Jason Jacques

Ceramics in St. Louis 1904

International array at the Fair
January 5, 2010

Like its predecessors, the St. Louis World's Fair (the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904) brought together people and products from around the globe. On approximately 1,240 acres, representatives of 53 foreign governments mingled with Americans and each other, gradually broadening their world views. The fair generated hundreds of pages of descriptions and evaluations, among them a report on the state of the international ceramics industry. According to Samuel Geijsbeek, writing in 1905 in the Transactions of the American Ceramic Society (Geijsbeek was one of the Society's founders), fine ceramics, as a subclass of general ceramics, was "the most international of all" with "all the leading countries well represented." (pictured: Georges Hoentschel, Marine Life, vase, stoneware, France, c1900).

University City: an International Crucible

French and Hungarian Ideas Come Together in St. Louis
December 24, 2009

How is it that sculptor George Julian Zolnay (pictured), grandson of Hungarian ceramics impresario Miklós Zsolnay, came to be the director of the Art Institute at University City Missouri, where Taxile Doat, world famous ceramist, was a high-ranking faculty member?

University City: an International Crucible

Clemént Massier Reveals His Sources

Old interview provides new insights
December 23, 2009

Grant Allen, a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, traveled in 1880 to Vallauris, France, where he spoke with Clemént Massier about his inspirations and aims. Allen composed the following article, "A Pilgrimage to Vallauris" for the Cornhill Magazine (London, May 1880). The New York Times reprinted it on June 6,1880, and we're pleased to make the content available to you.

New York Times Review of the Martin Kline Exhibit

by Eve M. Kahn, December 4, 2009

ART NOUVEAU AND MORE

Jason Jacques, at 29 East 73rd Street, after focusing on Art Nouveau ceramics for two decades, has filled half of his gallery with his own collection of contemporary abstract paintings and bronze sculptures and vessels by Martin Kline, an artist in Rhinebeck, N.Y. Mostly priced between $15,000 and $55,000, the Kline pieces (on view through early January) have paint drips and mossy textures that echo the glaze streaks and knobby forms on Mr. Jacques's century-old vases and hammered copper boxes (priced between a few thousand dollars and $90,000). Mr. Jacques said he set up the Kline show because so many Art Nouveau masterworks are now lodged in collections and not budging.

New York Times Review of the Martin Kline Exhibit

As the Gallery Turns

the continuing saga
December 3, 2009

We played tricks, we ate treats, we roasted turkeys, and slept through football games, and now the end-of-year holidays are upon us! Happy politically correct celebrations of a religious or secular nature to all of you from your friends at the Jason Jacques Gallery.

Good Reading

IS ART NOUVEAU A STYLE?

Although the term 'Art Nouveau' is popularly used to designate the curvy, whiplash style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, historians are less than certain of its meaning. Even at the time that 'L'Art Nouveau' was first introduced into common usage by Parisian tastemaker Siegfried Bing, its meaning was controversial. Was Art Nouveau a style or a movement? If it was a style, how could it possibly include works as diverse as geometric planters, biomorphic architecture, and pottery ornamented with despondent female nudes? If it was a movement, what was its ideology? Although some early critics found that Art Nouveau's lack of stylistic unity was evidence of hopeless confusion, one significant apologist found that stylistic and thematic variety was very much the point. It was Siegfried Bing himself who made this important argument in favor of Art Nouveau as neither a style nor a movement but as an opportunity for self expression.

Good Reading

POTTERY INSIGHTS

Historians believe that the earliest pottery wares were hand-built and fired in bonfires. Firing times were short but the peak-temperatures achieved could be high. Clays tempered with sand, grit, crushed shell or crushed pottery were often used to make bonfire-fired ceramics because these additives provided an open body texture that allowed water and other volatile components of the clay to escape freely. The coarser particles in the clay also restrained shrinkage during the slow cooling process. The earliest intentionally constructed kilns were pit-kilns or trench-kilns; holes dug in the ground and covered with fuel. Holes in the ground provided insulation and resulted in better control over firing.

Museum Activities

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

In December, 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened new galleries for 19th- and early 20th-century European paintings and sculpture. The renovated spaces feature the Museum's most beloved 19th-century paintings, which have been on permanent display in the past, as well as works by Bonnard, Vuillard, Soutine, Matisse, Picasso, and other early modern artists. Among the many additions is a full-room assembly of "The Wisteria Dining Room" a French art nouveau interior designed by Lucien Levy Dhurmer shortly before World War I. It is the only complete example of its kind in the United States. The dining room is furnished with appropriately styled decorative arts including a vase purchased from the Jason Jacques Gallery.