Scripps College has been selected by the Getty Foundation to receive one of 15 grants totaling almost $2.8 million. The Getty will fund a celebration of the post-World War II Los Angeles art scene, “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980,” to be spotlighted in an unprecedented series of parallel exhibitions at museums throughout Southern California, beginning in the fall of 2011. Scripps’ contribution, “Clay Reconsidered: Ceramics in Southern California, 1945-1980,” will focus on the particular role that ceramics played during this pivotal period, a subject rarely addressed until now.
Drawing primarily upon the extensive archives of the Williamson Gallery, “Clay Reconsidered” will explore the artistic, social, and economic factors that shaped the tectonic shift in ceramics from the practical to the sculptural.
Professor Mary MacNaughton, director of Scripps’ Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, explains why the College was awarded the grant: “During the postwar period, Scripps College was a vital component of the burgeoning ceramics art scene in Los Angeles,” she said. “Paul Soldner, a student of Peter Voulkos, along with a select group of artists, shifted the focus of ceramic arts away from utilitarian wares toward sculptural objects. Soldner brought this approach to Scripps, where he led the College’s ceramics program from 1959 to 1991, and helped bring national attention to clay arts practice by organizing the longest-running exhibition of ceramics in the United States, the Scripps Ceramic Annual.”
For more information, contact the Williamson Gallery at (909) 607-4690.