LOS ANGELES, CA.- Laura Andreson was an inventive ceramicist and educator in the Los Angeles area from the 1930s through the 1980s whose influence is underrecognized. This exhibition brings to light her seminal impact on the Southern California clay movement, contemporary sculpture, and design, both as founder of the Ceramics program at UCLA and tireless innovator in ceramic forms and surfaces. Her contributions are especially noteworthy being during a time of extreme patriarchy in the worlds of both art and education.
More than forty pivotal examples of Andreson’s work will be exhibited alongside the work of some of her noteworthy students, such as JB Blunk, David Cressey, and Bernard Kester, as well as the work of Andreson’s own mentors and peers such as Gertrud and Otto Natzler, Marguerite Wildenhain, and Carlton Ball.
Andreson’s work is characterized by a subtle and nuanced understanding of volume and color, being representative of the finest in Abstract Expressionism from the mid-twentieth century. Stylistically, she melded Scandinavian, Japanese, Bauhaus and other modernist sensibilities and instilled potent expression in the humble vessel form. Elements of the natural landscape and the palette of Southern California are echoed in her pieces. Andreson’s unwavering exploration of form, surface, texture and glaze, helped to give rise to the birth of studio ceramics as a contemporary art medium.
Like many of her peers who defied artistic hierarchies, Andreson straddled the worlds of craft, art, and design. Her work was uplifted by the groundbreaking California Design exhibitions that were organized by the Pasadena Art Museum. She was authentically at the forefront of Mid-Century Design as it emerged.
Andreson touched the lives of thousands of students over the course of her respected teaching career. Many have credited her with opening doorways for their own artistic explorations. Yet despite her significant influence, her expansive body of work has never been presented in a museum retrospective in Los Angeles, the very city where she lived and worked, only at the Mingei, in San Diego in 1982. Over four decades later, this exhibition spotlights her vision, illuminating how her work remains fresh, original, and relevant. Many Californian artists whose work embodies and builds on her teachings will also be represented. These artists, in turn, have passed on Andreson’s artistic views and approaches to subsequent generations of artists.
"Throughout the history of ceramics, taste and the standards of judgement appear to vary from one generation to the next. We should always, therefore, be inspired by the finest examples from all times and try to enjoy the qualities from every age that come from experimentation. To live in one's generation is important, but in imitation, one's work becomes lifeless. One's own true feelings and character should be evident in the work produced. I hope my work expresses a sensitive, honest use of materials and techniques and that some of it will embody the eternal quality of aesthetic joy."—Laura Andreson
Additional artists include: Carlton Ball, JB Blunk, David Cressey, Bernard Kester, Albert King, Martha Longenecker, Harrison McIntosh, Gertrud and Otto Natzler, Richard Petterson, Ed Traynor, and Marguerite Wildenhain.
