October Issue 2001
SC State Museum in Columbia, Offers Exhibition Which Tells Story of Creating Art with Clay
Four thousand years of pottery making - from bowls and funerary jugs to abstract pots and ceramic figurines - is explored in The Difference in Dirt: South Carolina Pottery and Ceramic Arts, which is on view at the SC State Museum's Lipscomb Art Gallery in Columbia, SC. The exhibit will continue through Jan. 6, 2002.
On the surface, it would seem that the abstract stoneware by Mike Vatalaro of Pendleton, SC, and the ceramic social commentary by Russell Biles of Greenville, SC, "couldn't be farther away from a jug," says Paul Matheny, the museum's curator of art. "But they're still made with the same basic principles of jug making and churn making that have been going on in the state for many years."
Woven through the exhibit will be an exploration of the work of several families of potters in South Carolina: the Robbinses, Catawba Indians who have made pottery for five or six generations; the Hensons, who have made pottery in Spartanburg County since the 1870s; and Winton and Rosa Eugene, first-generation African-American potters who live in Cowpens, SC.
Matheny, who joined the museum staff in January, curated the show between 1997 and 2000 when he was associate curator of art at the Museum of York County in Rock Hill, SC. However, he became interested in the subject when he was a fine arts major at Winthrop University.
The exhibit at the State Museum has been expanded to include a number of pieces from the museum's collection. Among the most interesting are two rare alkaline-glazed stoneware grave markers from the Old Edgefield District, Matheny says. They are uncommon because few were made and the fragile material has been exposed to the elements for 125 years. The name of the maker, F.E. Justice, is inscribed on the markers, but nothing is known about him or why the markers were made of pottery. "It's just kind of a mystery," Matheny says.
"The Difference in Dirt" will include some new acquisitions, including two turn-of-the-century face jugs from the Spartanburg Jug Factory area and a jug with four faces by Billy Henson of Lyman, SC.
Until about 60 years ago, South Carolina pottery was functional, Matheny says. It was used to store food and liquids, including moonshine, molasses, wine and vinegar. That changed when glass canning jars and electric refrigeration became more widely available. Potters began making studio pottery, pottery that may be useful but is also designed to be aesthetically pleasing. Other artists began using clay to make sculpture. One of the earliest examples in the exhibit is Work Horses, a sculpture by Frances Bryant Godwin, which was made from Aiken County clay about 1930.
South Carolina pottery is particularly significant for two reasons, Matheny says. The Catawbas have an unbroken chain of pottery making that goes back 4,000 years. "Their pottery is what helped hold their culture together," he says. Also, "South Carolina was the first place in the US where alkaline-glazed stoneware was produced." The craft, which marries the Chinese tradition of using a wood ash-based glaze to coat the surface of the pot with English forms, began about 1810 in Edgefield. From there, it spread across the region.
About 250 pieces of pottery will be in the show, which can be seen until Jan. 6, 2002. Visitors will have a chance to learn more about their own favorite pieces of South Carolina pottery and ceramics at an artifact identification session at 2pm on Oct. 21 at the entrance to the Lipscomb Art Gallery. The presentation of "The Difference in Dirt" at the State Museum is funded in part by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.
For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call 803/898-4921 or visit the museum's website at (http://www.museum.state.sc.us).
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.