Commending Dr. Hubert A. Arnold's Gift of Ceramic Art to the Crocker Art Museum

101 Pages·2011·3.38 MB·English

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Commending Dr. Hubert A. Arnold's Gift
of Ceramic Art to the Crocker Art Museum
WHEREAS, Dr. Hubert A. Arnold has donated his outstanding collection of more than
1,500 American, European, and Asian ceramics, valued in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars, to the Crocker Art Museum for the enjoyment and appreciation of its community
and thousands of visitors each year; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Arnold has applied modest means with intelligence, discernment and love
to create a ceramic art collection of international significance and lasting value comparable
with that established by the Museum's founders in the 1880's; and
'WHEREAS, Dr. Arnold has offered a model of philanthropy to the community through
his wonderful gift to the Crocker Art Museum and has provided in-depth documentation
for the collection that will allow it to serve as an invaluable resource for students, artists,
and the lay public for understanding ceramics and their history worldwide; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Arnold has shared with the Crocker Art Museum and the people of
Sacramento important works from his collection for exhibitions and other programs
affording the opportunity for ongoing visibility, enjoyment, and education;
Now, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Mayor and the Council of the City of
Sacramento that we hereby commend Dr. Hubert A. Arnold for his gift to the Crocker Art
Museum and to the citizens of Sacramento for enhancing the arts of our city.
ISSUED: This 8th Day of December, 1992.
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JUKO UEDA
This contemporary Japanese potter is noted for his work
in the shigaraki style. This distinctive pottery style evolves
from the 1500 year old tradition originating in the perfec-
ture of Shiga in Japan which is a major ceramic center, east
of Kyoto. The style evolves from early Sue ritual pieces for
the tea ceremony. Fired in anagama (wood burning) kilns,
the work is often flashed by the fire. The clay is described
as white stoneware, overburdened with crushed quartz. The
distribution of ash from the wood firing gives the work its
dramatic and distinctive surface.
JUKO UEDA
Water Jar with Lid. Shigaraki, stoneware. 15.5 x 11.8 cm
CREATIVE ARTS LEAGUE OF SACRAMENTO
PRESENTS
CALIFORNIA CRAFTS XVI
Selections from
ONE MAN'S COLLECTION
CROCKER ART MUSEUM • FEBRUARY 25- APRIL 2, 1989
216 0 STREET, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
COPYRIGHT 0 BY CREATIVE ARTS LEAGUE OF SACRAMENTO
CATALOG DESIGN BY LOIS FRANKE WARREN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN BABIOR
PHOTOGRAPH OF HUBERT A. ARNOLD, Copyright © by JEFFREY BRIGGS
PRINTED BY FRUITRIDGE PRINTING & LITHOGRAPH, INC.
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This catalog is dedicated with deepest gratitude to Carlotta Sears, Mother, and Winifred Cora Owen, Step-mother.
HUBERT A. ARNOLD
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Creative Arts League of Sacramento wishes to express appreciation to the following individuals and organizations whose
generous support and interest has made the California Crafts XVI exhibition possible.

Anonymous Donor Dr. and Mrs. Herbert S. Hunter

Anonymous Donor Mrs. Anne Huskinson

Anonymous Donor Dr. and Mrs. Warren E. Jones

Anonymous Donor Ann L. Kerr

Artists Contemporary Gallery Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Krisik

Judge Dick and Dodie Backus Ivey Adell Lambert

Mr. and Mrs. Reid Bell Helen and John Landgraf

Mrs. Paul Binford Barbara Mackey

Donna Billick Anne and Malcolm McHenry

Birdie Boyles Burnett and Mimi Miller

Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Brown Francine and Adolph Moskovitz

Mr. and Mrs. Win. Campbell Jeanada H. Nolan

Mrs. Helen V. Chamberlain Alice Ottem

Don Chase Chevron, Inc. Pavilions

Crocker Art Museum Association Mrs. Kenneth Pope

Mr. and Mrs. Albert 0. Dekker Helen and Alan Post

Charles and Edith Devereaux Denise Puliz

Betty and Jerry Dobak Theo and George Samuels

Mrs. Lloyd Donant Doris Soloman

Mr. and Mrs. Emanuel Epstein Jane and Roy Stephens

Dr. Jackson and Sara Louise Faustrnan Hulda Stone

Fountain Square Barbara Strong

Marjorie J. Francisco Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Teel

Dr. Baxter and Corinne Geeting Wendy and Henry Teichert

Mr. and Mrs. George T. Gibson The Crate

Mr. and Mrs. Eben J. Haskell Lois and David Warren

Doris Fry Heineman Susan and Thomas Willoughby

Barbara and Don Herberholz Margaret C. Winter

Alfred and Ruth Holland Clark and Sally Witter
Mr. and Mrs. John C. Holmes
We wish also to express appreciation to the following for their special responsibilities for this exhibition: Kathryn Ball,
Research; Birdie Boyles, Finance Chairman; Betty Dobak, Invitations; Connie Spickelmier, Reception Chairman; and
Barbara Teel, Publicity Chairman.
Creative Arts League especially wishes to thank Barbara Gibbs, Director of the Crocker Art Museum; Janis Driesbach,
Curator's Statement; Jill Estroff, Crocker Art Museum Publicity; Paulette Hennem, Museum Registrar; Patrick Minor and
Steve Wilson, Exhibition Technicians, and the staff for their support.
To Eudorah Moore we extend particular thanks and appreciation for her essay for the catalog.
This exhibition is supported in part by generous funding from the Shell Oil Company Foundation, an anonymous donor,
and the Sumitomo Bank of California.
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EUDORAH MOORE
With intelligence, energy, sensitivity and boundless en-
thusiasm, Eudorah Moore has promoted American crafts
and craftsmen. Some of her outstanding achievements in-
clude: Founder and first president of the Pasadena Arts
Alliance; Trustee and president of the Pasadena Art
Museum; Curator of Design at the museum; Director of the
much-respected triennial exhibition "California Design";
from 1978 to 1981, Crafts Coordinator of the Visual Arts
Program for the National Endowment for the Arts; and, in
1985, she was one of the recipients of the "Living Treasures
of California Award" presented by Creative Arts League.
As one of her latest achievements, she has set up the Na-
tional Crafts Planning Project, a task force directed toward
the future of crafts. Eudorah Moore's activities have cer-
tainly made her the outstanding spokesperson for crafts in
America today. Therefore, Creative Arts League proudly
features her insightful essay, "One Man's Collection" in this
catalog.
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ONE MAN'S COLLECTION
by Eudorah Moore
A description of the collection, as well as respect and of visual cohesion is one of the particularly interesting
affection for the organizers of the exhibition lured me to things about this collection, for it includes pots from Eng-
accept the invitation to write an essay for this catalog. How land, China, and Japan, and small numbers from other parts
a simple "yes" can enrich and complicate life! Immediately, of the world. But selected with unerring taste, and a singular
abstract subject matter began to crowd my imagination. I eye, there is a sense of communality in the material. Bound
thought first, of course, about this specific collection and by a sense of disciplined rhythm and refinement, the
collector and was interested to know both. But then I mused collection itself becomes a value statement, and tells you
about collections in the abstract, about the almost palpable something very clearly about the extraordinary man who
difference between collections made primarily for invest- assembled it.
ment, or to establish standing by ownership of objects con-
sidered valuable by the cognoscenti, and those made on the In the group are numbers of pots by Shoji Hamada and
idiosyncratic basis of relationship between the collector and Bernard Leach and their followers. Shoji Hamada had, of
the object. I mused about the recognition of the existence course, a long standing relationship with Bernard Leach,
in our world of object people, those who move through a and the mutual respect with which they regarded each other
space seeing every object, and those who seem to have no and their strongly held similar values are reflected and speak
draw towards those things which surround them, and I in the work of each. In the early 1950s, Hamada made
thought of the importance to all of art history of these several extended visits to the United States, giving work-
"object people," who choose to be overtaken by their pas- shops to worshipful students up and down California and
sion and gather objects around them. And finally, I thought elsewhere. I can remember walking through lines of pots
of the enrichment of all our world by the generosity of those submitted for the 1962 California Design exhibition with
who finally loved the objects enough to feel a compulsion Arthur Millier, the art critic for the Los Angeles Times. As
to share them. In short, I began to think about collectors he looked at the rows of brown understated pots, he shook
generically, to wonder if there could be similar threads which his head, and said, "Sometimes I think the Japanese won
bound such a diverse group together across time and space. the war." For surely after Hamada's visit the California pot-
ters were entranced with the Japanese aesthetic, and for
A brief jaunt to Sacramento to meet Hubert Arnold and
several years it was the pervasive influence on them. Some
to see his collection was the first step. Just following us as
of this influence is reflected in the collection.
we drew up to his house, Hubert jumped from his car, a
sprightly, bright-eyed presence, clearly wondering a bit
about what he had let himself in for in agreeing to show his Another important enrichment for California potters was
collection. Walking into his living room crowded with the exodus from Europe in the mid thirties and early forties.
boxes, standing as he drew piece after piece from its secure Marguerite Wildenhain, a Bauhaus artist with the quality
nest, he gave us a thumbnail sketch or some insight into and discipline of German training settled in Northern Cal-
each artist, described the merit he saw in each pot, invested ifornia, accepting students for her workshops at Pond Farm,
the work with a very special and personal meaning and and spreading her aesthetic through them. Her work, and
interest. Seeing piece after piece, one slowly became aware those she influenced, weaves an important thread in the
of the cohesiveness of the collection, of the acuity of eye by fabric of the collection. Gertrud and Otto Natzler, though
which it was bound, and of the passion which had governed also Europeans, brought a rather more specialized vision to
the selections and now cradled the collection. This quality the California scene, with Gertrud's beautifully thrown
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