ABC WEDNESDAY-Weisman Art Museum #3

  

Supervised by architect Frank Gehry, the great man himself, the Weisman Museum recently completed the renovation of five galleries, one of which is the ceramics room.  


The Weisman's five new galleries allow the museum to share more than three times as many objects from its permanent collection at any given time. One new gallery is filled with highlights from the noted ceramics collection (master potter Warren MacKenzie helped select the work); two house master works of American modernism; and another showcases the Weisman's considerable collection of photography, prints, and drawings.


The ceramic shown on this page are those of Warren Mackenzie and are glazed stoneware.  The large plate is entitled "Let the pots speak." MacKenzie has described his goal as the making of "everyday" pots. Accordingly, although his pots are found in major museums and command high prices among collectors, MacKenzie has always kept his prices low and for various time periods did not sign his work (1970s, most of the 2000s) until recently resuming the use of his chop at the end of 2009. Most of his output is produced in stoneware, although he has worked in porcelain at times during his career.

MacKenzie is well known as a teacher. Since 1952 he taught at the University of Minnesota, where he is a Regents' professor emeritus.

He lives outside Stillwater, Minnesota, with his wife Nancy, a fiber artist, where he continues to maintain his studio, despite ailing from silicosis. Until December 2006, MacKenzie also housed a showroom on his property. The showroom operated strictly on the "honor system" whereby pots were marked with price stickers and visitors would pay for pots by placing their money in a wicker basket, making change for themselves as appropriate. Unfortunately, due to theft and customers selling his work for an outrageous profit online, MacKenzie closed his showroom, opting instead to sell his pots through the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Trax Gallery in California, Lacoste Gallery in Massachusetts and the Schaller Gallery in Michigan, as well as exhibitions around the country.


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