Raku Landscape Vessel II

Name/Title

Raku Landscape Vessel II

Entry/Object ID

83.5

Artwork Details

Medium

Raku-fired clay

Context

Credit Line: Purchased in memory of Faye Wallace

Made/Created

Artist

George Whitten

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Image Size

Height

36 in

Width

17 in

Depth

6 in

Interpretative Labels

Label

Whitten pots were featured in several movies and television shows. An interior design showroom in Miami that handled his work had an arrangement with the Miami Vice television series. It was basically a rental agreement, with an understanding that if the piece was broken in a fight scene or machine gun episode, it was upgraded from rental to purchase. Whitten’s raku work exhibits a kind of radical originality, especially in the thrown pieces, decorating techniques and alterations. The large slab vessels however are another matter. They seem to be icons, effortlessly spanning the gap between postmodern Western art and a kind of Zen-like artifact from some distant past and time.