"The Potter's Eye" Sees Art and Tradition in North Carolina Pottery

RALEIGH, N.C.

:Ageless traditions in pottery are explored in the recently opened exhibition "The Potter's Eye: Art and Tradition in North Carolina Pottery," now on view at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Simple brown jugs, vases and other wares on view attest to the everlasting appeal of the art of clay to the potter, the user and the beholder.

Pottery is an elemental art drawn equally from earth, air, fire and water. It is at the same time essentially utilitarian. Yet, around the world and down the centuries, each maker has left part of himself in his creations.

Some 90 pots on view range from a Chinese vase from the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) to Nineteenth Century wares by potters from throughout North Carolina. Work by six contemporary North Carolina potters are also displayed in juxtaposition to the old pieces, illustrating the continuity of tradition and the connection between the very old and the new. For purposes of order, the exhibit has excluded most Twentieth Century North Carolina pottery, including Jugtown.

Taken as a whole, the pots demonstrate the historic and aesthetic connections of North Carolina pottery to early work from Asia, Europe and other parts of North America. They share the intensely tactile qualities that give pottery its enormous appeal.

As is evident with the techniques utilized by the early Asian potters and the examples on display, the potters of central and western North Carolina also viewed form to be as important as function. At the same time, it explicates the unique artistry that characterizes North Carolina wares and the timeless influences far beyond the state's borders that helped shape them.