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Karen Karnes

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Karen Karnes
Born(1925-11-17)November 17, 1925
New York, New York
DiedJuly 12, 2016(2016-07-12)(aged 90)
Morgan, Vermont
Alma materBrooklyn College
Known forCeramics

Karen Karnes(November 17, 1925 – July 12, 2016) was an American ceramist, best known for her salt glazed, earth-toned stoneware ceramics.[1]

Early life[edit]

Karnes was born on November 17, 1925 in New York City,[2]where she attended art schools for children. Her garment worker parents were Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants, and the family lived in the Bronx Coops.[3]

Karnes applied for and was accepted to theHigh School of Music & Art.As a child she was surrounded by urban realities and visual influences, but she claims that her parents' old-world ideals kept her grounded. AtBrooklyn Collegeshe majored in design and graduated in 1946. After graduating, she studied abroad in Italy, where she continued to study ceramics.[4]

After returning from Italy, Karnes began a graduate program atAlfred University,but left before completing her degree to work atBlack Mountain College.[5]

Black Mountain College[edit]

Karnes first encounteredBlack Mountain Collegein1947, where she took a summer design class with Josef Albers.[6]

In 1952, she and her husbandDavid Weinrib(whom she later divorced)[2]moved down to North Carolina to become potters-in-residence at the Black Mountain College.[5][4]While at Black Mountain College, Karnes and Weinrib became acquainted withMerce CunninghamandJohn Cage,and later lived with them at theGate Hill Community.[5]

During the Pottery Seminar held at the college in 1952, Karnes met international pottersBernard Leach,Shoji Hamada,andMarguerite Wildenhain,as well as local potters Malcom Davis and Mark Shapiro. She was involved with theSouthern Highland Craft Guild(then known as the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild) during her stay in North Carolina, selling her work in downtown Asheville.[7]

Gate Hill Community[edit]

Karnes lived at Gate Hill Cooperative in Stony Point, New York, for twenty-five years. She moved to the community in 1954, leaving Black Mountain College before its closing. At Gate Hill, she built her own studio and kilns, and worked withM.C. Richardsand a local ceramics engineer to develop and popularize a flameproof clay body. With this clay, Karnes began making oven-top casserole dishes, a design she produced for over fifty years.[5]

Later life[edit]

In 1967, Karnes first experimented with salt-firing at a workshop at thePenland School of Crafts.[5]

Karnes' later work dealt with contemporary vessels, which were given different attention to design than her original pottery.[2] She made many traditionally functional forms and contemporary forms, but she also continued to produce casseroles, teapots, cups and bowls.

Another of her most well-known forms was the cut-lid jar, a form she first made at a workshop with Paulus Berensohn. Karnes continued to experiment with this form from the late 1960s until she stopped throwing.[8]

In the late 1970s Karnes moved to Vermont with her partner Ann Stannard.[9]She decided to live the rest of her life on a farm, working with clay and using old firing practices such as wood and salt firing.[4]In 1998, her house and studio burned to the ground because of a kiln fire.[3]With the help of donations from a large pottery sale, Karen rebuilt her country house and studio. She received a graduate fellowship from Alfred University, and won a gold medal for the consummate craftsmanship from The American Craft Council.[7]In 1976 she was named a Fellow of theAmerican Craft Council.[10]

Karnes died on July 12, 2016, in Morgan, Vermont.[11][10]

Her work is in theAsheville Art Museum,[12]theBrooklyn Museum,[13]theDetroit Institute of Art,[14]theMetropolitan Museum of Art,[15]theMuseum of Arts and Design,[16]theMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston,[17]thePhiladelphia Museum of Art,[18]theSmithsonian American Art Museum,[19]and theVictoria and Albert Museum.[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Karen Karnes".Studio Potter.Retrieved13 December2023.
  2. ^abFalino, Jeannine (2011).Crafting modernism: midcentury American art and design: [exhibition Crafting modernism. Midcentury American art and design, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, October 11, 2011 - January 15, 2012; Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, February 27 - May 21, 2012].New York: Abrams. p. 288.ISBN978-0810984806.
  3. ^abEd. Shapiro, Mark (2010).A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes.The University of North Carolina Press. p. 13.ISBN978-0-8078-3427-5.
  4. ^abc"Remembering: Karen Karnes | American Craft Council".American Craft Council.Retrieved2017-03-04.
  5. ^abcdeEd. Shapiro, Mark (2010).A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes.The University of North Carolina Press. pp. ix.ISBN978-0-8078-3427-5.
  6. ^Ed. Shapiro, Mark (2010).A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes.The University of North Carolina Press. p. 14.ISBN978-0-8078-3427-5.
  7. ^abShapiro, Mark (2016-07-19)."Karen Karnes, Remembered".NCECA Blog.Retrieved2022-12-07.
  8. ^Ed. Shapiro, Mark (2010).A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes.The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 3–4.ISBN978-0-8078-3427-5.
  9. ^"Karen Karnes - Obituary".Caledonian Record.11 August 2016.Retrieved13 December2023.
  10. ^ab"College of Fellows".American Craft Council.Retrieved13 December2023.
  11. ^"Karen Karnes".Craft in America.Retrieved13 December2023.
  12. ^"Karen Karnes".Asheville Art Museum.Retrieved13 December2023.
  13. ^"Covered Vessel".Brooklyn Museum.Retrieved13 December2023.
  14. ^"Bowl".Detroit Institute of Arts Museum.Retrieved13 December2023.
  15. ^"Karen Karnes | Salt-glaze Vessel".The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Retrieved13 December2023.
  16. ^"Coffee Set".Museum of Arts and Design.Retrieved13 December2023.
  17. ^"Artist/Maker: Karen Karnes".Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.Retrieved13 December2023.
  18. ^"Karen Karnes".Philadelphia Museum of Art.Retrieved13 December2023.
  19. ^"Karen Karnes".Smithsonian American Art Museum.Retrieved13 December2023.
  20. ^Karnes, Karen (1979)."Jar and cover".Victoria and Albert Museum.Retrieved13 December2023.

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Karen_Karnes&oldid=1210417194"