The International Academy of Ceramics had its biennial Assembly in Santa Fe last week. The last 2 were Shanghai and Paris, but sadly I was dealing with knee problems and not traveling. Very glad that with the help of my ace trainer, Kris Gibson, I’m able to bend my knees again and travel to my first IAC Assembly. It was a challenge to meet so many new people, and I learned many things and made new friends in clay. I was particularly taken by Rose Bean’s insights about being both a native American with a strong tradition and background as well as a university-trained artist (RISD MFA), and the pulls from those different directions. She was wonderfully articulate and candid, and her remarks were deeply thoughtful.
Museum shows offered much to see. One of my favorites was It’s About Time: 14,000 years of Art in New Mexico Art at the New Mexico Museum of Art. Nice use of information to place things in context. They had some pots from the anthropology museum that I suspect were not thought of as the best art, but more as examples of something cultural. But the works were a bit more rugged with charming hand quality, and seemed looser and more expressive than some of the works chosen as high art. Image below circa 925-1125 CE. Museum of Indian Arts & Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology.
