The other thing we were thinking about today: abstract ceramics.⁠ Images here are from 'Shapes From Out of Nowhere: Ceramics from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection,' published by @augusteditions⁠ ⁠ A comprehensive overview of 20th-century non-representational ceramics from the earliest years of the modernist revolution to the postwar period through to the present, Shapes From Out of Nowhere features an unparalleled gathering of over 150 works from New York City-based collector Robert Ellison. It explores the featured artists’ rejection of symmetrical, utilitarian forms in clay in favor of the sculptural and abstract, and challenges the boundaries between function, non-function, design, drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture. Built over a period of 40 years, this singular collection reflects the personal and discerning eye of a collector focused on the exploration of shape and form.⁠ ⁠ Artists include: Robert Arneson, Rudy Autio, F. Carlton Ball, Lynda Benglis, Kate Blacklock, Nina Borgia-Aberle, Alison Britton, Kathy Butterly, Peter Callas, Syd Carpenter, Christina Carver, Katherine Choy, Dieter Crumbiegel, Elisa D’Arrigo, Harris Deller, Richard DeVore, Kim Dickey, Gary DiPasquale, Ruth Duckworth, Raymon Elozua, Gary Erickson, Ken Ferguson, Amara Geffen, John Gill, Chris Gustin, Babs Haenen, Ewen Henderson, Wayne Higby, Margaret Israel, Howard Kottler, Anne Marie Laureys, Gareth Mason, John Mason, Leza McVey, Jim Melchert, Ursula Morley Price, Gertrud Natzler, Otto Natzler, Win Ng, William Parry, Ken Price, Aneta Regel, Mary Rogers, Stanley Rosen, Axel Salto, Paul Soldner, Rudofl Staffel, Chris Staley, Susanna Stephenson, Toshiko Takaezu, Kyoto Tonegawa, Robert Turner, Peter Voulkos, Frans Wildenhain, Marguerite Wildenhain, Betty Woodman, William Wyman and Arnold Zimmerman.⁠ ⁠ Read more via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ #shapesfromoutofnowhere #abstractceramics #ceramics #ceramicart @robertellisonjr #ellisoncollection https://www.instagram.com/p/CcgVyUOJzsS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Robust and riveting is right! @robertasmithnyt reviews 'Shapes From Out of Nowhere,' featuring⁠⁠ ceramics from the@robertellisonjr collection @metmuseum — and we just want to say that the accompanying catalog, published by @augusteditions is both enlightening and eye-popping.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Smith begins her review, "Ceramics has come a remarkably long, raucous way since the early 1950s. That’s when Peter Voulkos, inspired by Abstract Expressionist painting, upended the medium with an increased scale, ambition and an improvisatory energy that mixed wheel-thrown with hand built forms. Since then, some ceramists — Ken Price to Betty Woodman to Kathy Butterly — have simply assumed their work was part of the mainstream. They and others have appeared regularly in big exhibitions like the Whitney Biennial and they’ve been taken on by major galleries.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ But the mainstream art world is always narrower than it thinks; plenty of ceramists continue to work beyond its borders. Lucky for them, they’ve had a discerning champion whose devotion can be measured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a robust, riveting exhibition titled 'Shapes From Out of Nowhere: Ceramics From the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection.' It celebrates this eminent collector’s third game-changing gift of clay vessels and objects to the Met — this one honoring the museum’s 150th anniversary. A visit can be humbling, but to be humbled is to be enlightened: I knew less than half of the 49 artists in the show…" ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Read the rest of this substantive review via linkinbio!⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ #shapesfromoutofnowhere #ceramics #ceramicart #ellisoncollection https://www.instagram.com/p/CQQ2XINjQLK/?utm_medium=tumblr