chalice, Beatrice Wood

Archive Label 2003:
Beatrice Wood combines her colors like a painter, makes them vibrate like a musician. They have strength even while iridescent and transparent. They have the rhythm and lustre both of jewels and human eyes.
-Anaïs Nin

Known as the “Mama of Dada,” Beatrice Wood was admired by many, including Anaïs Nin and Marcel Duchamp. In the 1940s, after studying the technique of pottery making with Gertrud and Otto Natzler, Wood developed her own technique of luster glaze that was unique for the ceramics of that period. She often combined primitive archaic forms with an elegant, sophisticated glaze.

In her Chalice with Rings, Wood experiments with the combination of positive and negative space. The stem of the chalice is covered with clay lobs that give the piece a playful note and contradict its notion as usable artifact.

Archive Label 1999:
Known as the "Mama of Dada" and admired by many, including Anaïs Nin and Marcel Duchamp, Beatrice Wood has been making ceramics for over 60 years. This piece combines the symbolism of the chalice with Wood's own adventurous updating of the luster glaze tradition, produced in one firing rather than the usual two.