Whimsical, humorous, and one-of-a-kind, the cups in this exhibition illustrate a major shift in the art of ceramists working on the West Coast during the 1960s and 70s. These artists struggled against having their work labeled as craft or folk art. While these works may resemble cups, complete with lip and handle, they almost defy use as functional vessels. With highly textured surfaces and bright colors, they do not fit the conventions of traditional painted cups. Small scale, everyday objects, they present powerful political and artistic statements, both through their subject matter and their provocative, erotic, or witty titles. The work has become much more sculptural than functional, rejecting a primary tenet of the craft label.

Seattle collector and UW professor emeritus Joseph Monsen saw his first West Coast ceramics at a show at the American Craft Museum in New York. In the early 1960s he began to collect Northwest ceramics and ceramics produced by artists teaching at the University of Washington School of Art. An exhibition and publication of that collection by the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1972 was an important historic first for these works. In 2003 and 2004 Joseph and Elaine Monsen donated 90 ceramic pieces to the Henry Art Gallery, greatly enhancing the museum’s holding of ceramics from this region.

The Henry Art Gallery has had a long relationship with the ceramic medium and with these artists. In the 1950s and 60s the Northwest Craftsmen exhibitions were presented at the Henry. The ceramic collection grew through the efforts of artists and UW professors Robert Sperry and Howard Kottler, former Henry curator LaMar Harrington, and collector and curator Elizabeth Bayley Willis. Harrington’s book Ceramics in the Pacific Northwest (1979) includes many of the works in the Henry’s collection. Ceramic artists working in our region continue to produce important sculptural work and are widely recognized for their innovations.