Post War and Contemporary Art

Provenance:

Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, St. Louis

Lot Essay:

“I don’t know what to call new pieces: sculpture, objects, ceramics? I just make them; somebody else can decide what they’re called.” (Ken Price, quoted in Joan Simon. “An Interview with Ken Price.” Art in America, January 1980, p. 100)

Ceramicist Ken Price represents the generation of artists who came out of the revolutionary West Coast movement in the 1960s. His work reflects the excitement and brashness of the California culture as well as his love for the ocean and marine life. He was part of a group of artists--including Ed Kienholz, Ed Ruscha, and Billy Al Bengston--associated with the Ferus Gallery, and who were progenitors of the Finish Fetish school of meticulous object-making. With artists from both coasts, including John Chamberlain, Donald Judd, John McCracken and Dan Flavin, Price also helped to usher vibrant color irrevocably into modern sculpture, often with the help of automobile lacquer and enamel.

Blob, 1987, represents Price's free experiments and explorations that push the limits of ceramic technique. He tended to work in loose series, and in the late 1980s began to create lumpy, bulbous forms that were cut into and polished, much like geodes. The rumpled surface of Blob is abruptly interrupted by the geometrical, fluorescent pink slice, which reveals a gaping negative space. The unexpected blackness challenges the viewer to determine if it is a painted shape or a hole. The sharp angles are especially jolting when compared to the variegated veins that trace the organic form. A strange interplay takes place as a result, causing a frisson between the joyful and ominous.

To achieve the shimmering surface effect, Price applied multiple layers of paint to the clay sculpture, which were then sanded down to reveal the strata. A “core sample” was then taken, cutting into the form and revealing the geometric planes of monochromatic surfaces. In such artworks as Blob, Price moved to detach the form from the material elements of its composition, embracing a vocabulary of pure abstraction that virtually integrates color within three-dimensional form. As the artist once commented: “I’m trying for an organic fusion of color with surface form.” Price’s ineffable, technically brilliant ceramics helped to greater dissolve the chasm between art and craft.