Paul Kotula projects

Howard Kottler, whose irreverent art seems ever so current, used his profile in many of his works. The addition of his goatee drew a parallel to the silhouette of the West Coast where sexual liberation was occurring and where he would head after living in the midwest. He taught at the University of Washington, Seattle, and, as a gay man, spent much time in San Francisco. Toward his late years, Kottler masterminded a powerful body of work that included several vases using a Rubens-Vase effect, the artist mirroring his own inward-facing silhouette to create the illusion of a vase in negative space. It was a visual gag. But more than humor can be read from this object performing as a vase, sculpture, self-portrait. One might also read his coupling as narcissistic or gay love or late life self-reflection. Kottler died of cancer, but many gay men at the time were dying of AIDS related causes.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Howard Kottler (1930-1989) received his BS, MA, and PhD (in ceramics!) from Ohio State University. But the year Kottler spent at Cranbrook Academy of Art under the mentorship of Majia Grottell forever changed him. He earned his MFA in 1957 at the academy and for which there is a scholarship in his name.

The Anne and George Crane Collection has many connections to Michigan. While many in the ceramic arts know Kurt Weiser by his history as the director of the Archie Bray Foundation and as a professor at Arizona State University, they might not know that Kurt was born and raised in Lansing, MI, and recieved his MFA from the University of Michigan in 1976. (He did his undergraduate studies at Kansas City Art Insitutute.)

Around 1990, Weiser made a major shift in his work. He left behind abstraction for elaborate narration using china paints or, as on this vessel, cobalt. While continuing a long history of blue and white ware, Weiser offers a dreamscape filled with figures,various pots and decorative patterns. A woman, arms outstretched, invites you into this mystical space.

This simple cylinder is thrown very thin on the potter's wheel. When you look inside the vessel the lower 1/3 in translucent, providing a glimpse of the deftly painted narrative on the vessel's exterior.

Anne Crane loved precision. It is evident in her achitectural designs and blue prints, of which a few of the latter are also on display.

A View of Earth: The Architect's Eye, Select Ceramic Art from the Anne and George Crane Collection remains on view through January 11. The gallery is open today and tomorrow (Dec. 27/28) from 11 to 5 PM.

Whatever you may be celebrating, may it be merry and bright!

Happy Holidays!

Anne Wilson
Errant Behaviors
Museum of Arts and Design,
2 Columbus Circle, New York

Recently acquired for MAD's permanent collection, Anne Wilson's video and sound installation, Errant Behaviors, proposes surreal implications and intersections between textile, moving image, and sound. In the work, threads of lace come to life in an imaginary world through the large-scale projection of 23 frame-by-frame animations the artist constructed by hand. A soundtrack by composer Shawn Decker utilizes recorded and found sounds to create an environment of sonic activity for the threads that mirror their spirited and often humorous behavior.