Kurt Brian Webb: Story Jars
curated by Dan Anderson
June 13-August 2, 2008
opening reception June 13 7 - 9pm: Wine tasting by Mary Michelle Winery
Artist's Bio
Kurt Brian Webb received his BS, BFA, and MFA in Ceramics from Illinois State University in Normal. He received an M Ed. in Story Arts from East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee. In 1985 he was an apprentice to a Master Craftsman of Oribe and Shino woodfired ceramics.
Webb sites the most meaningful education in his life is not from formal university training, but through influential friendships, traveling throughout the Unites States with his parents as a child, taking risk, learning from mistakes, helping children from abroad adjust to the United States, and being a responsible family man. All of theses and more have contributed to this man who has chosen artistic pursuits as the driving force in his life.
Webb has an extensive exhibition record, however he has purposely chosen to avoid commercial galleries in the showing of his work. He is independent and adulation for his work is almost non-existent allowing him to be free to create work that follows no trends or that which is directed by sales. He has focused on libraries, art centers, universities and museum galleries to exhibit his art work believing it is more important to have the work in the public rather than in someone’s home hidden from sight. This educational angle is attributed to his life experiences and respect for the power of unselfish sharing.
Webb spent several years early in his life living and traveling abroad in Japan, Hong Kong, China, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, however he felt the riches he gained were from seeing and experiencing things rather than collecting mementos along the way. His bags were empty when he would return, but his mind was filled. Many of his experiences now find their way visually transformed on his work. Webb balances his visual art interests between woodblock prints and woodfired ceramics.
He regularly visits Edwardsville to visit with friends and to fire his large carved clay jars in Dan Anderson’s anagama kiln.
Artist's Statement: Carved Clay Woodfired Jars
Other ceramic artists have influenced my clay work as much by their intent as by their material rendering.
In 1988, while viewing a small porcelain woodfired bowl and teapot by Australian artist Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, I decided to abandon my desire to make small-scale functional pottery. In that instant, I realized that Piggott’s clay work was inimitable. Her care in making forms, glazing the ware, and firing it was beyond comparison or emulation. I had a similar experience in 1984 in Japan when I saw Goro Suzuki’s shino glazed tea bowls, which were traditional but extraordinary. They convinced me not to mimic traditional Japanese pottery because there is no need to do something already being done supremely even if done by few in that country.
Having ruled out work in the manner of Pigott and Suzuki, I investigated the life and work of William De Morgan, which inspired my current large clay pictorial carved jars.
The early twentieth century modernist work of De Morgan interests me in three ways. First is his devotion in achieving his goals. De Morgan did extensive glaze research to arrive at the uncharacteristically brilliant use of what he called his “Persian” colors. He relentlessly pursued the vivid colors of sixteenth-century Turkish ware that he fervently admired. I am inspired by his endless inquiry, patience, and research.
Second, I am interested in De Morgan's use of clay blanks manufactured by other potteries including Minton, Hollins and Company, Architectural Pottery Company, Craven, Dunhill and Company, and Wedgewood. Free of conventional thought, he produced his work by every means possible. Similarly, I explore all options for the production and firing of my work. De Morgan's willingness to decorate and use clay work produced by external sources extended to later modernists such as Joan Miro, Raoul Dufy, George Braque, Marc Chagall, Maurice De Vlaminck, and Pablo Picasso.
Third, I appreciate the way in which De Morgan was willingly influenced by other cultures and ideas in his use of glaze color and pictorial design. Although Islamic art, classical mythology, medieval art, natural beauty, and Renaissance traditions inspired him, his creative use of these influences made his work truly individual. Building on his extensive understanding of other art, he used his knowledge respectfully to create novelty in the use of traditional colors and traditional motifs, and I too explore an array of eclectic topics beyond ceramics to gather inspiration.
Although there are many ways to fire clay, I have chosen woodfiring for the subtlety of the surface it produces on my large carved jars. The result depends on placement in the kiln, type of wood used, reliability of the firing crew, and length of time fired. The time-consuming nature of carving my clay work is matched by the labor-intensive nature of firing with wood. Dan Anderson's expert firing of my work in his "Mounds" anagama over the past seven years has allowed me optimal results. I deeply appreciate his handling of the work with complete professionalism.
Telling a story is the driving force for my carved woodfired jars. Like the work of Arntz, Keller, Kolyer, and Masereel, mine refers to Dance of Death, and social commentary, for example in the September 11th commemoration jar. On this jar entitled Death Days, the USS Arizona battleship floats beneath a Japanese Zero plane about to bomb its decks. In the water beneath the ship is a life preserver in the shape of the Pentagon with a skull peering outward. The waves become skeleton fingers reaching for the Trade Towers of New York City. Above the buildings is a commercial airline' about to hit the towers with a skeleton riding on the back of the plane blindfolding the windshield in a mockery of a childhood game.
On the jar entitled Onggi Peddler Tale, a story without words unfolds from the bottom to the top. A peddler walks from village to village selling his wares and engaging in extramarital affairs. Along the peddler’s journey, the way in which large onggi jars are created is described. From the digging of the clay to the loading of the jars in a climbing kiln, the entire process is described without words.
I am in the company of ceramic artists working today such as George Bowes, Michael Corney, Kathy King, Charles Kraft, and Anne Kraus, all of whom portray narrative images. Many of the jars in this exhibition relate to my interest in circus sideshow characters that lived during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. I also work in the European Dance-of-Death tradition, which is alive and well in the work of contemporary artists such as Mare Blocker, John Kolyer, Eileen Arnow-Levine, Bill Russell, Heinz Keller, and Kreg Yingst. And I work in the genre of stories without words, which is still practiced with vigor as seen in Mandy Coe's recent book on racism, Red Shoes. I acknowledge traditional influences and build upon them while pursuing individuality. As with John Kolyer's brilliant graphic work, I too feel that anything goes!
310 Hillsboro St., Edwardsville IL 62025 • 618.655.0337 • edwartscenter@att.net