Maurice Grossman

American
(1928–2010)

Bridge Form
1987

Stoneware
22.5 x 8.875 x 7.5 in.
Museum Purchase with the Charter Member Endowment Fund
1987.182.1-2

Maurice Grossman’s Bridge Form is a playful amalgamation of wheel-thrown and handbuilt porcelain parts combined to form a tall rounded basket with an overarching handle attached to the rim. The basket form is accompanied by a separate, four-legged pedestal upon which the basket rests. Both forms are glazed a solid gray-white hue, which provides a stark contrast to the roughly textured surface and small shadowy square holes that have been pierced into the wall of the basket.

Grossman was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a Jewish family stricken with hardship by the Great Depression. However, he was able to attend Wayne State University and Ohio State University, where he studied the arts. In 1955 he moved to Tucson and founded the ceramics program at the University of Arizona, where he taught for the next thirty-five years and eventually retired as an emeritus professor. A lifelong traveler, Grossman incorporated ideas from Buddhism into his work and philosophy of life, and drew inspiration from the architecture of Europe and Asia. He was a tireless creator, educator, and social activist until his death at 82 years of age.

Ayla Murray

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This object has the following keywords:

• basket
• porcelain - A material comprising white clay, or "kaolin," and a feldspathic rock, that react when fired so the clay serves to hold the shape of the object and the rock fuses into a natural glass. In China, it includes any such ware that is highly fired enough to produce a ringing sound when struck. In Europe, it is limited to hard-fired ceramic that is translucent.

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• Unearthed , 8/23/2022 - 5/14/2023

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