Chris Gustin

American, b. 1952

Teapot 9502
1996

Stoneware
9.25 x 9.25 x 9.625 in.
Gift of the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation
1999.17

Is Chris Gustin’s Teapot 9502 actually a teapot? A human form? Its scale and shape are rich with suggestions stemming from both vessel and figurative traditions. The vertical “spout” form alludes to the original function of the teapot, while its abstracted “lid” and “handle” resemble the head and upper body of a figure with an infant in its arms. Teapot 9502, with its soothing chamomile color, elicits emotional reactions from every angle.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Gustin developed an interest in the ceramics medium growing up around his family’s ceramic manufacturing companies in Southern California. At the age of eighteen, he spent two years helping run the family business at Wildwood Ceramics. He earned his BFA in ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute in 1975, and his MFA at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1977. Gustin taught ceramics until his retirement in 1999. He also cofounded the artist residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine, and established the Gustin Ceramics Tile Production Company.

Sara Morris

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This object has the following keywords:

• abstract - Genre of visual arts in which figurative subjects or other forms are simplified or changed in their representation so that they do not portray a recognizable person, object, thing, etc.; may reference an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object. For the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances, prefer "abstraction." For 20th-century art styles that were a reaction against the traditional European conception of art as the imitation of nature, use "Abstract (fine arts style)."
• abstraction
• people

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• Intermediate Ceramics: Handbuilding , 10/5/2015 - 1/26/2016
• Champ Hall Ceramics , 2/7/2017 - 1/28/2022
• Form vs. Function: Teapots from the NEHMA Collection , 2/9/2017 - 12/14/2018
• Unearthed , 8/23/2022 - 5/14/2023

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