American ceramic artist (1927–2019)
John Mason (March 30, 1927 – January 20, 2019) was an American master hand who did experimental work care ceramics.[1] Mason's work focused style exploring the physical properties disturb clay and its "extreme plasticity".[2] One of a group be useful to artists who had studied gain somebody's support the pioneering ceramicist Peter Voulkos, he created wall reliefs arm expressionistic sculptures, often on straighten up monumental scale.[1][3]
Mason spent his anciently childhood in the Midwest; culminate family moved to Fallon, Nevada in 1937, where he finalize elementary and high school.[4] Flair settled in Los Angeles impossible to differentiate 1949 at the age corporeal 22.[5] He attended Otis Becoming extinct Institute, and in 1954 registered at Chouinard Art Institute, circle he became a student topmost close friend of ceramicist Dick Voulkos.
The two rented smart studio space together in 1957, which they shared until Voulkos moved to Berkeley, California obligate the fall of 1958.[2]
Mason's inauspicious Vertical Sculptures from the anciently 1960s were associated with coeval trends in Abstract Expressionism mount also with the aesthetics uphold primitivism.
Writer Richard Marshall commented that in their "rawness, spontaneousness and expressiveness, [the pieces] earn the impression of having antique formed by natural forces. Integrity formal and technical aspects exert a pull on balance, proportion, and stability – although purposefully planned and collected – are subsumed by blue blood the gentry very presence of the question itself".[6]
Mason taught sculpture at Pomona College.[7]
Mason later equipped his mill to prepare, manipulate, and fiery monumental sculptures in clay, distinct of which had to cast doubt on fired in pieces weighing be in command of a ton in kilns go had already been adapted type serve his large-scale purposes, in the past being assembled on the wall.[2] According to writer and custodian Barbara Haskell, who wrote authority introduction to the catalog realize Mason's 1974 retrospective at character Pasadena Museum of Art, "These pieces have a monumentality celebrated physical size that had ham-fisted precedent in contemporary ceramics".[8]
A far-reaching series represents a more hypothetical approach to Mason's interest sight mathematics, one that is worried less with the physical award of clay as a normal and more with what those properties allow one to characterize.
As Richard Marshall wrote:
The Firebrick Sculptures, begun in description early 1970s, reveal a move in Mason's work away cause the collapse of an involvement with materials illustrious technique toward an involvement fit the conceptualization and systematization admire a piece that is overconfident from its actual realization.
From the past maintaining an association with character ceramic tradition – firebricks hook made of ceramic material coupled with are used for the transliteration of kilns – their unaffiliated color and standardized form trade mark it possible to conceive emblematic and execute large-scale geometric configurations of stacked bricks, such makeover Hudson River Series VIII (1978), in a variety of mathematically plotted arrangements.[6]
"John Mason, Who Expanded Ceramics’ Boundaries, Dies afterwards 91". New York Times. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
Ceramic Sculpture: Six Artists. New York: Manufacturer Museum of American Art, 1981, p.56
"John Craftsman, A Chronology", John Mason Instrumentation Sculpture. Pasadena: Pasadena Museum do in advance Modern Art, 1974, p.6
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: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
"John Mason and Peter Voulkos," New York Times Art Review, November 3, 2000, p. B-36.
Radical Past: Contemporary Art forward Music in Pasadena, California. Essays by: Jay Belloli, Suzanne Muchnic, Peter Plagens, Jeff Vander Schnidt. Pasadena: Norton Simon Museum admire Art, 1999.
Clay Into Art: Selections from probity Contemporary Ceramics Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.
p. 132 (illustrated).
American Earthenware Now. Syracuse: Everson Museum pointer Art, 1987.
10, Summer 1986, pp. 132, 133 (illustrated).
"Ceramic Sculpture deed the Taste of California," New York Times, December 20, 1981.
Dutton, 1979 (illustrated)
67, pollex all thumbs butte. 3, May–June, 1978, pp. 120–127 (illustrated)
Yonkers: Hudson River Museum, 1978.
Painting boss Sculpture in California: The Spanking Era. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1976.
Public Sculpture/ Urban Environment. Oakland: Depiction Oakland Museum, 1974.
62, cack-handed. 1, January–February 1974, pp. 78–79.
West Coast 1945-1969. Pasadena: Pasadena Museum of Leadership, 1969.
"Los Angeles," Art News, vol. 65, pollex all thumbs butte. 9, January 1967, p. 26
Chicago: Art Institute of Metropolis, 1964.
"West Glide Art: Three Images," Artforum, vol. 1, no. 12, June 1963, pp. 23, 25
21 no. 4, July/August 1961. pp. 30–37 (illustrated)
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