Catharine Hiersoux

American, b. 1938

Platter
circa 1980

Porcelain
1.5 x 16 x 16 in.
Gift of the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation
1984.783

Catharine Hiersoux’s Platter is a large, wheel-thrown porcelain serving dish with a gently sloping curvature and a subtle rim that defines the interior and exterior spaces. The surface acts almost as a canvas for the gesturally applied design of abstract shapes in brown, tan, and red-oxide washes. The piece is similar in design to the ones Hiersoux was commissioned to produce in 1977 by Rosalyn Carter, former First Lady of the United States, for use at a Senate event hosted by the White House.

Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1938, Hiersoux is a ceramist, teacher, and lecturer who has taught across the United States at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Maine; Penland School of Craft, Penland, North Carolina; the State University of New York; University of California, Santa Cruz; and San Francisco State University. In her words, her career “evolved out of a life process. What I did in the studio came from an internal rather than an external need. I would work with the clay and let it evolve out of the process. It was largely unconscious. As I look back on it, it seemed I was defining myself through form, finding relationships with my environment.”

Ayla Murray

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This object has the following keywords:

• brown
• gray
• grey
• orange
• red

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• Unearthed , 8/23/2022 - 5/14/2023

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