Jenni Sorkin
Address: ARTS 1234
History of Art & Architecture
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-7080
History of Art & Architecture
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-7080
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Papers by Jenni Sorkin
Sorkin focuses on three Americans who promoted ceramics as an advanced artistic medium: Marguerite Wildenhain, a Bauhaus-trained potter and writer; Mary Caroline (M. C.) Richards, who renounced formalism at Black Mountain College to pursue new performative methods; and Susan Peterson, best known for her live throwing demonstrations on public television. Together, these women pioneered a hands-on teaching style and led educational and therapeutic activities for war veterans, students, the elderly, and many others. Far from being an isolated field, ceramics offered a sense of community and social engagement, which, Sorkin argues, crucially set the stage for later participatory forms of art and feminist collectivism.
While Voulkos’ work has most often been discussed in relation to the practice of ceramics, the writers in this book explore the artist’s work through the scope of art history and in a contemporary light. In addition to engaging with the breakthrough years of Voulkos’ practice, a focus is also put on his legacy today, as numerous artists explore the expressive language of clay that he helped to re-invent.
The book includes texts from writers Andrew Perchuk, Deputy Director at The Getty Research Institute; and Jenni Sorkin, Assistant Professor in Contemporary Art at UC Santa Barbara.
Published in collaboration with the Museum of Arts and Design, New York.
considers the gendered history of American ceramist Adelaide Alsop Robineau’s famed, labor intensive Scarab Vase (1910) as an unlikely precursor—one hundred years later—to digitally printed clay, utilized today by ceramists working in the 2010s.