Watermelon
Topped by various openings, Ron Nagle's objects could at first glance seem like functional cups or vases. Closer inspection, however, reveals that they are often bottomless, too small or too fanciful for practical use. Such twists allow Nagle to indulge fantasies of shape, texture, and color. Funky, graphic coloring and off-kilter, earthen, or fleshlike surfaces echo the fanciful mix-and-match of other prominent artists, from Milan’s Memphis Group and Chicago’s Hairy Who to the California ceramicists Ken Price and Peter Shire. Watermelon’s red-green contrast and diagonal slice suggest how these sculptures riff on other things that might, like them, animate a kitchen table, as produce, like ceramics, arises from nature in collaboration with human intervention.
Artwork Details
- Title: Watermelon
- Designer: Ron Nagle (American, born San Francisco, 1939)
- Date: 1983
- Medium: Glazed earthenware
- Dimensions: 6 5/8 × 3 7/8 × 3 3/4 in., 1.2 lb. (16.8 × 9.8 × 9.5 cm, 0.5 kg)
- Classification: Ceramics-Pottery
- Credit Line: Gift of Barbara S. Rosenthal and Kenneth W. Juster, 1998
- Object Number: 1998.533.2
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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Ron Nagle
1983
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1991
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1967
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