Footed Dish

Artist Henry Varnum Poor (American, 1888 - 1970)

Date1932

MediumEarthenware with glaze

DimensionsOverall: 5 × 14 1/2 inches (12.7 × 36.83 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. H. S. Stone, H. E. Poor and Henry Varnum Poor in memory of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Poor

Object number40-43

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts

Terms

DescriptionSig. (center interior/edge of fruit) HV Poor Inscribed (inner edge lip) "Love & Faith & even sometimes even clay can be as Golden as Purest Gold"; (outer band) "Josephine Graham/Alfred J. Poor/1882/Christmas/1932", space with lovebirds and parallel wavy lines. LIght cream shallow bowl in wide tall foot, decorated in center with fruit and leaves.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Henry Varnum Poor 1887-1970: A retrospective exhibition, Organized by the Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University September 14-November 20, 1983; Burchfield Center, Western New York Forum for American Art, December 11, 1983-Febraury 5, 1984; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, February 26- April 22, 1984; National Academy of Design, New York, May 10- July 1, 1984, no. 127.

American Studio Ceramics, 1920-1950, Organized by the University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, November 10 1988-January 8, 1989; and circulated under the Auspices of the American Federation of Art to the American Craft Museum April 12-June 11, 1989; Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, December 10, 1989-February 4, 1990; Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan, March 4-May 6, 1990; The Decorative Arts Museum of The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, August 19-October 14, 1990; Ball State University Gallerie, Muncie, Indiana, November 11, 1990- January 6, 1991, no. 40.

Gallery Label

Henry Varnum Poor began his artistic career with painting and drawing, but then turned to ceramics for his livelihood. He became one of America's leading ceramicists of the 1920s. Poor, a self-taught potter, thought of ceramics as canvases for his compositions, thus aligning his work more with contemporary paintings than ceramics. The abstract sgraffito decoration, a technique by which slip or glaze is incised to reveal the clay body, and the limited color range are characteristic of Poor's ceramics. The artist made the dish in honor of his parents, Alfred J. Poor and Josephine Graham Poor, whose names encircle the outer rim of the dish. The top of the rim reads: "Love and faith and sometimes even clay can be as golden as the purest gold."

Provenance

Gift of Mrs. H. S. Stone, Champan, KS;

Her gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1940.

Published References

American Studio Ceramics, 1920-1950: An Exhibition Organized by the University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and Circulated under the Auspices of the American Federation of Art. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, University Art Museum, 1988), 54 (repro.).

Harold E. Dickson, and Richard Porter. Henry Varnum Poor 1887-1970: A retrospective exhibition. (University Park, Pa: The Museum, 1983), 149 (repro.).

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