Harrison McIntosh
Bowl, c. 1990, stoneware
Boise Art Museum Collection, Gift of John Takehara
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Harrison McIntosh
This simple yet elegant stoneware bowl is typical of Harrison McIntosh’s work.
The bowl began as a classic wheel
thrown vessel. Then, when the clay was leather
hard McIntosh cut and painted the geometric design, the brown hard-edge bands
contrasting and accentuating the round cream body of the vessel. McIntosh works
with a small kiln in a quiet studio, wheel throwing stoneware forms that reflect
his interest in classic, restrained and subtle designs.
Harrison
McIntosh’s Bowl is one of nearly 200 ceramic works in the John Takehara
Collection at BAM. Takehara is an internationally distinguished ceramicist and
retired Boise State University professor, who donated his extensive collection
of contemporary ceramics to BAM in 1994. He maintains friendships with ceramic
artists worldwide and often travels to foreign countries to visit studios where
he has directly acquired many of the works in this collection. 71 works from the
Takehara Collection are currently on view in the BAM galleries, including
contemporary American, Australian, British, and Russian works, in addition to
historical and contemporary Far Eastern works of art.
Artist
Biography
Harrison
McIntosh was born in 1914 in Vallejo, California. He studied ceramics at the
University of Southern California and the Claremont Graduate University near Los
Angeles. McIntosh has worked as a professional studio potter in Claremont since
the mid-1950s, supplementing his studio sales with designs of ceramic and glass
wares for such large factories as the Japanese company Mikasa. McIntosh’s work
has been exhibited in museums throughout North America, including the Renwick
Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His work is also
represented in museum collections in Europe and Japan and such American museum
collections as the American Craft Museum, New York; and the Oakland Museum,
California.
At BAM
When
visiting BAM you can explore art of the ages from the Museum's permanent
Collection through four mini-exhibitions. In Elegance of Form, we see
together historical and contemporary, western and non-western works of art that
share an emphasis on beauty and harmony. A Chinese porcelain bowl from the
Ming Dynasty (16th & 17th century) poetically corresponds to
California-based artist Harrison McIntosh's stoneware bowl made almost 300 years
later. Examples of ceramic art from China, Japan, North America,
Australia, Great Britain and Russia, from the 1500's to present, are exhibited
with 19th century Japanese woodblock prints and contemporary American graphic
works. |
