Without Fear
Artist
Don Reitz
(American, 1929 - 2014)
Date1984
MediumSalt glazed stoneware with slips and engobes
DimensionsOverall: 13 1/4 × 13 1/4 × 13 1/4 inches (33.66 × 33.66 × 33.66 cm)
Credit LineAnonymous gift
Object number2012.43.A,B
Inscribedbottom: “Uncle Dick”
Markingsbottom: “616”
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionGlobular covered jar in salt-glazed stoneware, covered in pastel-colored slips and engobes with inscribed child-like designs. One scene shows an angry wild-haired little girl with five legs and the phrase: “Hay, I’ve been down this road beford”; the other with a girl walking a white dog. The lid is decorated with two worm-like projections.Gallery LabelWhile he was recovering from a near fatal car accident, Don Reitz learned that his 5-year-old niece, Sara, was fighting cancer. The two began exchanging letters, and Sara’s drawings and Reitz's own childhood memories provided inspiration for a series of very personal ceramics. The childlike designs, combined with symbols and misspelled phrases, convey frustration with both his life and society at large. The cheerful colors contradict the pain conveyed in these works with phrases like “Hay, I’ve been down this road beford.”
Copyright© The Reitz Family Trust
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