NEHMA | Collection

Gerry Williams

American
(1926–2017)

Pitcher
circa 1977

Porcelain
9.625 x 6.25 x 7.875 in.
Gift of the USU Potter's Guild
1984.914

Gerry Williams’s Pitcher is a fine work of wheel-thrown porcelain with a gracefully swelling form that tapers in at the shoulder, leaving a generous collar, from which the spout springs outward. The surface of the piece has been divided into three distinct sections by the glaze; the top and bottom sections are a translucent dark green and the middle section an opaque glossy white. A thin iron oxide wash has been added in fluid sweeps across the shoulder of the pot, which pools in the faint throw lines and emphasizes the form of the vessel.

Williams was born in 1926 in Asanol, Bengal, India, where his parents ran a missionary school during the last years of the British Raj. When World War Two broke out, Williams and his family moved to the United States, where he studied at Cornell College in Iowa, but was soon called to military service. Williams’s philosophy had, from childhood, been profoundly influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, so he became a conscientious objector and spent several years in alternative service. Upon his release, Gerry moved to New Hampshire to immerse himself in the thriving local pottery and ceramics scene. He built a house and studio in Dumbarton, New Hampshire, with his wife, Julie Williams, where he ran a self-sufficient studio and later founded The Studio Potter magazine, which became one of the most influential art magazines in America. Fifty-five years after he left Cornell for his alternative service, the college awarded Williams an honorary doctorate of fine arts to celebrate a prolific potter who helped shape the world of studio pottery in the US.

Ayla Murray

Keywords
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This object has the following keywords:

green, tan, white

Exhibition List

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Unearthed , 8/23/2022 - 5/14/2023

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Ceramics

Unearthed | 1970s and 1980s

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Gerry Williams