Description

People who love and follow the world of ceramics art know the name John Glick.  He is referred to as the "people's potter" and was recognized as one of his generation's premier figures in studio art pottery. He referred to himself as an abstract expressionist and traced his earliest influences to the painter Helen Frankenthaler and the Japanese ceramicist Kanjiro Kawai. This is a large piece by Glick and one that represents well his incorporation of abstract design, Asian influences and the expansion of the notion of "functionality" into his work.

Details

• John Glick (American, 1938-2017)
• Glazed ceramic
• Signed on the bottom
• 22 1/2" long, 15" wide
  
• Excellent condition

About the Artist

Glick was born in 1938 in Detroit to parents who fostered creativity in him as a child.  At Wayne State University he studied ceramics and metalwork and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1960, followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Fine Art in 1962. Upon returning home to Michigan from his military service in West Germany, Glick founded his studio, Plum Tree Pottery. Over the course of his career, Glick created over 300,000 pieces of pottery and was one of the most lauded and profiled potters of his generation. Encouraged by an art collector he had met, Glick made the unusual decision to begin a personal collection of his own work, and over a period of 50 years saved approximately 1,000 pieces. Glick admitted that saving those works was difficult "because they should have been out in the world." But on the flip side, he was able to use his personal collection as an aid for the 33 apprentices and residents with whom he worked at Plum Tree Pottery.

In 2016, he and his wife, Susie Symons, decided to move to California to be closer to their family.  This was, in effect, the announcement of his retirement.  In response, the Cranbook Art Museum organized a major retrospective, John Glick: A Legacy in Clay, which opened shortly before his death in 2017.  The exhibition included nearly 200 pieces representing all phases of his work and formed part of the John Glick Legacy Project, which also included the placement of the ceramicist’s most important works in public museum collections around the world. Today his work is included in over 20 museums, including the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.