Born in Sedalia, Missouri, Patten was an only child whose parents divorced when she was very young. She grew up close to her grandfather, Marion Hall, who sparked her early love of horses. In 1965 she graduated with a B.A. in German from the University of Kansas. Later, when one of her favorite horses was accidentally electrocuted, she suffered a bout with mental illness. In a television interview nearly twenty years later, Patten recalled with certainty that it was this ?sick and pitiful? period in her life which led to her discovering she really wanted to be an artist. She acted on this realization and received her B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1979. The unique and rather eccentric style of art that Patten brought to her work had no precedent in the Kansas City area. Her tendency to overload canvases with layer upon layer of oil paint with a palette knife gave her works a dramatic and emotional quality. Patten preferred working with canvases of up to nine feet or more in size. Patten?s independent vision resulted in wide recognition in her short sixteen years as an artist. In 1988 she won the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship with just a few slides and a one-page resume. Her work was featured in Art in America in June of 1995. Patten was 52 when she died in December 1995, a few short months after receiving the news she had liver cancer.
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Honesty
Born in Sedalia, Missouri, Patten was an only child whose parents divorced when she was very young. She grew up close to her grandfather, Marion Hall, who sparked her early love of horses. In 1965 she graduated with a B.A. in German from the University of Kansas. Later, when one of her favorite horses was accidentally electrocuted, she suffered a bout with mental illness. In a television interview nearly twenty years later, Patten recalled with certainty that it was this ?sick and pitiful? period in her life which led to her discovering she really wanted to be an artist. She acted on this realization and received her B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1979. The unique and rather eccentric style of art that Patten brought to her work had no precedent in the Kansas City area. Her tendency to overload canvases with layer upon layer of oil paint with a palette knife gave her works a dramatic and emotional quality. Patten preferred working with canvases of up to nine feet or more in size. Patten?s independent vision resulted in wide recognition in her short sixteen years as an artist. In 1988 she won the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship with just a few slides and a one-page resume. Her work was featured in Art in America in June of 1995. Patten was 52 when she died in December 1995, a few short months after receiving the news she had liver cancer.
Concentration
Born in Sedalia, Missouri, Patten was an only child whose parents divorced when she was very young. She grew up close to her grandfather, Marion Hall, who sparked her early love of horses. In 1965 she graduated with a B.A. in German from the University of Kansas. Later, when one of her favorite horses was accidentally electrocuted, she suffered a bout with mental illness. In a television interview nearly twenty years later, Patten recalled with certainty that it was this ?sick and pitiful? period in her life which led to her discovering she really wanted to be an artist. She acted on this realization and received her B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1979. The unique and rather eccentric style of art that Patten brought to her work had no precedent in the Kansas City area. Her tendency to overload canvases with layer upon layer of oil paint with a palette knife gave her works a dramatic and emotional quality. Patten preferred working with canvases of up to nine feet or more in size. Patten?s independent vision resulted in wide recognition in her short sixteen years as an artist. In 1988 she won the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship with just a few slides and a one-page resume. Her work was featured in Art in America in June of 1995. Patten was 52 when she died in December 1995, a few short months after receiving the news she had liver cancer.
Refound
Born in Sedalia, Missouri, Patten was an only child whose parents divorced when she was very young. She grew up close to her grandfather, Marion Hall, who sparked her early love of horses. In 1965 she graduated with a B.A. in German from the University of Kansas. Later, when one of her favorite horses was accidentally electrocuted, she suffered a bout with mental illness. In a television interview nearly twenty years later, Patten recalled with certainty that it was this ?sick and pitiful? period in her life which led to her discovering she really wanted to be an artist. She acted on this realization and received her B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1979. The unique and rather eccentric style of art that Patten brought to her work had no precedent in the Kansas City area. Her tendency to overload canvases with layer upon layer of oil paint with a palette knife gave her works a dramatic and emotional quality. Patten preferred working with canvases of up to nine feet or more in size. Patten?s independent vision resulted in wide recognition in her short sixteen years as an artist. In 1988 she won the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship with just a few slides and a one-page resume. Her work was featured in Art in America in June of 1995. Patten was 52 when she died in December 1995, a few short months after receiving the news she had liver cancer.
from More Visible Markers in Twelve Exciting Colors (Thanks)
McCollum is recognized as one of today?s leading contemporary artists. His work has been exhibited extensively worldwide. Recently, his work has appeared in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Pompidou Center in Paris, France. The current White House Twentieth Century American Sculpture exhibit also includes a work by McCollum.
Rectangular
Kaneko has been hailed as one of the leading ceramics sculptors of the 20th century. He left Japan and attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California in 1964. Paul Soldner and Peter Voulkos are among the prominent ceramic artists whom Kaneko studied under at various institutions throughout the United States. Works by this artist can be found in numerous museums throughout the United States and Japan. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the American Crafts Museum in New York and museum collections in his native Japan are just a few of the places where Kaneko?s work has been exhibited.
Plate
After having been drafted to serve as a military photographer during the Korean War, Leedy found his ?spiritual home? in Asian philosophy while witnessing the atrocities of war. This experience left a great impact on Leedy. Studying art and art history on the G.I. Bill after the war enabled him to meet some influential artists in New York. Wilhelm de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Philip Guston were among the group that impacted Leedy. These painters were known for painting in a style coined ?Abstract Expressionism?. Leedy discovered that there were similarities to Asian thought in this form of art and thus were the beginnings of Leedy?s quest for spontaneity and discovery. ?The teacher?s attitude was that if it had a finger mark, or a drop of glaze, you wiped that away, or you ground it off. And I realized with this Zen/Taoist philosophy that it was this aspect that made it unique and different than all the others.? ? Jim Leedy
Vertical Torque, Ember
Mason helped revolutionize clay under the tutelage of Peter Voulkos at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California in the 1950s. This revolution was responsible for changing ceramics from totally utilitarian works of clay to fine art. Abstract Expressionism directly influenced the artists involved in this change in ceramics. Many museums contain Mason?s works in their permanent collections including the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri; the Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.; and the American Craft Museum in New York, New York. Vertical Ember Torque is part of a series by Mason that exudes strength and beauty. The hand-built work conveys the massive energy and strength employed by the artist to twist and manipulate the clay. The resulting totemic sculpture closely resembles a twisted steel beam.
Adagio
One of the most important and influential ceramic artists working in the world today, Autio was instrumental in changing the face of ceramics forever. He did this along with fellow ceramic greats, Peter Voulkos and Jim Leedy, by applying the techniques of gesture and action from Abstract Expressionist painting to ceramics. Autio and his wife, Lela, and his good friend, Peter Voulkos, were all founding residents of the Archie Bray Ceramics Foundation in Helena, Montana. After leaving there, he headed the ceramics area at the University of Montana for twenty-eight years. He is now retired as Professor Emeritus of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Montana. Recipient of a voluminous number of awards and honors, including an honorary Doctorate of Art from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, the Tiffany Award in Montana in 1981, and in 1980, he received a National Endowment grant to work and teach at the Arabia Porcelain Factor in Finland and the University of Helsinki. This wood-fired vessel by Autio is unusual for the artist since it lacks his well-known colorful glazes. By eliminating the use of glaze and emphasizing the recording of the touch of the hand and fire on the clay, the artist’s personal interpretation materializes in the form of energetic marks on the surface of the vessel.