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October Issue 2004
Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC, Publishes Book on North Carolina Pottery
North Carolina's rich tradition of pottery-making has long been recognized as one of the state's greatest cultural heritages. Published to coincide with an exhibition at The Mint Museums of Charlotte - whose 1,600 piece collection is considered the most comprehensive in any public institution -North Carolina Pottery The Collection of The Mint Museums is an unprecedented resource for understanding the value, significance, and history of this centuries-old art and craft.
Edited by Barbara Stone Perry, the Mint Museum's curator of decorative arts, this catalog is destined to become the authoritative guide to the state's pottery tradition. This oversize reference showcases - mostly in color - more than 400 pieces of North Carolina pottery from this premier collection. The featured pieces are both regionally distinctive and visually extraordinary; unique and ubiquitous; masterful and mundane. Also included are descriptions of the individual pieces, as well as information about size, glaze, distinguishing marks, provenance, and the intended use of functional examples.
Biographical entries on the potters and information on the potteries provide essential background on the collection. Each potter and pottery is listed alphabetically, accompanied by basic information and images of at least one - and usually several - of the pieces held by the Museum. The index will help readers locate those potters who worked for more than one pottery. Because the collection includes objects from the four pottery producing areas of the state - Moravian settlements, Seagrove, the Catawba Valley, and the mountains - the book tells the entire story of the North Carolina pottery tradition, reaching as far back as the colonial settlements of the eighteenth century.
Five original essays by recognized authorities offer expert insight into the art form. Daisy Wade Bridges, a collector and patron who has played a key role in the acquisition of pieces for the Mint's collections, broadly surveys the regional heritage of North Carolina pottery. Charles Zug III, author of Turners and Burners: The Folk Potters of North Carolina, discusses the development of traditional, utilitarian pottery and the ways it survived the challenges of the Industrial Revolution and mass production. Charlotte V. Brown, director of the Gallery of Art and Design at North Carolina State University, addresses the rise of art pottery in the twentieth century. Barbara Perry writes about the living tradition of North Carolina pottery-making today. And potter Mark Hewitt discusses the connection between Japanese aesthetics and ceramic traditions and North Carolina pottery, including his own work.
North Carolina Pottery will delight and inform both those who already cherish this earthy, personal, and infinitely varied tradition, as well as those who are discovering it for the first time. Barbara Stone Perry is curator of decorative arts at The Mint Museums in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is author of American Art Pottery from the Collection of Everson Museum of Art. This catalog complements the exhibition, North Carolina Pottery: A Restless Tradition, which runs from Oct. 30 through Feb. 27, 2005 in the Dickson Gallery of the Mint Museums.
North Carolina Pottery The Collection of The Mint Museums, edited by Barbara Stone Perry is 224 pp., 384 color and 13 b&w illus., notes, bibl., index ISBN 0-8078-2908-0, $39.95 cloth; ISBN 0-8078-5574-X, $24.95 paper. For more information, please see (www.uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-7593.html).
For further information, call the museum anytime at 704/337-2000 or check the museum website at (www.mintmuseum.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 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© 2004 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.