Modern + Contemporary
Thu, Nov 11, 2021 09:00AM EST
Lot 46
Betty Abrahams Woodman
Estimate: $8,000 - $12,000
Bid Increments
| Price | Bid Increment |
|---|---|
| $0 | $25 |
| $100 | $50 |
| $1,000 | $100 |
| $2,000 | $200 |
| $3,000 | $250 |
| $5,000 | $500 |
| $10,000 | $1,000 |
| $20,000 | $2,000 |
| $50,000 | $5,000 |
| $100,000 | $10,000 |
(American, 1930-2018)
Summer Vase, 1996, not apparently signed, thrown, slab constructed and glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer and acrylic paint sculpture, 26-1/2 x 25-1/2 x 9-1/2 in.
Provenance: Franklin Parrasch Gallery, Inc., New York City, New York, purchased November 2000 for $17,000 (accompanied by original receipt); Jerry and Deena Kaplan Collection of Modern Art and Crafts
Note: Ceramic artist Betty Woodman is famously known for her inventive sculptural creations that harken back to the formal utilitarian vessel. Her constructions are a marriage of traditional thrown shapes, layered painterly surfaces, and expressive tension, with a portfolio of works ranging from vessels and sculptural still-lives to site-specific installations and wall art.Betty Woodman (born 1930) graduated from Alfred University in 1950 and began her career as a studio potter at the age of 20. In the 1970s, Woodman?s work took a more sculptural turn, gaining momentum as the Pattern and Decoration movement was on the rise, and contributing a fresh voice to the then-predominantly male field of ceramic arts.Woodman?s achievements are in response to her ambitious approach to experimentation, thus achieving international renown and many notable exhibitions (including a 2006 retrospective of her work shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), honors, and recognitions, including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, awarded in 1980 and 1986.This work ?Summer Vase? is an example of Woodman's approach to deconstructing the traditional, pushing the limits on what constitutes a vessel, and redefining the space between craft and fine art. Here, applied sculptural cutouts add graceful contours to the thrown center, and the surface decoration is enthusiastically applied with layers of paint, glaze, epoxy, and lacquer. With unexpected ease, Woodman creates a harmonious rhythm throughout her body of work.?Woodman has a voluptuary?s sense of the substance of paint. She drips. She slathers. She glazes.? - Alex Taylor for ARTnews, May 2008
Condition
firing crack on back left element with related hairline crack to 3/4 in., firing crack horizontally along stepped collar near base front right, other small firing cracks, scattered areas with glaze shivering, some with small losses, crazing
