When John Cotton Dana established the Newark Museum Association in 1909, his stated goal was “to establish in the City of Newark, New Jersey, a museum for the reception and exhibition of articles of art, science, history and technology, and for the encouragement of the study of the arts and sciences.”
For Dana, the hand crafted and the mass produced were each of value. With that in mind, he set about creating a museum that would be useful to the community it served. Since New Jersey was an early center of American ceramic production because of the exceptional clay available there, art pottery was an essential component. Dana was a pioneer in recognizing ceramics and other decorative arts as art forms at a time when many museums held the view that the contemporary decorative arts, and even fine art, were not serious subjects of study.
Dana’s dreams and his legacy are the soul of the exhibit “100 Masterpieces of Art Pottery, 1880‱930,” a celebration of the first century of the Newark Museum. It comprises some 100 pieces of art pottery and porcelain drawn from the museum collection, with the exception of two pieces on loan from the American Decorative Arts 1900 Foundation. The exhibit follows the evolution of the American art pottery movement from the Gilded Age to the emergence of studio pottery at the beginning of the Depression. The exhibit includes American, European and Asian examples, delineating the influences of one upon the other.
Much of the museum’s collection was acquired in its early years, under Dana’s discerning eye. The year after its 1909 founding, the museum mounted the exhibit “Modern American Pottery.” That exhibit was the acorn from which sprung the oak that is today the museum’s mighty collection of art pottery. Dana purchased 110 objects (including 60 tiles) from that exhibit. Sixteen of those objects are on view in the centennial exhibit.
“100 Masterpieces of Art Pottery, 1880‱930” was mounted with the aim of showcasing ceramic objects acquired before 1930, mostly by Dana. Ulysses Grant Dietz, curator of decorative arts at the Newark Museum and exhibit curator, describes Dana as a visionary, a man who loved art pottery, which he saw as the application of art to pottery. He loved the handwork involved and had a keen eye for fine design. The classical principle “dulce and utile” prevailed: he appreciated the skill required to produce an object as well as the designer’s talent. Moreover, in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, art pottery was far more accessible to the general population than those paintings and objects associated with the Grand Tour that were considered “fine art.”
What made Dana an anomaly in his time was his view that the “handmade” was of equal artistic importance as the manufactured, as long as the design was beautiful.
Dietz, who is the 18th president’s great-great-grandson (one is compelled to ask), says the exhibit explores the questions of the meaning and exact nature of an art object. He refers to Dana’s exhortation, “Study your teacups,” which is carved above a door of the museum. Dana urged readers of his 1914 volume American Art: How It Can Be Made To Flourish to consider the modest household object and what went into its creation. He cited the everyday drinking vessel as an object that has drawn time, care, labor and skill for centuries, that it has taken “a million forms” and been adorned in a million ways.
These functional objects, Dietz notes, have two faces in the world. A vessel displayed on a shelf is seen as an art object, while the same vessel on a desk holding flowers or pens and pencils is utilitarian. An art pottery vase, while it has a function, is also something to be admired as art.
Dietz put together the exhibit with several goals in mind: he hopes that the viewing public can see the beauty of objects that are not large or flashy and he hopes to foster a closer look at the aesthetic of modest domestic goods. At the same time, the synthesis of the collection has redefined the objects, their relationships and their significance. They are organized according to their method of production. Throughout the exhibit and where the information is available, the original price of the piece is provided, underscoring its affordability.
“100 Masterpieces of Art Pottery” explicates the evolution and manifestations of art pottery, from its roots in antiquity down through the Renaissance, to Asia and the Victorian age and the contemporary interpretation. American art pottery incorporated all these influences and drew still more from the Aesthetic and the Arts and Crafts movements.
Dietz refers to “centennial fermentation” that he says was a direct result of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and had a profound effect on American arts, particularly art pottery. The fair had brought together wares from around the globe whose varied styles and techniques appealed to the American audience and inspired American artists and craftsmen.
Art pottery took a different turn after the exposition as a vessel came to be viewed as a sculptural object and as a canvas on which an artist might paint.
A tea set in the Japanese style illustrates the influence of Asian design that appeared after the 1876 exposition. Made by Hugh Robertson at the Chelsea Keramic Works, the set evinces design elements of French, Chinese and particularly Japanese ceramics seen at the exposition: a celadon glaze akin to monochrome porcelains, hammered textures and angular lines.
Popular in Asia and Europe, china painting was introduced to a wide American audience at the Centennial Exhibition. The Japanese style was especially popular as it had not been seen previously in the West and was not mass produced. Japanese pottery, which comprised a large part of the founding collection at the Newark Museum, was appreciated for its handwrought qualities that embodied those of the Arts and Crafts movement. An enameled vase on view was made by the Ceramic Art Company of Trenton, N.J., founded by Walter Scott Lenox and Jonathan Coxon Sr and decorated by Czech artist Hans Nosek.
A Grecian urn on view was one of four produced by the Trenton Potteries Company, also in Trenton, to highlight New Jersey potteries at the Louisiana Purchase exposition in 1904 in St Louis. It was decorated by Lucien Boullemeier, who had been a highly regarded artist at Royal Worcester before coming to the United States.
Minimalist art pottery was an offshoot of the monochromatic Chinese porcelain that was a popular import in the Nineteenth Century, and which was also represented in the Newark Museum’s founding collection. Simple in form and design, glazed pots such as a simple baluster-form vase on view were made by George E. Ohr for the Biloxi Art Pottery with a red and green glaze similar to Tang pottery.
A Hampshire Pottery vase, circa 1910, by Cadmon Robertson is white earthenware with a matte blue glaze. Another example is the circa 1895 baluster-form vase by Limoges artist Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat in his “Rouge Dalpayrat” glaze similar to Hugh Robertson’s “Dragon’s Blood” glaze at Dedham pottery.
Painterly pots followed the prevailing aesthetic. A vase decorated by Carl Schmidt with irises and the Black Iris glaze was made in 1909 at the Rookwood Pottery. Dietz notes that it is considered one of the finest examples of Black Iris glaze and draws from Japanese porcelains and cloisonné enamels. The vase was included in the 1910 exhibit and was purchased by the museum in 1914 for $100. (The original price tag remains in place.)
A vase decorated with a pine tree design was created by Maria deHoa LeBlanc and Joseph Meyer for the Newcomb College Pottery. Meyer performed the throwing, glazing and firing, while LeBlanc did the carving and painting. This particular example relates to the work of Arthur Wesley Dow.
A vase with an iris decoration was created by studio potter Frederick E. Walrath of Rochester, N.Y., with unusual inlaid glazes. The Newark Museum borrowed 22 pieces by Walrath for the 1910 exhibit †they ranged in price from 50 cents for a scarab paperweight to $16 for a cider set.
A water jug with an “Arkansas” decoration reflects the attraction of Native American objects. The jug was made by Fred Tschirner and William Long for the Clifton Art Pottery in Newark, and its decoration was derived from archaeological ceramics.
American sculptural pottery came to the fore at the time of the centennial when interest in the purely ornamental was on the rise. Professor Isaac Broome of Ott and Brewer in Trenton was one of the first in the United States to produce sculptural pieces. A slip cast and modeled porcelain centerpiece with putti was made circa 1887‱893 by Walter Scott Lenox for the Willets Manufacturing Company of Trenton. It was Lenox who helped bring William Bromley Sr from Ireland to Trenton where he created America’s Belleek type porcelain.
A figural jardiniere, circa 1900, by French ceramicist Clément Massier was given an iridescent glaze that allows the colors to play off the surface of the piece. Massier’s student Jacques Sicard brought Massier’s glazes to the United States.
“100 Masterpieces of Art Pottery, 1880‱930” remains on view through January 10. The exhibit will be accompanied by the full-color catalog, Masterpieces of Art Pottery, 1880‱930, which includes more than the 100 pieces in the exhibit.
The Newark Museum is at 49 Washington Street. For information, 973-596-6550 or www.newarkmuseum.org .
