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November Issue 2006
Silver Fox Gallery in Hendersonville, NC, Offers Works by Allan Buitekant
Silver
Fox Gallery in Hendersonville, NC, is presenting the exhibit,
Form and Function, featuring works by Allan Buitekant,
on view from Nov. 3 through Dec. 30, 2006.
Buitekant, who moved to Rutherfordton, NC, from New York nearly a decade ago, joins the Silver Fox Gallery as one of a dozen resident artists whose work is always available through the gallery and for whom exhibits are held every 18 to 24 months.
Buitekant's work is made from stoneware and white stoneware that he throws on the wheel, alters or constructs from slabs. He believes the beauty of this pottery is both aesthetic and functional.
"The use of a piece completes its purpose," Buitekant says in language as direct and minimal as his work. "Clay possesses a quality that reveals spontaneity. I use this character as much as I can, allowing the clay to express itself. I attempt to do as little as possible to achieve my purpose similar, in a way, to the minimalists in music."
Included in Buitekant's exhibit is a much-used lidded pot crafted 30 years ago for his beloved wife and life partner Jane; two new pots of similar style are displayed with the heirloom piece.
In addition to half a dozen functional pieces, the exhibit includes torsos that Buitekant sculpts in his quest for minimal expression in claywork, and vases he creates more as sculpture than functional pieces.
The piece, Jane's Chicken Collection, is exhibited in the wooden case in which Jane displayed the miniature "chicken gods" that Buitekant made and placed in the kiln each time he fired. (Once when he did not make a "chicken god" for the kiln, all shelves collapsed and the entire body of work was destroyed.)
Buitekant began pottery as a whim in 1954. It was fun, and he did it to please himself while he built a career as an art director in advertising. As he worked in the most creative agency in the world at the time - Doyle, Dane, Bernbach - Buitekant learned how to approach an artistic problem from a fresh direction. He adapted this skill to his ceramics, and began a process of discovery in two separate worlds.
Throughout his career, which led to executive creative positions, Buitekant won many awards, including a Bronze Lion from the Cannes Film Festival, and he continued with pottery. Evenings and weekend were spent either in the studio or at a school. These circumstances exposed him to Byron Temple at the 92nd Street YMCA, Jolyn Hofstead at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, Parsons School of Design and the famous Greenwich House with Jim Crumrine.
For further info check our NC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 828/698-0601 or e-mail to
(silverfoxart@bellsouth.net).
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