Steven Su ART 2750C

Missiles and Rockets

An Art Criticism of a Teco Pottery Bottle Vase

The Arts and Crafts movement was an international design philosophy which originated in England from 1860 until the 1930's, but spread to the rest of Europe as well as North America. The movement featured simple but refined designs that shifted away from the designs of the late Victorian art pottery and focused more on naturalistic shapes and glazes and was described as Art Nouveau or Art Deco. This bottle vase is a decorative vase made by Teco Pottery, a manufactury of architectural terra cotta, which became famous for their groundbreaking modern designs. Teco Pottery forms are typically described as geometric, organic, or architectural. It stands at 18-1/4 inches tall, with a circular base of 6-1/4 inches in diameter. Designed by Fritz Albert circa 1905, this vase was most likely created using a mold, with form of the vase tapering into a swirl of leaves at the base. It features very soft curves, which are accentuated by the matte glaze, a silvery green glaze resembling moss or the color old bronze takes after exposure to weather, which is featured in many Teco Pottery works. It is located in the Art & Design in the Modern Age exhibit at the Wolfsonian-FIU museum, which collects a variety of media, including: furniture; industrial-design objects; works in glass; ceramics; metal; rare books; periodicals; ephemera; works on paper; paintings; textiles; and medals. When looking at the vase, the first impression that I receive is that it looks similar to a tree. The swirl towards the bottom of the vase reminds me of the roots of a tree. The soft curves and color also

suggest a gentle elegance in the vase. The designer of the vase might have been inspired by nature and thinking of how to best represent its beauty in an uncomplicated form. The concept of the vase is very fitting with the time period in which it was designed. During the Art Nouveau period, artists tried to harmonize with nature, and I believe that this piece represents that idea perfectly. When making a ceramic piece of my own, I was strongly influenced by the bottle vase, and wanted to create a similar piece of work. As I relied on my memory, instead of an actual photograph, to picture the bottle vase, I noticed that the swirl base somewhat resembled jet trails coming from the tail end of a missile or rocket. And so, as I neared completion of my project, I decided that instead of topping the vase with a bottle neck, I would fashion it into a decorative missile. The piece closely resembles the original piece, it stands at 9-3/4 inches with a diameter of 4-3/4 inches. The swirl base is not an exact replica, there are only 3 leaves swirling down instead of 4 and are not as elegantly posed as the original. As it nears the top of the piece, it curves into a conic shape to complete the missile. Choosing a glaze for the piece was difficult, I wanted to use a similar glaze as the original piece to replicate the sense that it was an old object, exposed to the elements. I chose to use a mix of a teal glaze that I had used previously with a ELB +12% copper oxide black glaze that looks like a deep sea blue color when fired. I layered the glaze on so that the color became darker as it neared the bottom. In addition to that, I used a blend of gloss white, satin white, and satin chrome glaze to paint over the top of the piece. I also used a gradient effect for this part, and when fired on top of the teal and ELB mix, it looks like a color you would find at a beach, a mix of a seaside green and sand. With the gradient effect, the seaside color lets some of the deep sea blue color through. This creates an effect that resembles the shock wave of a rocket or missile as it falls to Earth. Outside opinions on the piece suggest that it resembles a missile, though with strange or missing tail fins, which is the reaction I expected when creating the piece. One comment that I did not expect, however, is that the choice of turning the original, which is a design of simplicity inspired by nature, into a missile was oddly fitting as the Wolfsonian-FIU museum collects a lot of memorabilia

from the World War II era, such as propaganda from the Soviet Union or Germany. Additional comments also noted the texture of the piece was gritty, a side effect from smoothing the unfinished product with a damp sponge. This contrast ruins the illusion of the piece being a missile somewhat, since missiles are usually streamlined and aerodynamic.