Designer/Maker:
Erik Gronborg - The Danish artist came to the states in 1959 and to
UC Berkeley in 1960. There, he was instrumental in developing the
artist-foundry movement begun at Peter Voulkos and Donald Haskin's
'Garbanzo Works,' described by Joe Pugliese in 1963 as “ the
most cooperative, most confused, most productive, and most slap stick
do it yourself foundry operation ever on record.”
Gronborg's style was utterly unique, he worked in both wood and cast
metals and received the prestigious City of Paris Award at the 1963
Paris Bienale. As part of the landmark Onze Sculpteurs Americains,
comprised of artists involved with the Berkeley art department, who
received a special group prize, Gronborg was singled out for the Paris
Bienale's highest honor and had a solo show at the Musee d'Art Moderne
in Paris.
This early stage in Gronborg's career is well documented in Artforum
Magazine and the Creative Casting exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary
Crafts in NYC (Gronborg and Harold Paris shown working in the Berkeley
foundry throughout the catalog), but it was only the beginning. He
went on to national recognition as a ceramist often associated with
the funk movement, and was included in major exhibitions like Objects:USA
in 1969. After settling in San Diego in the mid 1970s, he began to
make studio furniture that also won national acclaim and was featured
in Dona Meilach's important survey, Woodworking: the New Wave. Always
an innovative and singular artist, Gronborg was central to some of
the most significant American art and craft developments of the mid
20th century.
Description:
This early ceramic cup was made while Erik Gronborg lived
in Portland, Oregon, and was teaching at Reed College and falls squarely
within the context of art cups by his west coast contemporaries: Voulkos,
Bengston, Price and Nagle. But for Gronborg, it reflects a transitional
period before he abandoned the wheel completely.
