Stevens, Jacquie – Large White Clay Bowl with Abstract Rim (1986)

12"w x 7.5"h

$ 1,200.00

Jacquie Stevens was best known for the simple use of forms for her pottery.  Over the years she brought an unexpected dimension to Native pottery with her immense, undulating vessels. Her Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) ancestry inspired her to add basket weaving and other materials as embellishments to her undecorated forms. Her aesthetic of the organic challenges the symmetry of Pueblo pottery and provides a provocative glimpse into the future of Native pottery.  This is a large early piece of her pottery.  The jar has a rounded shoulder and an abstract, undulating rim. While there are edges as if they represent mountains or mesas, Jacquie said in a 1987 interview:

The concept of the ‘pot,’ with its function as a ‘container’ and ‘source,’ serves as a good metaphor for the artist as a container and manifestation of the creative impulse. The clay and the tactile experience of the creative process influence the organic evolution of my free-form pots. My pots . . . are very thin and large and are hand built into expressive pot forms. There are no narrative depictions on
their surfaces to distract from the forms themselves. On the impulse of harmony and rhythm, I seek . . . an organic unity that has the power to elicit an aesthetic experience. The pot is to be contemplated as the artist’s reflection of a pure and universal form, a subjective manifestation of an abstract ‘ideal.’” Jacquie Stevens (1987) Spoken Through Clay

The jar is made from white micaceous clay and the exterior is stone polished.  The piece is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Jacquie Stevens”.