Glenn C. Nelson
(American. b. 1913)
Large Floor Pot
c. 1974
stoneware.19 1/2" high x 16" diameter
Gift of the Estate of William G. Boyce
After completing graduate work and teaching
at the University of Iowa (1952–56), Glenn C. Nelson was asked
by Orazio Fumagalli –the first Curator of the Tweed Museum
of Art and a friend from Iowa – to come to the University of
Minnesota Duluth to establish a ceramic program for its Art Department.
A year later, in 1957, Nelson wrote the first edition of Ceramics:
The Potter’s Handbook, which was the first comprehensive
studio guide to describe and illustrate techniques, clay and glaze
formulas, and examples of ceramics from around the world. Altogether,
Nelson authored five editions of the book, the last published in
1984, and thousands of aspiring artists worldwide benefited from
its practical and aesthetic information. Until his retirement in
1975, Glenn Nelson transformed UMD and Duluth into a major center
for ceramic education and production. Hundreds of students, many
of whom are active studio potters and educators, were and are inspired
by his love for and vast knowledge of the medium. Nelson’s
own ceramic work, represented here by Large Floor Pot (ca. 1974),
is distinguished for its marriage of authoritative form and carefully
composed surface decoration, both of which seem effortless, spontaneous
and in perfect harmony with each other. Of course, such spontaneity
comes at the expense of great study and practice, both of the materials
themselves, and of the long history of their application. With assistance
from University of Minnesota Research Grants, Nelson traveled to
Japan, Korea. Holland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark in the 1970s,
studying ceramic practices and acquiring examples for the Tweed Museum
of Art. In 1991, he presented the museum with a gift of over one
hundred pieces from his personal collection, which today forms the
core of an outstanding public resource of international ceramic art.
The museum continues to add works to this aspect of the collection
through the Glenn C. Nelson Ceramics Purchase Fund. |
