1979 A CENTURY OF CERAMICS IN THE UNITED STATES

n 1972, jurors Peter Voulkos, Jeff Schlanger, and Robert Turner and Everson director James Harithas canceled the 1972 Ceramic National because they felt

it was “unmanageable” and the work submitted was “unexhibitable.” This decision immediately sent shock waves through the ceramics community, but ultimately led the Museum to step back and strategically plan a series of exhibitions (including New Works in Clay and Nine West Coast Sculptors) that had a massive impact on the field of ceramics.

After several years of correspondence, Margie Hughto, the Museum’s Curator of Ceramics, met Garth Clark in 1977 when he came to the Everson for a lecture. This eventually led to Clark, who was in the process of cementing his reputation as the field’s foremost scholar and historian, to sign on as co-curator for a monumental touring survey of American ceramics. The resulting exhibition would come to contain more than 400 pieces dating back as far as 1878, when the field had been invigorated by the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia several years prior.

William Morris and Miller Brewing were sponsors and provided the funding and promotional muscle necessary for three years of touring, which included stops at the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution as well as the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York City. The show was also accompanied by a 330-page catalog by Clark and Hughto that has the distinction of being the first-ever ceramic art history textbook. A Century of Ceramics in the United States received positive reviews from critics with national reputations like Donald Kuspit, John Ashberry, and others. The exhibition’s success was instrumental in helping to shape the perception of the field of ceramics for both the art world and the public at large.

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