Project Tag: Chris Antemann

01
Jan
2024
PORTLAND VASE: MANIA AND MUSE

PORTLAND VASE: MANIA AND MUSE

June 9, 2024 – September 8, 2024

CROCKER ART MUSEUM

216 O Street Sacramento, CA 95814

featuring work by

Chris Antemann
Peter Pincus
Mara Superior

MORE ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

& INSTALLATION IMAGES

The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse asks why and how a singular Classical vase becomes a legend, an “influencer,” and an artistic and commercial muse across time and place.

The Portland Vase, an ancient Roman glass cameo amphora, has resonated with artists, makers, collectors, and consumers for centuries. The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse asks why and how a singular Classical vase becomes a legend, an “influencer,” and an artistic and commercial muse across time and place from artists such as Josiah Wedgwood to sculptor Viola Frey. Featuring more than sixty-five artworks, this exhibition examines the role of brands in our culture, considers why Classical traditions dominate the artistic canon, and how that tradition might be reconsidered and disrupted.

Guest curated by Rachel Gotlieb, PhD.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

CHRIS ANTEMANN

American
b. 1970 Albany, NY
lives and works between Joseph, OR and Meissen, Germany

More on Chris Antemann

Chris Antemann upends not only the Portland Vase but also the famous Bouquet de la Dauphine made by Vincennes, the Royal French manufactory and precursor to Sèvres to illustrate that its porcelain skills rivaled if not superseded German Meissen. Referencing a surtout de table, an ornamental centerpiece displayed in a formal dining room, the forms and pastel colors of her work evoke the exuberance of the 18th-century Rococo style. However, Antemann’s tableau is very much part of the 21st century, critiquing and challenging contemporary gender politics.

-Rachel Gotlieb, Guest Curator, Portland Vase: Mania and Muse, 2024

“An informative and thought-provoking conversation with Rachel Gotlieb led me to dive into research for the bones of the piece. The main concept grew into the idea of playing with the functions of the vase. In one way acting as the backdrop for the figures, no longer in relief, but characters in the garden. In another way, the Portland Vase, in Wedgewood blue makes a cameo on the stage celebrated as a vessel.”

– Chris Antemann, 2024

Chris Antemann, Artist Portrait.

PETER PINCUS

b. 1982 Rochester, NY,
lives and works in Penfield, NY

More on Peter Pincus

Read about the making of Thetis Confined

“Much like Wedgwood, Pincus adeptly balanced appropriation, innovation, and cross-cultural influences, harnessing the creative tools of clay, technology, and Neoclassical aesthetics to reshape our understanding of the ancient past.”

– Rachel Gotlieb, PH.D, Guest Curator, “The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse”, pg. 80.

MARA SUPERIOR

American, b. 1951, New York, NY
lives and works in Williamsburg, MA

More on Mara Superior

“Mara Superior responded to the Portland Vase through a broad lens of ceramic histories but specifically aligned her work with Wedgwood’s replicas to dismantle notions of British empire and perfection.”

– Rachel Gotlieb, PH.D, Guest Curator, “The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse”, pg. 84.

Mara Superior, "Teapot of Survival (Portland Vase)", 2023, high-fired English porcelain, painted with ceramic underglazes, ground oxides, Cornwallstone glaze, wood, gold, leaf, bone and ink, 19 x 14.5 x 6.5", John Polak Photography
Mara Superior, "Teapot of Survival (Portland Vase)", 2023, high-fired English porcelain, painted with ceramic underglazes, ground oxides, Cornwallstone glaze, wood, gold, leaf, bone and ink, 19 x 14.5 x 6.5", John Polak Photography

PAST PROGRAMMING

Rachel Gotlieb, Ph.D. Curator portrait, Photo by Barbara Stoneham

Rachel Gotlieb, Ph.D. served as the Ruth Rippon Curator of Ceramics at the Crocker Art Museum (2021-2023). She previously worked ad Chief Curator and Interim Executive Director of the Gardiner Museum in Toronto (2011-2014).

Backstory – Portland Vase: Mania and Muse (via YouTube Live) 
Saturday, August 3rd | 12pm
$8 – $12

Go behind the scenes of the exhibition The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse with this virtual panel discussion featuring speakers across three continents. Moderated by exhibition curator Rachel Gotlieb, with artists Clare Twomey, Glenn Barkley, and Nancy Selvin, this international conversation considers how and why a singular Classical vase became an artistic and commercial muse across time and place, and how these contemporary artists are rethinking and addressing art and social histories through reinterpretations of this iconic vessel.

VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE

 

LEARN MORE

Member Reception
Friday, June 28 | 5:30pm

Join the Crocker Art Museum for a special member reception celebrating the exhibitions:

The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse 

Raúl Gonzo: Color Madness 

Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation 

BECOME A MEMBER

Tour – Portland Vase: Mania and Muse
Wednesday, June 12 | 1pm
Free with museum admission

Journey into art on view with docents to guide your visit. Enjoy a drop-in tour any day the Museum is open, or plan ahead for one of the themed tours outlined below. Some tours may be requested in American Sign Language, Cantonese, French, Madarin, and Spanish with a two-week advance notice. Email education@crockerart.org to inquire.

LEARN MORE

Distributed for Hirmer Publishers

The University of Chicago Press

PRESS & PRINT

Exhibition Catalog

Portland Vase

Mania and Muse (1780–2023)

Edited by Rachel Gotlieb

With Essays by Anne Forschler-Tarrasch

Traces the history of the Portland Vase as a global influencer in art and ceramics.

The Portland Vase, an ancient Roman glass cameo amphora held in the British Museum, has been a global brand that has resonated with makers, collectors, and consumers for centuries, replicated and reinterpreted countless times. The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse asks why and how a singular Classical vase becomes a legend, an “influencer,” and an artistic and commercial muse across time and place to artists such as Josiah Wedgwood, Viola Frey, Chris Wight, Michael Eden, Nicole Cherubini, and Clare Twomey. Featuring more than sixty-five artworks, this richly illustrated catalog examines the role of brands in our culture, considers why Classical traditions dominate the artistic canon, and speculates on how that tradition might be reconsidered and disrupted.

112 pages | 70 color plates | 10 x 10 | © 2024

Visit the Crocker Art Museum Store HERE

BUY THIS BOOK HERE
$42.00
ISBN: 9783777441566
Published August 2024
Crocker Art Museum, "Portland Vase Mania and Muse (1780–2023)", Edited by Rachel Gotlieb, With Essays by Anne Forschler-Tarrasch Traces the history of the Portland Vase as a global influencer in art and ceramics.

"Curators in Conversation: The Portland Vase" Sara Morris, the Crocker’s Ruth Rippon Curator of Ceramics, asks Rachel Gotlieb, guest curator of "The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse," to share a little bit more about her relationship with the Portland Vase and her experience organizing the exhibition.

Ceramics Now Weekly

FEATURE: Curators in Conversation: The Portland Vase

Sara Morris, the Crocker’s Ruth Rippon Curator of Ceramics, asks Rachel Gotlieb, guest curator of “The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse,” to share a little bit more about her relationship with the Portland Vase and her experience organizing the exhibition.

The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse is a new exhibition at the Crocker guest-curated by Rachel Gotlieb, PhD. The exhibition examines the legacy and influence of the ancient Roman glass cameo The Portland Vase in the collection of the British Museum. For over two centuries, the Vase has served as inspiration for artists, including Josiah Wedgewood, Viola Frey, and Clare Twomey, contributing to its fame and significance in the artistic canon. Sara Morris, the Crocker’s Ruth Rippon Curator of Ceramics, asked Gotlieb to share a little bit more about her relationship with the Portland Vase and her experience organizing the exhibition.

Click to Read More HERE

FEATURE: Tracing the history of the Portland Vase as a global influencer in art and ceramics.

“The words “Portland Vase” yield 16,100,000 search results on Google. Entries include the unique ancient glass masterpiece housed in the British Museum, Josiah Wedgwood’s limited-edition 18th-century copies, and countless modern commercial replicas produced in many shapes, sizes, and materials. On Instagram, images of the Portland Vase surface as an aspirational pin-up photo, tattoo, non-fungible token (NFT), and other novelties. The Portland Vase has also served as a plot device in films and musicals, including, most notably Make Me an Offer (1954), starring Peter Finch as an antique dealer in search of a rare green version of the Vase made by Josiah Wedgwood. According to the Corning Museum of Glass, the Portland Vase is as famous as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.”

Click to Read More HERE

ABOUT CROCKER ART MUSEUM

Discover a diverse collection of artworks that span centuries, continents, and cultures at the Crocker Art Museum, the primary resource for the study and appreciation of fine art in the Sacramento region. In addition to a robust schedule of changing exhibitions, visitors can explore California art dating from the Gold Rush to the present; a renowned collection of Master Drawings and European paintings; one of the largest international ceramics collections in the United States; and collections of Asian, African, and Oceanic art.

Engagement with art is at the heart of everything we do, and our calendar of events offers innovative art experiences for visitors of all ages, including family-friendly programs, thought-provoking talks and conversations, inspiring concerts and films, and more. 

07
Jul
2023
HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S

HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

In the name of matter

Both deeply invested in exploring the alternative cultural scene, Halle Saint Pierre and HEY! modern art & pop culture continue their long and close collaboration with a sixth exhibition entirely dedicated to ceramics. If this medium occupies an increasingly visible place on the international art scene, the HEY! CERAMIQUE.S will show other forms which, from pop culture to art brut, unexpectedly emancipate themselves from all dominant norms and discourses to draw on the living forces of the imagination and the sensitive. Whether they are wise or delirious, wild or sophisticated, expressionist or narrative, whether they handle humor or emotion, the ceramic sculptures here carry excess but also poetry and innovations.

  • Martine Lusardy, director of the Halle Saint Pierre and exhibition curator
  • Anne Richard, guest curator and founder of the HEY! modern art & pop culture

HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S

Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France | September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024

HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Crystal Morey “Replanting: Over the Land (Mt. Lion and Unicorn)” and “Replanting: Over the Water (Rhino and Swan)”, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Chris Antemann “Embrace” and “Kissing Flora”, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Crystal Morey “Replanting: Over the Land (Mt. Lion and Unicorn)” and “Replanting: Over the Water (Rhino and Swan)”, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Crystal Morey “RePlanting: Elephant”, “RePlanting: Giraffe Madonna and Child”, and “Venus on the Waves: Grizzly”, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Mara Superior, Chris Antemann, and Crystal Morey, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Mara Superior Installation, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Mara Superior Installation, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024

EXHIBITION CATALOG

  • Released September 15, 2023
  • Edited by Anne Richard Bilingual (French / English)
  • 250 pages
  • Shaped cover 28 x 24.5 cm
  • Published by HEY! PUBLISHING

Long considered a minor art because of its particular status at the crossroads of art and craftsmanship, ceramics has emancipated itself artistically by making precisely this hybrid position the basis of its renewal. The truly alchemical dimension of the fire arts lends itself wonderfully to blurring and crossing boundaries. But if contemporary ceramic artists draw on timeless traditions and know-how, it is not so much out of nostalgia for the values ​​of the past as to place at the center of creation a return to making and attention to materials in their sensitive dimension. Earth, water, air, fire are no longer simple materials that can be manipulated indifferently, they become the very substance of a material imagination intended to satisfy aesthetic and psychological urgencies. 

— Martine Lusardy, Director and curator of exhibitions at the Halle Saint Pierre Museum

HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S Exhibition Catalog

Purchase the catalog here

“Our overuse of resources has destroyed our planets natural resources. The skies churn,  rivers flood, oceans rise, and forests burn. The world is a changed place, and the most vulnerable feel the affects first.”

Crystal Morey, Shaping Interconnectedness, essay by Maria Porges

“From there, [she], like many of us, sees the news, imagines the future, and find solace in the triumphant artworks of the past. She is chronicling our time, a unique and strange mix of hope in the ace of humanities greatest collective threat— ourselves.”

Mara Superior, Chronicling our Collective Hopes, essay by Lauren Levato-Coyne.

MORE ABOUT THE MUSEUM

Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre

Paris, France

MUSEUM OF ART BRUT – OUTSIDER ART & POP CULTURE 

Within a beautiful Baltard-style architecture, facing the gardens of the Butte Montmartre, the Halle Saint Pierre houses a museum and a gallery, a bookstore, an auditorium, a café. It is in this harmonious and luminous setting that the major temporary exhibitions and the multiple artistic and cultural activities dedicated to the most unexpected forms of creation are presented.

01
May
2023
CHRIS ANTEMANN: A Stage For Dessert

CHRIS ANTEMANN: A Stage For Dessert

INTERVENTIONS AT THE MINT MUSEUM

Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC

Interventions at Mint Museum Randolph

If you walk through the galleries at Mint Museum Randolph, the art is largely organized by region, type, or era. There are galleries for European art, African art, art of the Ancient Americas, Native American art, and decorative arts. However, within some of these galleries, there are works displayed that are “out of place” or “out of time.” Interventions seek to question the past against the present by placing contemporary artworks alongside works from other eras.

Interventions: Portals to the Past: British Ceramics 1675 – 1825

This exhibition presents over 200 examples of British ceramics. Visitors can learn about these pieces’ functions, styles, manufacturing techniques, and makers. Each region or manufacturer had a unique style and method of creating ceramics, which can be seen in the wide variety of works on display. Included in the exhibition are traditional styles like blue and white Delftware, vessels made to look like vegetables or fruits, commemorative teacups, allegorical figures, decorative figurines of animals, and many more. You can view an online version of this exhibition here.

This exhibition already invites the viewer to analyze our relationship to the past by means of its title. However, in bringing contemporary pieces to this gallery, we can find new ways of looking at a medium’s influence on our present-day society.

Antemann’s work proves that the art of ceramics is still relevant, but its function has changed. Her art focuses on how ceramics exist in the domestic lives of those who own them and what meanings are ascribed to them. Her style is based on that of 18th-century ceramics because she believes that recreating traditions allows us to find new interpretations in the present.

This meeting of past and present is clear in Antemann’s A Stage for Dessert. Numerous figures stand around at a dessert banquet in lively, lighthearted positions. However, Antemann is joking with the viewer to comment on the flirtatious, playful, or even risqué nature of the figures. What could once signify a deep meaning to a 19th-century owner, such as an allegory or a representation of a season, has been adapted into a less serious object.

Information courtesy of mint.wiko.pbworks.com

A Stage for Dessert

Interventions: Portals to the Past: British Ceramics 1675 – 1825 

Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, On View at The Mint Museum of Art, 2023, 30” x 24” x 24", photos courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art.

Images courtesy of The Mint Museum of Art & Ferrin Contemporary

WORKS ON VIEW

A Stage for Dessert

Previous Installation at Hillwood Estate & Gardens

“An Occasion to Gather Chris Antemann’s porcelain centerpiece, is filled with 18th-century style ceramic sweets, takes inspiration from the garden sculptures and eighteenth-century design of Hillwood’s French parterre. As with the dining room table display, here Antemann references eighteenth-century dining culture and the porcelain centerpieces commonly used as table decoration by European elites.“

“Antemann integrates porcelain figures into her reconception of the French parterre. “I imagined what lives were like in the eighteenth century, what these figures would have been doing, what the collectors of these figures would have been doing,” she said. “My centerpiece is a seductive playground for the porcelain figure; they are not static on the base, but in the world, playing and enjoying the environment.” The tableware from Hillwood’s collection on the breakfast room table includes porcelain from a dessert service made by the Jacob Petit manufactory in France around 1835 (acc. no. 24.120), French glassware dating to the 1700s (acc. nos. 23.312–315), and porcelain and silver-gilt flatware made in Russia in the 1800s (acc. no. 25.479).“

–Dr. Rebecca Tilles, associate curator of 18th-century French and Western European Fine and decorative arts, Hillwood Estate & Gardens

–Images courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, photographed by Erik Kvalsvik


Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, Hillwood Museum, 2021, 30” x 24” x 24″, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, Hillwood Museum, 2021, 30” x 24” x 24″, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, Hillwood Museum, 2021, 30” x 24” x 24″, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, Hillwood Museum, 2021, 30” x 24” x 24″, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens

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MORE ON CHRIS ANTEMANN

MORE ON CHRIS ANTEMANN

View More by Chris Antemann  •  HERE  •

Chris Antemann is known for work inspired by 18th-century porcelain figurines, employing a unity of design and concept to simultaneously examine and parody male and female relationship roles. Characters, themes, and incidents build upon each other, effectively forming their own language that speaks about domestic rites, social etiquette, and taboos. Themes from the classics and the romantics are given a contemporary edge; elaborate dinner parties, picnic luncheons, and ornamental gardens set the stage for her twisted tales to unfold.

Chris Antemann Portrait
18
Mar
2022
CHRIS ANTEMANN: An Occasion to Gather

CHRIS ANTEMANN: An Occasion to Gather

CHRIS ANTEMANN

Hillwood Museum, Estate, & Gardens

In conjunction with the exhibition The Luxury of Clay: Porcelain Past and Present, organized by Rebecca Tilles, Curator of 18th-century Western European Art, a selection of contemporary ceramics by artist Chris Antemann can be viewed interspersed among the objects from Hillwood’s permanent collection in the dining and breakfast rooms on the first floor of the mansion. The installation is the fourth in a series of Hillwood collaborations with contemporary ceramicists including Eva Zeisel (2005), Bouke de Vries (2019), and Vladimir Kanevsky (2021). On view through June 26, 2022.

Chris Antemann, An Occasion to Gather, Hillwood Museum, 2021, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Chris Antemann, An Occasion to Gather, Hillwood Museum, 2021
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, Hillwood Museum, 2021, 30” x 24” x 24″, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, Hillwood Museum, 2021, 30” x 24” x 24″, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens

Images courtesy of Hillwood & Ferrin Contemporary

WORKS ON VIEW

An Occasion to Gather

Installation at Hillwood Estate, Museum, & Gardens

“Chris Antemann’s elaborate porcelain centerpiece—depicting a host of partially clad revelers gathered around a table under an impressive porcelain temple—is a celebration of the eighteenth-century banqueting craze among European elites. Antemann takes inspiration from historical engravings and eighteenth-century Meissen centerpieces, including the Temple of Love, designed by Johann Joachim Kändler while the factory’s chief modeler.“

“Antemann’s playful porcelain fantasy revives the materials and methods used in the eighteenth century to produce figurines while presenting a new narrative invoking contemporary morality and relationships in the age-old matters of romance and seduction. The wares from Hillwood’s collection on the dining room table include porcelain from an elaborate dessert service made by the Jacob Petit manufactory in France around 1835 (acc. no. 24.120), French glassware dating to the 1700s (acc. nos. 23.312–315), and flatware made by François-Dominique Naudin in Paris around 1819 (acc. nos. 12.289, 2021.1). The linen tablecloth was made by the French firm D. Porthault, which generously gifted it to Hillwood in 2020.“

–Dr. Rebecca Tilles, Curator of 18th-century Western European Art, Hillwood Estate & Gardens

–Images courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, photographed by Erik Kvalsvik, & Ferrin Contemporary

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Chris Antemann, An Occasion to Gather, Hillwood Museum, 2021
Chris Antemann, An Occasion to Gather, Hillwood Museum, 2021
Chris Antemann, An Occasion to Gather, Hillwood Museum, 2021
Chris Antemann, An Occasion to Gather, Hillwood Museum, 2021, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Chris Antemann, An Occasion to Gather, Hillwood Museum, 2021, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens

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A Stage for Dessert

Installation at Hillwood Estate & Gardens

““An Occasion to Gather” Chris Antemann’s porcelain centerpiece, is filled with 18th-century style ceramic sweets, takes inspiration from the garden sculptures and eighteenth-century design of Hillwood’s French parterre. As with the dining room table display, here Antemann references eighteenth-century dining culture and the porcelain centerpieces commonly used as table decoration by European elites.“

In the adjacent breakfast room,

“Antemann integrates porcelain figures into her reconception of the French parterre. “I imagined what lives were like in the eighteenth century, what these figures would have been doing, what the collectors of these figures would have been doing,” she said. “My centerpiece is a seductive playground for the porcelain figure; they are not static on the base, but in the world, playing and enjoying the environment.” The tableware from Hillwood’s collection on the breakfast room table includes porcelain from a dessert service made by the Jacob Petit manufactory in France around 1835 (acc. no. 24.120), French glassware dating to the 1700s (acc. nos. 23.312–315), and porcelain and silver-gilt flatware made in Russia in the 1800s (acc. no. 25.479).“

–Dr. Rebecca Tilles, associate curator of 18th-century French and Western European Fine and decorative arts, Hillwood Estate & Gardens

–Images courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, photographed by Erik Kvalsvik

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Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, Hillwood Museum, 2021, 30” x 24” x 24″, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, Hillwood Museum, 2021, 30” x 24” x 24″, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, Hillwood Museum, 2021, 30” x 24” x 24″, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Chris Antemann, A Stage for Dessert, Hillwood Museum, 2021, 30” x 24” x 24″, photos courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens

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Harbor (AP)

More on the Collaboration with MEISSEN  •  HERE  •

“I am fascinated by 18th-century porcelain figures and what made them so popular: a culture of ritual at the court, with its costumes, powdered wigs, painted faces, and that infatuation with banquets and the extremely complex way of presenting serving platters ‘à la française’ at feasts or receptions. I use the esthetic of those figurines, very modish in France at that time, to recount and parody the relationship between men and women in society or seduction.“

-Chris Antemann

Chris Antemann, Harbor, Meissen, 2019, 12.5 x 5 x 5”, image courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, photographed by Erik Kvalsvik
Chris Antemann, Harbor, back view, Meissen, 2019, 12.5 x 5 x 5”, image courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, photographed by Erik Kvalsvik

MORE ON CHRIS ANTEMANN

MORE ON CHRIS ANTEMANN

View More by Chris Antemann  •  HERE  •

Chris Antemann is known for work inspired by 18th-century porcelain figurines, employing a unity of design and concept to simultaneously examine and parody male and female relationship roles. Characters, themes, and incidents build upon each other, effectively forming their own language that speaks about domestic rites, social etiquette, and taboos. Themes from the classics and the romantics are given a contemporary edge; elaborate dinner parties, picnic luncheons, and ornamental gardens set the stage for her twisted tales to unfold.

Chris Antemann Portrait

AT MUSEUMS

DACHA & MANSION INSTALLATIONS

PAST PROGRAMMING

The allure of porcelain has beguiled collectors and others for centuries. Challenging as well as costly to produce, porcelain’s material qualities—impermeable, extremely hard, translucent, and a brilliant white—brought it great esteem early on. Porcelain originated in China, and the competition to manufacture it in Europe was fierce. European manufactories often appropriated designs from one another and recruited workers from their rivals with knowledge of the long-guarded formula.

The Luxury of Clay: Porcelain Past and Present traces the discovery and early history of porcelain in western Europe and Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries while also highlighting Marjorie Merriweather Posts’s interest in porcelain objects and the pieces she acquired. Juxtaposed to historical porcelain wares are a selection of contemporary ceramics taking cues from porcelain traditions and historical models from Europe and Asia.

Throughout the exhibition works by the contemporary artists and ceramists Cindy Sherman (b. 1954), Bouke de Vries (b. 1960) and Chris Antemann (b. 1971) underscore the continued inspiration and influence of historical porcelain on artists today.

The Luxury of Clay: Porcelain Past and Present

Hillwood Estate, Museum, & Gardens | Washington, D.C. 
Hillwood Estate & Gardens The Luxury of Clay Installation with Bouke de Vries
Hillwood Estate & Gardens The Luxury of Clay Installation with Bouke de Vries
Hillwood Estate & Gardens The Luxury of Clay Installation with Cindy Sherman
Hillwood Estate & Gardens The Luxury of Clay Installation with Cindy Sherman
Hillwood Estate & Gardens The Luxury of Clay Installation with Chris Antemann
Hillwood Estate & Gardens The Luxury of Clay Installation with Eva Zeisel

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

Bouke de Vries, Memory Vessell, 2015, 9.8 x 6.7″, image courtesy of Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, photographed by Erik Kvalsvik
Cindy Sherman, “Madame de Pompadour (nee Poisson)” Tureen, 1990, 14.5 x 22 x 11.75″
Eva Zeisel, “Pieces from the Talisman Service, Lomonosov Porcelain Factory”, 2001-2004, bone china, sizes variable.

PAST PROGRAMMING

The Luxury of Clay Lecture Series

Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens Related Programs

The Luxury of Clay Lecture Series

Explore stories behind porcelain past and present.

 

Conversation with Artist Chris Antemann

In this lecture celebrating the installation of two elaborate centerpieces in the dining and breakfast rooms as part of The Luxury of Clay: Porcelain Past and Present, artist Chris Antemann describes the development of her ceramic artwork inspired by eighteenth-century porcelain figures.

Virtual Artist Talk with Chris Antemann

 to 

In this lecture celebrating the installation of two elaborate centerpieces in the dining and breakfast rooms as part of The Luxury of Clay: Porcelain Past and Present, artist Chris Antemann describes the development of her ceramic artwork inspired by eighteenth-century porcelain figures. She will discuss how she drew inspiration from Hillwood’s French parterre, porcelain collection, and interiors, as well as many other sources for her sculptural tableaux and complex process of constructing them. Learn how Chris crafts new narratives from historical forms, informed by her ten-year collaboration on unique and limited edition artworks with MEISSEN, Europe’s oldest porcelain manufactory.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
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“The Porcelain Sickness” in the Gilded Age

Rebecca Tilles, curator, explores the porcelain collections of Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877-1964), Anna Thompson Dodge (1871-1970), and Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973), Hillwood’s founder.

“The Porcelain Sickness” in the Gilded Age

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La Maladie de Porcelain: The Porcelain Collections of Consuelo Vanderbilt, Anna Thompson Dodge, and Marjorie Merriweather Post

This lecture will explore the porcelain collections of Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877-1964), the original American “Dollar Heiress”; Anna Thompson Dodge (1871-1970), heiress to one of America’s great automotive fortunes; and businesswoman, collector, and philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973), while placing Post in the context of these two contemporary female collectors and society figures of the day. All three women decorated multiple residences with eighteenth-century furnishings and each had a passion for porcelain. Vanderbilt served as a particularly relevant collecting model for Post who owned eighteenth-century French decorative arts from Vanderbilt’s collection, including an important Vincennes porcelain tureen and platter featured in The Luxury of Clay: Porcelain Past and Present. 

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
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VIDEOS

VIDEOS FEATURING CHRIS ANTEMANN

The Luxury of Clay Lecture Series
“The Porcelain Sickness” in the Gilded Age with Rebecca Tilles

Rebecca Tilles, curator, explores the porcelain collections of Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877-1964), Anna Thompson Dodge (1871-1970), and Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973), Hillwood’s founder.

The Luxury of Clay Lecture Series
Conversation with Artist Chris Antemann

In this lecture celebrating the installation of two elaborate centerpieces in the dining and breakfast rooms as part of “The Luxury of Clay: Porcelain Past and Present,” artist Chris Antemann describes the development of her ceramic artwork inspired by eighteenth-century porcelain figures. She will discuss how she drew inspiration from Hillwood’s French parterre, porcelain collection, and interiors, as well as many other sources for her sculptural tableaux and complex process of constructing them. Learn how Chris crafts new narratives from historical forms, informed by her ten-year collaboration on unique and limited edition artworks with MEISSEN, Europe’s oldest porcelain manufactory.

10
Jul
2020
Savor: A Revolution in Food Culture

Savor: A Revolution in Food Culture

SAVOR: A Revolution in Food Culture

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art | Hartford, CT

February 29, 2020  — January 3, 2021*

*February 29 through March 13, 2020
Extension: September 5 through January 3, 2021

Savor: A Revolution in Food Culture is organized by the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, and curated by Meredith Chilton, Curator Emerita at the Gardiner Museum.

This presentation of the exhibition is a collaboration between the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Gardiner Museum.

Chris Antemann, Savor: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment, 2020, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.
Chris Antemann, Savor: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment, 2020, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Chris Antemann, ‘A Little Feast of Folly’ 2019, porcelain, 23 x 12 x 12″.

Images courtesy of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Food and dining were transformed in Europe during the age of Enlightenment by profound changes that still resonate today. What many of us eat, the way food is cooked, and how we dine continues to be influenced by radical changes that occurred in France from 1650 until the French Revolution in 1789.

Savor: A Revolution in Food Culture explores the story of this transformation with rare objects, fascinating histories, and amusing stories. We start in the kitchen gardens at Versailles where advances in horticulture expanded the growing seasons of vegetables and fruits, making a greater selection of foods available year-round. Then we visit the steamy kitchens of cooks who advocated light, flavourful cuisine centuries before our time. Next, we discover surprisingly modern philosophies for healthy eating and vegetarianism, and join ardent foodies as they savor meals served on newly invented ceramic and silver wares, from sauceboats to tureens. Along the way, we explore how social changes were impacting eating then, just as now, as the grand formality of the past was often abandoned in favor of informality and intimacy.

Savor: A Revolution in Food Culture is organized by the Gardiner Museum and curated by Meredith Chilton, C.M., Curator Emerita. Works of art and objects from major North American museums and private collections, as well as key pieces of contemporary ceramics and knitted art, will come together in a delectable feast for the senses designed by Opera Atelier’s Resident Set Designer, Gerard Gauci.

VIEW THE INSTALLATION

Chris Antemann, Savor: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment, 2020, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.
Chris Antemann, Savor: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment, 2020, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.
Chris Antemann, Savor: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment, 2020, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.
Gardnier Museum, ‘Savour: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment’, 2019, Installation View.
Gardnier Museum, ‘Savour: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment’, 2019, Installation View.
Gardnier Museum, ‘Savour: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment’, 2019, Installation View.
Gardnier Museum, ‘Savour: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment’, 2019, Installation View.
Gardnier Museum, ‘Savour: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment’, 2019, Installation View.

FEATURED ARTWORK

A Little Feast of Folly”, was created in the artist’s studio in 2019. 

CHRIS ANTEMANN’S: A Little Feast of Folly

Chris Antemann, ‘A Little Feast of Folly’ 2019, porcelain, 23 x 12 x 12″.
Chris Antemann, ‘A Little Feast of Folly’ 2019, porcelain, 23 x 12 x 12″.
Chris Antemann, ‘A Little Feast of Folly’ 2019, porcelain, 23 x 12 x 12″.

MORE ON CHRIS ANTEMANN

VIEW MORE BY CHRIS ANTEMANN HERE

Chris Antemann is known for work inspired by 18th-century porcelain figurines, employing a unity of design and concept to simultaneously examine and parody male and female relationship roles. Characters, themes, and incidents build upon each other, effectively forming their own language that speaks about domestic rites, social etiquette, and taboos. Themes from the classics and the romantics are given a contemporary edge; elaborate dinner parties, picnic luncheons, and ornamental gardens set the stage for her twisted tales to unfold.

PROGRAMMING

EVENTS

September 10 | Virtual Gallery Talk: Pleasing the Eye and Palate with curator emeritus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jeff Munger
September 12 | Second Saturdays for Families: Season’s Harvest
September 21 | Online Lecture: Ice Cream in the Age of Enlightenment with food historian Ivan Day
September 29 | Virtual Gallery Talk: Savor: A Revolution in Food Culture with Curator Linda Roth
October 13, 5 pm |  Virtual Artist Talk: An Evening with Kate Malone
November 22, 2 pm  | The King’s Peas: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment with Curator Meredith Chilton

Savor: A Revolution in Food Culture is organized by the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, and curated by Meredith Chilton, Curator Emerita at the Gardiner Museum. This presentation of the exhibition is a collaboration between the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Gardiner Museum.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated cookbook, The King’s Peas: Delectable Recipes and Their Stories from the Age of Enlightenment.

CANCELLED DUE TO COVID

March 12, 2020- Gallery talk with Curator Linda Roth
March 19, 2020- Gallery talk with Meredith Chilton
March 25, 2020- Panel Discussion: The Dining Room Then and Now
Enjoy what promises to be a fascinating conversation about dining customs across cultures with culinary historian Jessica Harris, designer Thomas Jayne, educator David Dangremond, and curator Brandy Culp.  In conjunction with the exhibition, Savor: A Revolution in Food Culture. 5pm reception, 6pm Lecture.

April 9, 2020- Gallery Tour with Curator Jeff Munger
May 7, 2020- Ivan Day Lecture, 5pm reception and 6pm lecture

01
Jul
2020
CHRIS ANTEMANN in Exposition Ceramiques Gourmandes

CHRIS ANTEMANN in Exposition Ceramiques Gourmandes

CHRIS ANTEMANN

Fondation Bernardaud

In conjunction with the exhibition Exposition Céramiques Gourmandes, organized by Olivier Castaing (Exhibition curator) and Hélène Huret (Director of the Fondation Bernardaud). Artist Chris Antemann’s Dining in the Orangery was a featured installation at Limoge (France) along with works by fourteen international artists with a taste for ceramic: the crème de la crème!

Chris Antemann, “Dining in the Orangery”, 2019, porcelain, china paint, decals, luster, 30 x 62 x 20″.
Chris Antemann, “Dining in the Orangery”, 2019 Installation at Bernardaud
Chris Antemann, “Dining in the Orangery”, 2019, porcelain, china paint, decals, luster, 30 x 62 x 20″.

ON VIEW

June 21, 2019 – October 31, 2020

Exposition Céramiques Gourmandes

FONDATION BERNARDAUD
Limoges, France

Dining in the Orangery

Installation at Bernardaud

When art becomes epicurean, voracious, pie-eyed with the pleasures of the palate—inventing dishes, desserts, pieces montées or banquet scenes—sinking its teeth into an examination of our relationship with food (guilty, sensual, problematic)—we have Céramiques gourmandes, an exhibition cooked up by the Fondation Bernardaud, featuring fourteen international artists with a taste for ceramic: the crème de la crème!

Fired clay and fine fare have long been companions. Gustatory pleasure has inspired artists in every era: what we eat says so much about humankind, its environment and its excesses. The feasts we see here are technical feats, to be savored visually, virtually. Like a mouthwatering promise. You can almost hear the “mmmm”s, “yum”s, and “more”s.

 

In the 18th century, during the vogue for naturalism, ceramicists played with trompe l’oeil. Fantasies in faience and porcelain, decorated plates or trick displays, were wildly popular through Europe—England, Hungary, Germany, and France. There were reproductions of radishes, artichoke quarters, and hard-boiled eggs, sometimes doused in mayonnaise. Kilns yielded compotiers full of olives and bouchées à la reine. There were terrines in the form of pheasants, ducks, roosters; plates disguised as hearts of lettuce or bunches of asparagus; bonbonnières as lemons. Bestiary and kitchen garden were called upon to decorate festal tables.

 

Delectation is always a question of taste. Gluttons are scourged; gourmets’ refinement encouraged. What we eat reveals what we are. And in our consumer societies, now grown obese, the question of food is at the heart of sanitary, political, and ecological issues.

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MORE ON THE EXHIBITION

Installation at Bernardaud

More on Céramiques Gourmandes HERE

View Mobile Tour HERE

ORGANIZED BY

Olivier Castaing, Exhibition curator

Hélène Huret, Director of the Fondation Bernardaud

Contact Presse Hélène Huret : hhuret(at)bernardaud.com

ARTISTS

Chris Antemann (USA)
Bachelot & Caron (France)
Anna Barlow (UK)
Charlotte Coquen (France)
Christina Erives (Mexico)
Jae Yong Kim (Korea)
Juujuu Kim (Korea)
Yuko Kuramatsu (Japan)
Kaori Kurihara (Japan)
Shayna Leib (USA)
Susan Nemeth (UK)
Marie Rancillac (France)
Dong Won Shin (Korea)
Jessica Stoller (USA)
Chris Antemann, “Dining in the Orangery”, 2019, porcelain, china paint, decals, luster, 30 x 62 x 20″.
Chris Antemann, “Dining in the Orangery”, 2019, porcelain, china paint, decals, luster, 30 x 62 x 20″.
Chris Antemann, “Dining in the Orangery”, 2019, porcelain, china paint, decals, luster, 30 x 62 x 20″.
Chris Antemann, “Dining in the Orangery”, 2019, porcelain, china paint, decals, luster, 30 x 62 x 20″.
Chris Antemann, “Dining in the Orangery”, 2019, porcelain, china paint, decals, luster, 30 x 62 x 20″.
Chris Antemann, “Dining in the Orangery”, 2019, porcelain, china paint, decals, luster, 30 x 62 x 20″

MORE ON CHRIS ANTEMANN

VIEW MORE BY CHRIS ANTEMANN HERE

Chris Antemann is known for work inspired by 18th-century porcelain figurines, employing a unity of design and concept to simultaneously examine and parody male and female relationship roles. Characters, themes, and incidents build upon each other, effectively forming their own language that speaks about domestic rites, social etiquette, and taboos. Themes from the classics and the romantics are given a contemporary edge; elaborate dinner parties, picnic luncheons, and ornamental gardens set the stage for her twisted tales to unfold.

Chris Antemann Portrait