Beatrice Wood
American, 1893 - 1998Untitled (Blue Lustre Vessel with Gold Masks), 1981
Not on view
Stoneware with lustre glazes
Dimensions12 1/2 × 8 1/2 in. (31.8 × 21.6 cm)
Gift of the Friends of Modern Art in honor of Frank Muehlenbeck, 1994.4
Beatrice Wood developed a signature style of luster glazing her ceramics. Luster, in modern pottery, was dominated by surface decoration, painting an already glazed form with low-fire luster overglazes. Wood found this unsatisfactory and created an all-over, in-glaze luster produced during a reduction glaze firing. The process is elusive and almost impossible to control, but Wood seemingly mastered this difficult technique throughout her career. The results of the glazes were a stunning range of colors and textures with complex color combinations. As the day progresses, the luster surfaces of the ceramics change color as the light illuminates different color spectrums within the glaze.
For Wood, art was not about making a perfect pot; it was about finding the importance of imperfection, and making each piece unique.
