Remarkable works of colorful Italian tin-glazed earthenware will be on display in a special exhibition at the House Museum at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. “A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary” opens on Sunday, May 18, and continues during regular museum hours through December 19.
The exhibition features works of Italian maiolica pottery dating to the Sixteenth Century, brilliantly colored in vivid yellow, blue, green and beautiful ochre hues, and depicting an array of fanciful scenes. The objects on view, selected from the house museum’s permanent collection, include drug jars or “Albarelli” flasks, large plates and vases and are all fancifully decorated with biblical, historical and mythological images †crowned goddesses flanked by winged cherubs, serpents swarming in a turbulent sea, horned satyrs dancing in the forest and Adam and Eve tempted in the garden.
The exhibition also includes a set of 12 Catalan tiles from the Eighteenth to early Nineteenth Century, designed by Francisco Goya y Lucientes (1746‱828) and depicting whimsical musicians. A related outdoor exhibition with works by Kathy Ruttenberg is scheduled for the autumn. Both exhibitions are part of “All Fired Up! †A Celebration of Clay in Westchester,” an all-county effort organized by the Westchester Arts Council and the Clay Art Center to explore the versatility of ceramics.
Caramoor’s examples of the popular Renaissance art form maiolica will be displayed along with artwork by several of today’ top ceramic artists working on contemporary majolica. The contemporary majolica artists are Rosie Wynkoop, Terry Seibert and the exhibition’s guest curator, Liz Quakenbush. The artists will have several pieces for sale.
“By juxtaposing contemporary artwork next to historic pieces, the Caramoor exhibition shows how the maiolica technique has evolved over the past 500 years,” said Merceds Santos-Miller, house museum manager and director of museum programs.
For the exhibition, curator and ceramic artist Quakenbush selected contemporary pieces that bridge the divide between elegant china and down-to-earth pottery. In her own work she draws inspiration from ceramics made during the Thirteenth through the Seventeenth Centuries in Iran, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and England.
The exhibition’s opening will be preceded on Saturday, May 17, by “Notte Italiana,” an exhibition preview party and Caramoor House Museum benefit. Honorary Chairs for this evening of Italian-style exuberance will be Hollywood luminaries Chazz and Gianna Palminteri.
“Notte Italiana” will begin with hors d’oeuvres at 7 pm. A tour of “A Journey in Maiolica,” led by Quakenbush, precedes dancing, dinner, performances of Italian arias, a dessert and champagne table and a silent auction.
Artista Benefactor tickets at $500 include a pre-cocktail party at 6:30 pm and photo opportunity with Chazz and Gianna Palminteri. Artigiano Patron tickets at $275 include the precocktail party. General tickets at $175 include all aspects of the evening beginning at 7 pm. Tables of ten are also available at $5,000 Grande Donatore and $2,750 Molto Generoso levels and include the pre-cocktail party and photo opportunity with the Palminteris, as well as special recognition.
Tickets may be ordered by calling the Caramoor box office at 914-232-1252 or the House Museum at 914-232-5035, extension 221.
The House Museum at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is at 149 Girdle Ridge Road. For information, www.caramoor.org/html/museumgardens.htm .
