Ceramic jar with ghost-head lid; base of jar glazed in reds and greens with butterfly decals
Artwork Details
Medium
Glazed ceramic
Category
Sculpture
Acquisition
Accession
AR70
Source or Donor
Art Unlimited
Acquisition Method
Purchase
Made/Created
Artist
James Melchert
Date made
1964
Dimensions
Dimension Description
Object
Height
9-1/2 in
Width
8 in
Depth
8 in
Exhibitions
Exhibition
Far Out
Notes
August 2 - October 4, 2025, di Rosa SF
Exhibition
Building A Different Model: Selections from the di Rosa Collection
Notes
March 9 - December 30, 2019, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa
Research Notes
Research Type
Curator
Date
2019
Notes
Alongside Peter Voulkos in the famed ceramic studio at the University of California, Berkeley, James Melchert began subverting the idea of the vessel. His Ghost Jar series evolved in the early 1960s in tandem with the off-kilter, woozy fantasies of Bruce Conner and William T. Wiley. As he wrote in 2014 for this museum, “I made a press mold of a small head (a playful caricature of Pete Voulkos complete with a cigar in his mouth) that the painter Nathan Oliveira had made as a kiln god for the firing in which Nate had a vessel. It sat atop the kiln for months before it eventually fell off and broke. When I found it, enough of the features were left so I put it to use, inspiring a series of works that alluded to a person’s past (but not their death).”
