Gerit Grimm: Beyond the Figurine Contemporary Inspirations from the Museum’s Collection

Long Beach Museum of Art March 15th – July 8th, 2012 Checklist

1. Staffordshire, England 13. Staffordshire, England Bear Jar, ca. 1760 Tythe pig spill vase, ca. 1820 White Salt-glazed Stoneware Earthenware with enamel decoration Introduction 7 ½ x 6 x 9 inches 8 ½ x 8 x 4 3/8 inches Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld The Long Beach Museum of Art has been a collecting institution for over 60 2005.89.a.b 2005.141 years, and during that time, the Museum has been the fortunate recipient of 2. Staffordshire, England 14. Staffordshire, England many generous gifts of art resulting in a significant permanent collection. Some Shepherd and Shepherdess, ca. 1820 White saltglazed lady, ca. 1760 Earthenware with enamel decoration Stoneware gifts have come in the form of individual works of art, and others, as complete 8 ½ x 4 3/8 x 3 ½ inches 3 3/8 x 2 x 1 1/8 inches collections that have been carefully assembled over years by discerning collectors. Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld 2005.95 2005.140 Featured in this exhibition are contemporary works by ceramic artist Gerit Grimm, who was inspired by the over 100 Staffordshire Earthenware Ceramics from the 3. Staffordshire, England 15. Apt, France Ale-Bench, ca. 1825 Cup and saucer, late 18th century - early 19th century Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld, and, over 90 French faience ceramics Earthenware with enamel decoration Faience 7 x 7 ¼ x 4 ½ inches 2 ¾ x 3 ¼ inches from the Marie W. Forrest Trust. The combined collections span over 250 years Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust of ceramic production. Both collections can be seen in their entirety on the 2005.115.a 2006.23.a.b Museum’s website, www.lbma.org, thanks to the support of 4. Staffordshire, England 16. Pont-aux-Choux, Paris or Niderviller, France The Institute for Museum and Library Services, The Ahmanson The Hairdresser, ca. 1820 Figure of a woman with a basket, 18th century Earthenware with enamel decoration Faience Foundation, The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, The 9 ½ x 6 ½ x 5 ½ inches 11 ¼ x 4 x 4 inches Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust Dornfeld Family Trust, and the Getty Foundation. A catalogue of the 2005.116 2006.35 complete Dornfeld collection is also available in the Museum Store.

5. Staffordshire, England 17. Strasbourg, France Figure of a Female and Male Gardener, ca. 1825 Figure of a mother and child, ca. 1775 As a museum accredited by the American Association of Museums, Staffordshire, England Earthenware with enamel decoration Faience The Hairdresser, ca. 1820 6 5/8 x 3 x 2 ¾ inches 6 ½ x 2 ¼ x 2 inches we are charged with caring for these historic works of art, and, Earthenware with enamel decoration Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust 9 ½ x 6 ½ x 5 ½ inches 2005.133.a.b 2006.36 just as importantly, sharing them with the community Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld 2005.116 for the public’s enjoyment and education. Artist Gerit Grimm has given us 6. Staffordshire, England 18. Apt, France a fresh opportunity to present ceramic works that embody centuries of historic Rural Group, ca. 1820 Pitcher, 18th century Earthenware with enamel decoration Faience importance. In the past, these earthenware figures, some dating from the 17th 8 ¼ x 3 5/8 x 3 5/8 inches 7 x 5 7/8 x 4 ½ inches Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust century, were referred to as “toys” or “images” and depicted Old and New Testament 2005.134 2006.48 Bible stories, socio-political events of their times, and traditional fables. They

7. Staffordshire, England 19. Montereau, France were purchased and enjoyed by a rising middle class looking for an affordable Figure of a Gardener, ca. 1825 Plate with decoration from the Fables of de alternative to European porcelain. Earthenware with enamel decoration la Fontaine: Cendrillon, ca. 1820 5 3/8 x 2 ½ x 2 ¼ inches Faience Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld 1 x 8 ½ inches 2005.151 Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust It is significant that the talented and classically trained potter, Gerit Grimm, who 2006.57 has been working in clay since her youth, was drawn to the Museum’s historic 8. Staffordshire, England 20. Montereau, France Courting Couple, ca. 1820 Covered sugar bowl, ca. 1820 ceramics collection. In this exhibition Gerit not only uses historic images and tales Earthenware with enamel decoration Faience 8 ¼ x 3 ½ x 4 inches 4 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches derived form the Museum’s collection, she goes on to brilliantly tell the story of Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust 2005.131.a.b 2006.78.a.b how these works were created and when, how they were transported to market, and what was happening in the marketplace at the time of their creation. Gerit 9. Staffordshire, England 21. Bonnet, Apt, France is not only creating a history lesson which is there for us to discover, she uses her The Shoe Salesman, ca. 1820 Tea warmer with stand, early 19th century Earthenware with enamel decoration Faience powerful talent and skill with clay for aesthetic impact, a skill that comes from the 9 3/8 x 6 1/8 x 5 inches 12 x 5 inches Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust hands and vision of an artist who “owns” the material used. For a museum to 2005.117 2006.89.a.b.c have the fortune to work with such a talented artist, and give a fresh contemporary interpretation of such rich ceramic history, is a rare event. 10. England 22. Creil, France Yorkshire-type Figural Watch Stand, ca. 1800 Set of Ten Plates, 19th century Pearlware Faience 8 ¾ x 5 5/8 x 3 inches 1 x 8 ½ inches As a teaching institution, this unique exhibition combining historic Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust 2005.145 2006.54.a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i.j and contemporary ceramics will be of value for the students of the Long Beach Unified School District, the faculty and students 11. Staffordshire, England 23. Montereau, France Farmer and Wife, ca. 1825 Eggcup attached to plate, ca. 1825 of colleges, as well as collectors and other institutions from across Earthenware with enamel decoration Faience the southland. It is noteworthy, that Grimm’s creations could not 9 ¼ x 3 5/8 x 2 ¾ inches 3 ½ x 4 ½ inches Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust Staffordshire, England have happened if not for the exemplary ceramic 2005.149 2006.31 The Shoe Salesman, ca. 1820 Earthenware with enamel decoration program at California State University Long Beach. 9 3/8 x 6 1/8 x 5 inches 12. Staffordshire, England Artist Gerit Grimm was especially inspired by these ceramics in the permanent The ceramics program at CSULB, nurtured with Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld ca. 1835 collection of the Long Beach Museum of Art. The selections are from the Stafford- New Marriage Act I, 2005.117 Earthenware with enamel decoration shire Earthenware Collection, Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld; inspired vision and years of planning and growth, 7 ½ x 4 ½ x 3 1/8 inches and the Marie Forrest Collection of Continental Earthenware, Gift of the Marie W. Gift of the Estate of Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld Forrest Trust. Both collections are available online at www.lbma.org. The Dornfeld 2005.158.a Collection catalogue is also available for sale in the Museum shop. has attracted and “molded” many of the talented hands and fingers working in Frankensteins clay today. The physical location of Grimm’s unique sculptural constructions has been made possible through the CSULB College of the Arts with which the Gerit Grimm, who spent years working as a production potter, and whose Museum has a close relationship of mutual discovery and sharing. sculptural work depends upon the facility she developed during that experience, knows better than anyone that there is a kind of pact between the pot (and What began as an invitation for a small curated exhibition and installation by the potter) and the laws of physics, particularly those pertaining to material Gerit in response to the Museum’s Dornfeld collection grew from her petite dynamics and gravity. The pot that accepts its limits—that works with gravity “figurines,” into an exciting creative marathon of large-scale proportions. As each and not against it—and that aspires to only the most stable of form, gets work developed, it soon led to another that would not be complete without rewarded both on the wheel and in the kiln, while the pot that tests the limits another nor without each other! Very rarely does one witness the excitement and aspires to some other role tends to get punished with a physical malady and energy of a creative force like Gerit. It has been my pure joy to be swept up known by the name and posture that mimic the body language worn upon in Gerit’s enthusiastic ingenious and innovative wake! the shoulders of its maker when watching the work collapse in the studio or finding it deformed upon opening the kiln—the slump. It is in this context Ronald C. Nelson that one realizes that Grimm’s works are something more than the displays Executive Director of technical wonder they truly are; they also are displays of a spirit of risk- Long Beach Museum of Art taking—of making pots do what they’re not supposed to do and employing them in service beyond their usual job description—a spirit that the process of pottery-making itself tends to condition out of its practitioners over time. For Bonnet, Apt, France Tea warmer with stand, early 19th century all the technical perfection and propriety in them—they descend after all from Faience 12 x 5 inches a good potter’s good pots—they are inherently rebellious, and though Grimm Gift of the Marie W. Forrest Trust does such a fine job of pulling it off that you don’t notice it at first, the fact is 2006.89.a.b.c that that her pottery-based works only achieve their complexity, dynamism, and litheness of form by risking technical failure in all steps of their creation. Gerit Grimm: The Ceramic Figurine Tradition as Subject Matter The technical risk that is ever present in Grimm’s work—in pushing pots where physics doesn’t want them to go—parallels and adds emphasis to another The history of the ceramic figurine tradition is both deep and wide. It has been element of risk equally ever present in her practice, and equally tied to taking challenged if not assaulted by the original ceramic art of German born artist matters beyond conventional zones of comfort or safety. Grimm, whose surname Gerit Grimm. implies a predestination for predilection and preoccupation in the terrain of fantasy and fairytale, works within such terrain not unlike the way she works Many ceramists through much of the second half of the 20th Century have used with the thrown pot—taking a humble folk form to the edge of too far. The the idea and history of the ceramic figurine as an artistic device to spoof, honor ceramic figurine—in essence another folk form that can be pushed—provides or ridicule a particular subject of their choice. Few artists have successfully the point of union for Grimm’s other fascinations. The figurine’s union of narrative challenged the inherent issues of scale and color that are the hallmarks of the and form in clay offers Grimm the opportunity to merge pot and fairytale in a figurine tradition in almost any culture. Grimm has taken on both in an original manner that naturally pushes the boundaries of each and makes each stranger, way, in a relatively short period of time while in residency in our studios at and that also calls to mind any number of tales of individuals forming and CSULB. The subject matter in her tableaus runs the gamut from charming bringing to life everything from dolls to puppets to statues. There is wonder to uneasy to brutal. Each of the works however is so tenderly and skillfully and grace to be found in this union, but also discomfort and awkwardness, and crafted, with most of the components made on the potter’s wheel, that they in the pause that the awkward gives the mind, what percolates up are at times elicit an empathetic response in the viewer. darker themes that figurines and fairytales often embody but suppress. In their odd object/people/creature unions, one finds Gepettos, Aarons, Pygmalions, The historical polychrome glaze finish has been replaced by the natural fired Sirens, Rumplestiltskins, Frankensteins, Pied Pipers and their many kin in color of the clay. It is somber and distant and prevents the work from transgressing myth, lore and fable, as well as flashes of the real-world figures and narratives the slippery slope of whimsy. with which such characters and their stories once did and continue to find resonance. This is the edge of risk to which Grimm’s works lure us. As endearing, This is an original body of figurative ceramic sculpture that celebrates, elevates entertaining, and wondrous as they are, they also are troubled, troubling, and and artistically takes to task the rich history of the ceramic figurine. troublesome…and they mean to be.

Tony Marsh Christopher Miles Professor, Ceramic Arts Chair, Art Department California State University Long Beach California State University Long Beach Of What We Are That exchange is an important milestone in the history of Europe’s obsession with porcelain, and by extension, with figurines. They quickly refined the recipe for porcelain, and famous modelers such as Johann Joachim Kändler began making figures which adorned the palaces of European aristocrats. Middleclass shoppers in England wanted to own their own mantle- piece figurines which they soon were able to buy for pennies from the Staffordshire potters influenced by German Meissen porcelain figures, but producing less expensive figures in earthenware. Market squares were always bustling with peddlers selling fruits, pots, and images (figurines) that depicted actors, celebrities of the day, famous and infamous. Miniature ceramic houses decorated with flowers and shrubs were often used as decorative incense burners. All these little sculptures presented stories both historic and relevant to the times in which they were produced and which today are appreciated for their vibrancy and charm. To our eyes, they are colorful and whimsical; however, upon closer inspection their meanings may also be poignant and even tragic. During the French Revolution, aristocrats were guillotined in the public square, while watching women knitted and children frolicked, entertained by the spectacle.

Moving further away from the market we find a large, old tree with a communal bench around it. Here old and young meet to exchange tales. On one side we have a crowd of young, rowdy journeymen, and on the other, we view the cycle of life—women nurturing children and growing old.

Being able to closely study the ceramic objects from the Marie W. Forrest and the Dr. and Mrs. Leslie Dornfeld collections at the Long Beach Museum of Art was a special privilege “’We make our pots,’ runs an old Staffordshire saying, ‘of what we potters are...’ for which I am very grateful. Those works inspired this new body of work and were a very that is to say, clay.”1 special gift of inspiration and imagination from the Museum to me. It is my pleasure and delight to share this gift with you the viewer. Discover and enjoy the exhibition. The composition and creation of my imaginary market square was a challenging and Gerit Grimm adventurous journey of discovery inspired by the history of ceramics, especially Stafford- Artist and guest curator shire figures and French ceramics from the 17th and 18th centuries that are part of the February 2012 permanent collection of the Long Beach Museum of Art. My central idea for this exhibit 1 John Bedford, Staffordshire Pottery Figures. Walter and Company, New York, 1965. was to transgress the boundaries of folk art and fine art through an increase in scale, a 2 For a detailed historical account of Augustus and Böttger, see Janet Gleeson, The Arcanum: greater austerity of surface produced by reduction firing, and by employing the esthetic the Extraordinary True Story. Warner Books, Inc., New York, NY, 1998. language found in the history of European ceramic figurines. The fusion of these factors and visual devices and idioms has allusions to Pop and Surrealistic sensibilities—as if the market square were magically conveyed from the Old World into the New. Biography The journey begins with the carriage of Augustus the Strong that is rushing to the Iron Maiden Fortress in Dresden, where he wishes to see the progress made by his alchemist, Gerit Grimm was born, and grew up in Halle, German Johann Friedrich Böttger, and it continues to a market square set during the Baroque period, Democratic Republic. In 1995, she finished her apprentice- a time of great socio-economic inequality in Europe. Unlike most cities in the Western ship, learning the traditional German trade as a potter at United States, European towns are built from the center outwards in a concentric-ring the “Altbürgeler blau-weiss GmbH” in Bürgel, Germany and model, from a central market square to outlying regions. The center of the town is a worked as a Journeyman for Joachim Jung in Glashagen, public meeting place—in German, der Marktplatz—and there is often a central fountain Germany. She earned an Art and Design Diploma in 2001 and monument. The monument is usually a past ruler of the region, or a renowned figure studying ceramics at Burg Giebichenstein, Halle, Germany. In such as Georg Friedrich Händel, the Baroque composer born in my hometown. In my 2001, she was awarded with the German DAAD Government new creation of a European market square, I have depicted the hero, Augustus the Strong Grant for the University of Michigan School of Art and Design, of Dresden, Germany, a significant figure in the history of ceramics. My monument shows where she graduated with an MA in 2002. She received her him admiring the first porcelain pot that Böttger created and extracted from the kiln. MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred Porcelain had long been available only in China. Böttger had once been imprisoned by University in 2004. She has taught at CSULB, Pitzer College, Augustus the Strong for claiming he could make gold—but instead discovered, along Doane College and MSU Bozeman and has worked at major residencies like Mc Coll Center, with the alchemist Walter von Tschirnhaus, the recipe for porcelain2, which became Bemis Center, Kohler Arts & Industry Program and Archie Bray Foundation. In 2009 almost as precious as the gold Böttger claimed he could create. In my sculpture Böttger NET Television created “Fantasia in Clay” a Nebraska Story about artist Gerit Grimm. is depicted holding one of the eighteen Chinese dragoon vases which Augustus traded to Grimm now lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Frederick the Soldier-King of Prussia (Soldatenkönig) for six hundred horse soldiers and their families, indeed a currency more precious than gold! www.geritgrimm.com • http//:geritgrimm.lifeyo.com Fruit Peddlers, 2011 Gardener, 2012 Stoneware, 28 x 16 x 16 inches Stoneware, 39 x 23 x 25 inches Teapot Peddlers, 2011 Stoneware, 33 x 20 x 20 inches Village Tree, 2011 Stoneware, 56 x 23 x 23 inches Carriage, 2011 Stoneware, 37 x 78 x 19 inches Monument, 2011 Stoneware, 58 x 23 x 23 inches Fountain, 2011 Stoneware, 41 x 26 x 26 inches Image Peddler with Female Shopper, 2011 Stoneware, Man: 68 x 26 x 26 inches Woman: 62 x 22 x 22 inches Guillotine, 2011 Stoneware, 41 x 22 x 22 inches

Image Peddler, 2011 Stoneware, 24 x 24 x 18 inches Long Beach Museum of Art 2300 E. Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90803 (562) 439-2119 • www.lbma.org