Gerit Grimm: Beyond the Figurine

Transcription

Gerit Grimm: Beyond the Figurine
C ontemporary I nspirations
from the
M useum ’ s C ollection
Long Beach Museum of Art
March 15th – July 8th, 2012
Checklist
1. Staffordshire, England
Bear Jar, ca. 1760
White Salt-glazed Stoneware
7 ½ x 6 x 9 inches
Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld
2005.89.a.b
Tythe pig spill vase, ca. 1820
Earthenware with enamel decoration
8 ½ x 8 x 4 3/8 inches
2005.141
Shepherd and Shepherdess, ca. 1820
8 ½ x 4 3/8 x 3 ½ inches
2005.95
White saltglazed lady, ca. 1760
Stoneware
3 3/8 x 2 x 1 1/8 inches
2005.140
Ale-Bench, ca. 1825
7 x 7 ¼ x 4 ½ inches
2005.115.a
15. Apt, France
Cup and saucer, late 18th century - early 19th century
Faience
2 ¾ x 3 ¼ inches
Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust
2006.23.a.b
The Hairdresser, ca. 1820
9 ½ x 6 ½ x 5 ½ inches
2005.116
16. Pont-aux-Choux, Paris or Niderviller, France
Figure of a woman with a basket, 18th century
Faience
11 ¼ x 4 x 4 inches
2006.35
Figure of a Female and Male Gardener, ca. 1825
6 5/8 x 3 x 2 ¾ inches
2005.133.a.b
17. Strasbourg, France
Figure of a mother and child, ca. 1775
Faience
6 ½ x 2 ¼ x 2 inches
2006.36
Rural Group, ca. 1820
8 ¼ x 3 5/8 x 3 5/8 inches
2005.134
18. Apt, France
Pitcher, 18th century
Faience
7 x 5 7/8 x 4 ½ inches
2006.48
Figure of a Gardener, ca. 1825
5 3/8 x 2 ½ x 2 ¼ inches
2005.151
19. Montereau, France
Plate with decoration from the Fables of de
la Fontaine: Cendrillon, ca. 1820
Faience
1 x 8 ½ inches
2006.57
Courting Couple, ca. 1820
8 ¼ x 3 ½ x 4 inches
2005.131.a.b
Covered sugar bowl, ca. 1820
Faience
4 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches
2006.78.a.b
The Shoe Salesman, ca. 1820
9 3/8 x 6 1/8 x 5 inches
2005.117
21. Bonnet, Apt, France
Tea warmer with stand, early 19th century
Faience
12 x 5 inches
2006.89.a.b.c
10. England
Yorkshire-type Figural Watch Stand, ca. 1800
Pearlware
8 ¾ x 5 5/8 x 3 inches
2005.145
22. Creil, France
Set of Ten Plates, 19th century
Faience
1 x 8 ½ inches
2006.54.a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i.j
Farmer and Wife, ca. 1825
9 ¼ x 3 5/8 x 2 ¾ inches
2005.149
Eggcup attached to plate, ca. 1825
Faience
3 ½ x 4 ½ inches
2006.31
New Marriage Act I, ca. 1835
7 ½ x 4 ½ x 3 1/8 inches
2005.158.a
Artist Gerit Grimm was especially inspired by these ceramics in the permanent
collection of the Long Beach Museum of Art. The selections are from the Staffordshire Earthenware Collection, Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld;
and the Marie Forrest Collection of Continental Earthenware, Gift of the Marie W.
Forrest Trust. Both collections are available online at www.lbma.org. The Dornfeld
Collection catalogue is also available for sale in the Museum shop.
Introduction
The Long Beach Museum of Art has been a collecting institution for over 60
years, and during that time, the Museum has been the fortunate recipient of
many generous gifts of art resulting in a significant permanent collection. Some
gifts have come in the form of individual works of art, and others, as complete
collections that have been carefully assembled over years by discerning collectors.
Featured in this exhibition are contemporary works by ceramic artist Gerit Grimm,
who was inspired by the over 100 Staffordshire Earthenware Ceramics from the
Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld, and, over 90 French faience ceramics
from the Marie W. Forrest Trust. The combined collections span over 250 years
of ceramic production. Both collections can be seen in their entirety on the
Museum’s website, www.lbma.org, thanks to the support of
The Institute for Museum and Library Services, The Ahmanson
Foundation, The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, The
Dornfeld Family Trust, and the Getty Foundation. A catalogue of the
complete Dornfeld collection is also available in the Museum Store.
England
As a museum accredited by the American Association of Museums, The Staffordshire,
Hairdresser, ca. 1820
we are charged with caring for these historic works of art, and, Earthenware with enamel decoration
9 ½ x 6 ½ x 5 ½ inches
just as importantly, sharing them with the community
2005.116
for the public’s enjoyment and education. Artist Gerit Grimm has given us
a fresh opportunity to present ceramic works that embody centuries of historic
importance. In the past, these earthenware figures, some dating from the 17th
century, were referred to as “toys” or “images” and depicted Old and New Testament
Bible stories, socio-political events of their times, and traditional fables. They
were purchased and enjoyed by a rising middle class looking for an affordable
alternative to European porcelain.
It is significant that the talented and classically trained potter, Gerit Grimm, who
has been working in clay since her youth, was drawn to the Museum’s historic
ceramics collection. In this exhibition Gerit not only uses historic images and tales
derived form the Museum’s collection, she goes on to brilliantly tell the story of
how these works were created and when, how they were transported to market,
and what was happening in the marketplace at the time of their creation. Gerit
is not only creating a history lesson which is there for us to discover, she uses her
powerful talent and skill with clay for aesthetic impact, a skill that comes from the
hands and vision of an artist who “owns” the material used. For a museum to
have the fortune to work with such a talented artist, and give a fresh contemporary
interpretation of such rich ceramic history, is a rare event.
As a teaching institution, this unique exhibition combining historic
and contemporary ceramics will be of value for the students of
the Long Beach Unified School District, the faculty and students
of colleges, as well as collectors and other institutions from across
the southland. It is noteworthy, that Grimm’s creations could not
have happened if not for the exemplary ceramic
Staffordshire, England
The Shoe Salesman, ca. 1820
program at California State University Long Beach.
9 3/8 x 6 1/8 x 5 inches
The ceramics program at CSULB, nurtured with
inspired vision and years of planning and growth,
2005.117
has attracted and “molded” many of the talented hands and fingers working in
clay today. The physical location of Grimm’s unique sculptural constructions
has been made possible through the CSULB College of the Arts with which the
Museum has a close relationship of mutual discovery and sharing.
What began as an invitation for a small curated exhibition and installation by
Gerit in response to the Museum’s Dornfeld collection grew from her petite
“figurines,” into an exciting creative marathon of large-scale proportions. As each
work developed, it soon led to another that would not be complete without
another nor without each other! Very rarely does one witness the excitement
and energy of a creative force like Gerit. It has been my pure joy to be swept up
in Gerit’s enthusiastic ingenious and innovative wake!
Ronald C. Nelson
Executive Director
Bonnet, Apt, France
Tea warmer with stand, early 19th century
Faience
12 x 5 inches
2006.89.a.b.c
Gerit Grimm:
The Ceramic Figurine Tradition as Subject Matter
Frankensteins
Gerit Grimm, who spent years working as a production potter, and whose
sculptural work depends upon the facility she developed during that experience,
knows better than anyone that there is a kind of pact between the pot (and
the potter) and the laws of physics, particularly those pertaining to material
dynamics and gravity. The pot that accepts its limits—that works with gravity
and not against it—and that aspires to only the most stable of form, gets
rewarded both on the wheel and in the kiln, while the pot that tests the limits
and aspires to some other role tends to get punished with a physical malady
known by the name and posture that mimic the body language worn upon
the shoulders of its maker when watching the work collapse in the studio or
finding it deformed upon opening the kiln—the slump. It is in this context
that one realizes that Grimm’s works are something more than the displays
of technical wonder they truly are; they also are displays of a spirit of risktaking—of making pots do what they’re not supposed to do and employing
them in service beyond their usual job description—a spirit that the process of
pottery-making itself tends to condition out of its practitioners over time. For
all the technical perfection and propriety in them—they descend after all from
a good potter’s good pots—they are inherently rebellious, and though Grimm
does such a fine job of pulling it off that you don’t notice it at first, the fact is
that that her pottery-based works only achieve their complexity, dynamism,
and litheness of form by risking technical failure in all steps of their creation.
This is an original body of figurative ceramic sculpture that celebrates, elevates
and artistically takes to task the rich history of the ceramic figurine.
The technical risk that is ever present in Grimm’s work—in pushing pots where
physics doesn’t want them to go—parallels and adds emphasis to another
element of risk equally ever present in her practice, and equally tied to taking
matters beyond conventional zones of comfort or safety. Grimm, whose surname
implies a predestination for predilection and preoccupation in the terrain of
fantasy and fairytale, works within such terrain not unlike the way she works
with the thrown pot—taking a humble folk form to the edge of too far. The
ceramic figurine—in essence another folk form that can be pushed—provides
the point of union for Grimm’s other fascinations. The figurine’s union of narrative
and form in clay offers Grimm the opportunity to merge pot and fairytale in a
manner that naturally pushes the boundaries of each and makes each stranger,
and that also calls to mind any number of tales of individuals forming and
bringing to life everything from dolls to puppets to statues. There is wonder
and grace to be found in this union, but also discomfort and awkwardness, and
in the pause that the awkward gives the mind, what percolates up are at times
darker themes that figurines and fairytales often embody but suppress. In their
odd object/people/creature unions, one finds Gepettos, Aarons, Pygmalions,
Sirens, Rumplestiltskins, Frankensteins, Pied Pipers and their many kin in
myth, lore and fable, as well as flashes of the real-world figures and narratives
with which such characters and their stories once did and continue to find
resonance. This is the edge of risk to which Grimm’s works lure us. As endearing,
entertaining, and wondrous as they are, they also are troubled, troubling, and
troublesome…and they mean to be.
Tony Marsh
Professor, Ceramic Arts
California State University Long Beach
Christopher Miles
Chair, Art Department
California State University Long Beach
The history of the ceramic figurine tradition is both deep and wide. It has been
challenged if not assaulted by the original ceramic art of German born artist
Gerit Grimm.
Many ceramists through much of the second half of the 20th Century have used
the idea and history of the ceramic figurine as an artistic device to spoof, honor
or ridicule a particular subject of their choice. Few artists have successfully
challenged the inherent issues of scale and color that are the hallmarks of the
figurine tradition in almost any culture. Grimm has taken on both in an original
way, in a relatively short period of time while in residency in our studios at
CSULB. The subject matter in her tableaus runs the gamut from charming
to uneasy to brutal. Each of the works however is so tenderly and skillfully
crafted, with most of the components made on the potter’s wheel, that they
elicit an empathetic response in the viewer.
The historical polychrome glaze finish has been replaced by the natural fired
color of the clay. It is somber and distant and prevents the work from transgressing
the slippery slope of whimsy.
Of What We Are
That exchange is an important milestone in the history of Europe’s obsession with porcelain,
and by extension, with figurines. They quickly refined the recipe for porcelain, and famous
modelers such as Johann Joachim Kändler began making figures which adorned the palaces
of European aristocrats. Middleclass shoppers in England wanted to own their own mantlepiece figurines which they soon were able to buy for pennies from the Staffordshire
potters influenced by German Meissen porcelain figures, but producing less expensive
figures in earthenware. Market squares were always bustling with peddlers selling fruits,
pots, and images (figurines) that depicted actors, celebrities of the day, famous and infamous.
Miniature ceramic houses decorated with flowers and shrubs were often used as decorative
incense burners. All these little sculptures presented stories both historic and relevant to the
times in which they were produced and which today are appreciated for their vibrancy and
charm. To our eyes, they are colorful and whimsical; however, upon closer inspection their
meanings may also be poignant and even tragic. During the French Revolution, aristocrats
were guillotined in the public square, while watching women knitted and children frolicked,
entertained by the spectacle.
Moving further away from the market we find a large, old tree with a communal bench
around it. Here old and young meet to exchange tales. On one side we have a crowd of
young, rowdy journeymen, and on the other, we view the cycle of life—women nurturing
children and growing old.
“’We make our pots,’ runs an old Staffordshire saying, ‘of what we potters are...’
that is to say, clay.” 1
The composition and creation of my imaginary market square was a challenging and
adventurous journey of discovery inspired by the history of ceramics, especially Staffordshire figures and French ceramics from the 17th and 18th centuries that are part of the
permanent collection of the Long Beach Museum of Art. My central idea for this exhibit
was to transgress the boundaries of folk art and fine art through an increase in scale, a
greater austerity of surface produced by reduction firing, and by employing the esthetic
language found in the history of European ceramic figurines. The fusion of these factors
and visual devices and idioms has allusions to Pop and Surrealistic sensibilities—as if the
market square were magically conveyed from the Old World into the New.
The journey begins with the carriage of Augustus the Strong that is rushing to the Iron
Maiden Fortress in Dresden, where he wishes to see the progress made by his alchemist,
Johann Friedrich Böttger, and it continues to a market square set during the Baroque period,
a time of great socio-economic inequality in Europe. Unlike most cities in the Western
United States, European towns are built from the center outwards in a concentric-ring
model, from a central market square to outlying regions. The center of the town is a
public meeting place—in German, der Marktplatz—and there is often a central fountain
and monument. The monument is usually a past ruler of the region, or a renowned figure
such as Georg Friedrich Händel, the Baroque composer born in my hometown. In my
new creation of a European market square, I have depicted the hero, Augustus the Strong
of Dresden, Germany, a significant figure in the history of ceramics. My monument shows
him admiring the first porcelain pot that Böttger created and extracted from the kiln.
Porcelain had long been available only in China. Böttger had once been imprisoned by
Augustus the Strong for claiming he could make gold—but instead discovered, along
with the alchemist Walter von Tschirnhaus, the recipe for porcelain2, which became
almost as precious as the gold Böttger claimed he could create. In my sculpture Böttger
is depicted holding one of the eighteen Chinese dragoon vases which Augustus traded to
Frederick the Soldier-King of Prussia (Soldatenkönig) for six hundred horse soldiers and
their families, indeed a currency more precious than gold!
Being able to closely study the ceramic objects from the Marie W. Forrest and the Dr. and
Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld collections at the Long Beach Museum of Art was a special privilege
for which I am very grateful. Those works inspired this new body of work and were a very
special gift of inspiration and imagination from the Museum to me. It is my pleasure and
delight to share this gift with you the viewer. Discover and enjoy the exhibition.
Gerit Grimm
Artist and guest curator
February 2012
1 John Bedford, Staffordshire Pottery Figures. Walter and Company, New York, 1965.
2 For a detailed historical account of Augustus and Böttger, see Janet Gleeson, The Arcanum:
the Extraordinary True Story. Warner Books, Inc., New York, NY, 1998.
Biography
Gerit Grimm was born, and grew up in Halle, German
Democratic Republic. In 1995, she finished her apprenticeship, learning the traditional German trade as a potter at
the “Altbürgeler blau-weiss GmbH” in Bürgel, Germany and
worked as a Journeyman for Joachim Jung in Glashagen,
Germany. She earned an Art and Design Diploma in 2001
studying ceramics at Burg Giebichenstein, Halle, Germany. In
2001, she was awarded with the German DAAD Government
Grant for the University of Michigan School of Art and Design,
where she graduated with an MA in 2002. She received her
MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred
University in 2004. She has taught at CSULB, Pitzer College,
Doane College and MSU Bozeman and has worked at major residencies like Mc Coll Center,
Bemis Center, Kohler Arts & Industry Program and Archie Bray Foundation. In 2009
NET Television created “Fantasia in Clay” a Nebraska Story about artist Gerit Grimm.
Grimm now lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
www.geritgrimm.com • http//:geritgrimm.lifeyo.com
Fruit Peddlers, 2011
Stoneware, 28 x 16 x 16 inches
Gardener, 2012
Teapot Peddlers, 2011
Village Tree, 2011
Carriage, 2011
Monument, 2011
Fountain, 2011
Image Peddler with Female Shopper, 2011
Stoneware,
Man: 68 x 26 x 26 inches
Woman: 62 x 22 x 22 inches
Guillotine, 2011
Image Peddler, 2011
2300 E. Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90803
(562) 439-2119 • www.lbma.org

Gerit Grimm: Beyond the Figurine

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