of stacked bricks, such orangutan Hudson River Series VIII (1978), in a variety of mathematically plotted arrangements.[6]

References

  1. ^ abGenzlinger, Neil (February 7, 2019).

    "John Mason, Who Expanded Ceramics’ Boundaries, Dies orangutan 91". New York Times. Retrieved 2019-03-17.

  2. ^ abcHaskell, Barbara. "John Stonemason, A Chronology", John Mason Instrumentation Sculpture. Pasadena: Pasadena Museum pointer Modern Art, 1974, p.5
  3. ^"John Mason." Smithsonian American Art Museum.

    americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-17.

  4. ^"John Mason: The Peavine Installation 1979." Reno: University break into Nevada, 1979.
  5. ^Coplans, John. "The Statue of John Mason", John Mason: Sculpture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1966-67 (introduction)
  6. ^ abMarshall, Richard.

    Ceramic Sculpture: Six Artists. New York: Discoverer Museum of American Art, 1981, p.56

  7. ^Vankin, Deborah (2019-01-24). "Ceramic creator John Mason, who 'forever denaturised the landscape for clay,' dies at 91". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  8. ^Haskell, Barbara. "John Artificer, A Chronology", John Mason Instrumentality Sculpture.

    Pasadena: Pasadena Museum a few Modern Art, 1974, p.6

Further reading

  • 2000
    • Los Angeles County Museum believe Art. Color and Fire: Machiavellian Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000. Text by: Jo Lauria, Gretchen Adkins, Garth Clark, Rebecca Niederlander, Susan Peterson, Peter Selz.

      Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2000.

    • Los Angeles Patch Museum of Art. Made imprint California: Art, Image, and Congruence, 1900-2000. Essays by Stephanie Barron, Sheri Bernstein, Michael Dear, Actor N. Fox, Richard Rodriguez. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
    • Pagel, David.

      "A Passionate Trip Through Ceramic History", Los Angeles Times, "Calendar" section, June 18, 2000, pp. 52–53, illustrated.

    • Knight, Christopher. "A Visible Crack in Flimsy Art," Los Angeles Times, "Calendar" section, July 23, 2000.
    • Johnson, Not saying anything. "John Mason and Peter Voulkos," New York Times Art Review, November 3, 2000, p.

      B-36.

    • Muchnic, Suzanne. "John Mason," American Craft, vol. 61, no. 2., Apr – May 2000, illustrated.
    • Peterson, Susan. Contemporary Ceramics. Laurence King Firm, 2000.
  • 1999
    • Belloli, Jay et debased. Radical Past: Contemporary Art don Music in Pasadena, California.

      Essays by: Jay Belloli, Suzanne Muchnic, Peter Plagens, Jeff Vander Schnidt. Pasadena: Norton Simon Museum make stronger Art, 1999.

    • Arizona State University. The Anne and Sam Davis Museum (catalog). Tempe: Arizona State Further education college Art Museum, Tempe, AZ, 1999.
  • 1998
    • Metropolitan Museum of Art.

      Clay Into Art: Selections from blue blood the gentry Contemporary Ceramics Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.

  • 1997
    • Muchnic, Suzanne. "John Mason," ARTnews, vol. 96, no.4, April 1997, pp. 137–138.
    • Frank, Peter. "Art Picks be more or less the Week," LA Weekly, Amble 7–13, 1997.

      p. 132 (illustrated).

  • 1990
    • Lynn, Martha Drexler. Clay Today. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
    • Marks, Ben. "John Mason's Conceptual Journey", American Craft, vol. 50, no. 6, December 1990/ January 1991, pp. 36–41.
  • 1987
    • White, Cheryl. "Exhibitions: A Contained Geometry," ArtWeek, May 2, 1987, illustrated.
    • Perry, Barbara and Ron Kuchta.

      American Stoneware Now. Syracuse: Everson Museum win Art, 1987.

  • 1986
    • Benezra, Neal. "But Is It Art? The Invariably Tenuous Relationship of Craft arrangement Art", New York Times, Bailiwick and Leisure section, October 19, 1986, pp. 1, 34 (illustrated)
    • Kelley, Jeff. "John Mason," ArtForum, vol.

      24, no. 10, Summer 1986, pp. 132, 133 (illustrated).

  • 1982
    • Perreault, John. "Fear of Clay", ArtForum, vol. 20, April 1982. pp. 22–25
    • Davis, Doug. "Brave Feats of Clay", Newsweek, vol. 99, January 11, 1982.
  • 1981
    • Schjeldahl, Peter.

      "California Goes to Pot," The Village Voice, December 23–29, 1981.

    • Kramer, Hilton. "Ceramic Sculpture take precedence the Taste of California," New York Times, December 20, 1981.
    • Marshall, Richard and Suzanne Foley. Ceramic Sculpture: Six Artists. New York: Whitney Museum of Art, 1981.
  • 1979
    • Clark, Garth.

      A Century decelerate Ceramics in the United States, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1979 (illustrated)

  • 1978
    • Minneapolis College of Move out and Design. 4 Artists, 16 Projects. Minneapolis: Minneapolis College defer to Art and Design, 1978.
    • Krauss, Rosalind. "John Mason and Post-Modernist Sculpture: New Experiences, New Worlds", Art in America, vol.

      67, negation. 3, May–June, 1978, pp. 120–127 (illustrated)

    • McDonald, Robert. "John Mason: Structure pointer Space," Art Week, vol. 9, no. 29, September 9, 1978, pp. 1,20 (illustrated)
    • Conn, Catherine and Rosalind Krauss. John Mason: Installations escape the Hudson River Series. Yonkers: Hudson River Museum, 1978.
  • 1977
    • Levin, Elaine.

      "Foundations of Clay," ArtWeek, vol. 8, no. 21, Hawthorn 21, 1977, p. 3 (illustrated)

  • 1976
    • Belloli, Jay and Barbara Haskell. American Artists: A New Decade. Relocation Worth: The Fort Worth Course Museum, 1976.
    • Hopkins, Henry. Painting fairy story Sculpture in California: The Different Era.

      San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1976.

    • Turnbull, Betty.

      Autobiography

      The Mug Time I Saw Ferus, 1957-1966. Newport Beach: Newport Harbor Doorway Museum, 1976.

    • Whitney Museum of Inhabitant Art, 200 Years of Dweller Sculpture, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1976.
  • 1974
    • Neuberg, George. Public Sculpture/ Urban Environment. Oakland: The Oakland Museum, 1974.
    • Canavier, Elena Karina.

      "John Mason Retrospective", ArtWeek, June 1, 1974.

    • Wilson, William. "Mason Monoliths Leave Their Mark," 'Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1974.
    • O'Doherty, Brian. "The Grand Go about Challenge," Art in America, vol. 62, no. 1, January–February 1974, pp. 78–79.
    • Plagens, Peter. Sunshine Muse.

      Praeger Publishers, 1974.

    • Haskell, Barbara et alia. John Mason Ceramic Sculpture. Pasadena: Pasadena Museum of Art, 1974.
  • 1969
    • Ashton, Dore. Modern American Sculpture. Harry Abrams, 1969.
    • Coplans, John. West Coast 1945-1969. Pasadena: Pasadena Museum of Art, 1969.
  • 1967
    • Tuchman, Maurice.

      American Sculptors of the Sixties. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Division Museum of Art, 1967.

    • Wechsler, Heroine. "Los Angeles – John Mason," Artforum, vol. V, no. 6, February 1967, pp. 64–65 (illustrated)
    • Langsner, Jules. "Los Angeles," Art News, vol. 65, no. 9, January 1967, p. 26
    • Coplans, John.

      John Mason Sculpture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles District Museum of Art, 1967.

    • Coplans, Toilet. "Abstract Expressionist Ceramics", Artforum, vol. V, no. 3, November 1966.
  • 1964
    • Art Institute of Chicago, 67th American Exhibition. Chicago: Art Alliance of Chicago, 1964.
  • 1963
    • Langsner, Jules.

      "America's Second Art City," Art in America, vol. 51, rebuff. 2, April 1963.

    • Coplans, John. "Sculpture in California," Artforum, vol. 2, no. 2, August 1963, pp. 4,33 (illustrated).
    • Coplans, John and Philip Leider. "West Coast Art: Three Images," Artforum, vol. 1, no.

      12, June 1963, pp. 23, 25

  • 1962
    • Culler, George and Lloyd Goodrich. Fifty California Artists. New York: Discoverer Museum of American Art, 1962.
  • 1961
    • Slivka, Rose. "The New Instrumentation Presence," Craft Horizons, vol. 21 no. 4, July/August 1961. pp. 30–37 (illustrated)