NEHMA | Collection

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Andrea Gill

American, b. 1948

Face Cup
1995

Porcelain

8.5 x 7.5 x 3 in.

Andrea Gill’s Face Cup is truly an anomaly in the public domain, as all of her work in exhibitions, collections and media are large, hand-built sculptures that start from traditional vessel forms and become camouflaged with slabs or wings. A rare occurrence, this majolica cup was thrown on the wheel with low fire (1900 degrees F) terra cotta clay. It demonstrates Gill’s talents as the painter she started as. The sketched face seems quickly drawn on an opaque tin-white glaze, but in her simple mark-making she achieves the spontaneity, freshness and naivëte of a folk artist. Gill is considered one of the pioneers in the resurgence of decorative earthenware and maiolica glaze techniques. Since 1980, when she began to work in clay full time, Gill’s vessels are primarily vehicles for painted decoration.

Gill was born in in New Jersey, but spent her early years in Bethesda, Maryland, where she first studied ceramics in high school. She entered a piece in a competition for high school students and won a scholarship for the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. She studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1971 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Gill continued her ceramics studies at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) with Ken Ferguson (see Ferguson’s 1960s Bottle); and then on to Alfred University, New York for her Master of Fine Arts in 1978. She met her husband, John Gill (also a well-known ceramist) at Kansas City Art Institute. They held several teaching positions across the country and both became Professors of Ceramic Art at Alfred University, New York, teaching there for more than thirty years (1984-2017).

Billie Sessions, PhD.

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