The exhibition Nude Vases, Cubist Faces: Modernism at Rookwood Pottery from the collection of Riley Humler and Annie Bauer will showcases select works from the Rookwood Pottery Company from 1929, the year that Jens Jacob Herring Krog Jensen joined Rookwood until 1948 when he and his wife Elizabeth Barrett, also a Rookwood decorator, left the company to become independent artists.
Rookwood opened in Cincinnati in 1880, became world re-knowned, reinvented itself in 1915, struggled through the Depression and only permanently closed its doors in 1967. The company, marketed as “an artist’s studio, not a factory,” was arguably the most celebrated ceramic producer in the country because of their experimental designs and exceptionally fine glazes. One of Rookwood’s more fascinating chapters will be presented in this exhibition of approx. 20 porcelain vessels, painted by the company’s best-known modern decorators. The artists featured in this exhibition include Jens Jensen, Elizabeth Barrett, Lorinda Epply, Sara Sax, and Harriet Wilcox. These artists took advantage of major advances in production and ceramic technology to create distinctive and masterful styles.
In conjunction with Nude Vases, Cubist Faces: Modernism at Rookwood Pottery a selection of paintings by the artist Jens Jensen will be on view from the Phyllis Weston Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Whether working as a decorator of art pottery or as a painter, Jensen’s unique style not only influenced his colleagues but left a legacy clearly influenced by this European roots and modern sensibilities.