American Art Pottery, A Short History.
At the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia there was a display of painted china by a group of women artists from Cincinnati Oho. Their work represented the first signs of the coming revolution in decorative arts in America. The founding of the Rookwood Pottery in 1880 by Mary Louise McLaughlin and Marie Longworth Nichols is commonly recognized as the true beginnings of the American Art Pottery Movement.
During the 1890s the interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement became more sophisticated and better organized. Between 1896 and 1915, when the movement's membership peaked in the United States, thousands of groups were organized to bring together amateur and professional craft workers. These groups sought to change both public taste and the role of the craftsman in an industrial world.
Decorative arts were becoming part of mainstream American culture. During the 1890s a number of new companies opened, and several existing functional potteries began to turn their attention to art pottery. For the first part of the decade, the Rookwood Pottery continued to dominate. But the competition of new potteries, such as the Lonhuda Pottery in Steubenville, Ohio, and the introduction of imitations of the Rookwood Standard Glazes by the Weller and Owens Pottery Companies led to a proliferation of slip-painted art pottery.
At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago William Grueby was profoundly influenced by the work of French artist-potters Auguste Delaherche and Ernest Chaplet. This led to the development of the often copied but never duplicated Grueby Green glazes which were to remain popular through the first quarter of the 20th Century. Organic and archetectural matt green pottery was a central theme in both the Arts &Crafts and Prairie School styles.
Susan Goodrich Frackelton, another major figure in the early china-painting movement, received a gold award at the Columbian Exposition for her salt-glazed stonewares. The last major venture into painted decoration came in 1895, with the opening of the Newcomb Pottery in New Orleans.
The first decade of the twentieth century was a period of significant growth and expansion for the American Art Pottery movement. During these years the art potteries produced some of their most mature work, the studio pottery movement started to take hold, and the 'art tile' industry expanded. Sculptural issues now entered into the creation of the vessel and the university emerged as the dominant patron of the ceramic arts.
The 1900 Exposition Universelle proved to be a major victory for American Art Pottery. Rookwood showed exceptional wares by various artists, and won a Grand Prix. Grueby received one silver and two gold medals. Medals also went to the Newcomb Pottery. Nichols , McLaughlin and Frackelton were also represented in the exposition. Grueby was particularly popular, and its booth was sold three or four times over. The success of the American ceramists was confirmed when many of Europe's leading museums purchased American wares for their collections of decorative art.
The importance of Rookwood began to decline during the first years of the twentieth century. Following poor sales at the Saint Louis fair, Rookwood tried to develop mail-order sales, but the relatively high prices (from $20 to $250) proved to be unsuitable. New techniques and glazes were introduced by a new glaze chemist. The slip-painting technique was improved to include cooler colors, under a brilliant, clear glaze but Rookwood continued to suffer because the public had tired of painted pottery. Artists who worked in a more sculptural manner now began to dominate. Yet, despite Rookwood's gradual fall from commercial favor, the Arts and Crafts Movement continued to regard it as an ideal.
By 1910 the foundations for the modern movement in ceramic art had been laid. There were now many schools, active exhibiting societies, publications, and some artists of consequence. The preceding decade the secrets of high fire had become known, and more new glazes were introduced during that time than during any other decade before or since. Technical knowledge was rapidly expanding as ceramics became a more international. The decade is distinguished by Robineau's successes in Europe and America, the founding of the University City Pottery and a decline in the importance of the art pottery industry in favor of Studio Pottery. What the decade lacked a creative direction.
The establishment of the University City Pottery was the event of the decade.
After the First World War the art establishment turned against the romantic craftsmanship of the previous decade. In 1920 the Arts and Crafts style was considered passe, even embarrassing, and objects of this period were consigned to the attic and basement. It was the decade of the 1920s that began the uneasy marriage between art and industry and that found its expression in the machine-art exhibitions held annually at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Through this involvement the museum conceived its curious policy that functional ceramics made by industry could be art, whereas vessels made by a potter with a wealth of intuition were craft and, by implication, of lesser importance (sic). American studio ceramics produced very little that conformed to the cultist machine-age ethic. (what a shame)
During the 1902s the strongest contemporary influence came from the Art Deco potters of France
The 1920s was one of the weakest decades for American ceramic art, so it is not surprising that Frank Lloyd Wright wrote pessimistically of ceramics in the United States: 'We have little or nothing to say in the clay figure or pottery as a concrete expression of the ideal of beauty that is our own. No sense of from has developed among us that can be called creative-adapted to that material. And it may never come. The life that flowed into this channel in Ancient times apparently now goes somewhere else.'What Wright and others did not recognize were the foundations that the 1920s were building for later achievement.
This was the beginning of the American Studio Pottery movement which continues to flourish today. The classic art pottery production was to evolve into the manufacturing of industrial artware and finally died a slow death in the mid 20th Century.
This is but a brief sketch.
There are many books on the subject and a Google can take you who knows where.
