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The Watermill Center - Summer Lecture Series
Douglas Dawson - African Ceramics: What are We Looking At?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 7:30 PM (ET)

Water Mill, NY

The Watermill Center - Summer Lecture Series  Douglas...

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Born in South Dakota, Douglas Dawson developed a fascination for ceramics at an early age. After serving as an apprentice to master potter Niwa Ryochi in Yamagata, Japan, he spent time studying pre-Colombian ceramics in Highland Maya potting villages. Considered an expert in the field of ethnographic ceramics, he has owned and operated the Douglas Dawson Gallery in Chicago, specializing in ancient and historic art from Africa, Asia and the Americas, since 1983.

This talk, using examples from the Watermill Collection of African ceramics, will consider the formal and conceptual issues so effectively explored by African potters, and why those issues mean something to us.

African ceramics have only recently emerged from total obscurity to enter the broader corpus of what constitutes African art. African potters do not make pots differently than anyone else, but they have explored and exploited the metaphorical potential of the vessel like few others. No aesthetic possibility remained unexplored, no functional problem creatively unresolved, and nowhere did ceramics play such a fundamental role in the spiritual life of the cultures that produced them.

What are we seeing when we look at an African pot?

 

Douglas Dawson Gallery

www.watermillcenter.org

Image: by Lovis Dengler from The Watermill Collection

When & Where



39 Watermill Towd Road

Water Mill, NY 11976

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 7:30 PM (ET)


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The Watermill Center



 

Watermill is a laboratory for performance founded by Robert Wilson as a unique environment for young and emerging artists from around the world to explore new ideas.

 

Watermill draws inspiration from all the arts and cultures as well as from social, human and natural sciences.

 

Watermill is a global community of artists. Living and working together among the extensive collection of art and artifacts lies at the heart of the Watermill experience.

 

Watermill is a haven for the next generations of artists, supporting their work among a network of international institutions and venues that embrace new interdisciplinary approaches.