Zoë Powell, Wood-Fired Ceramic Mortar and Pestle Sculpture, 2018

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Pestle Sculpture was assembled in 2010. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay, lowfired slips, black glaze, raku pati...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Glass Pestle Sculpture #1 was assembled in 2007. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay with green and black watermelon glaze, raku rust patina and hot blown glass. Two separate pieces of wood fired stoneware are assembled with a third piece -- a hot blown glass pestle. "The glass "masher" is lightly sand-blasted, suggesting opacity but yielding subtle light penetration, the perfect foil for Hirsch’s heavy clay concavities. Conceptually, Hirsch enjoys the compatibility of the two heat-driven materials, and the alchemical issues with shared chemistry seems right for themes involving vessels and raw geologic age." This three piece sculpture...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Glass Pestle Sculpture #4 was assembled in 2020. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay, gold enamel paint, black and ...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Glass Pestle Sculpture #1 was assembled in 2020. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay, gold enamel paint, black and ...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Pestle Sculpture #30 was assembled in 2009. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay, slips and glazes with raku patinas. The following is an excerpt from the book "With Fire: Richard Hirsch, A Life Between Chance and Design" written by Scott Meyer; "The glass "masher" is lightly sand-blasted, suggesting opacity but yielding subtle light penetration, the perfect foil for Hirsch’s heavy clay concavities. Conceptually, Hirsch enjoys the compatibility of the two heat-driven materials, and the alchemical issues with shared chemistry seems right for themes involving vessels and raw geologic age." This four piece sculpture is signed and dated by the artist. It will ship directly from the artist’s studio in Rochester, NY. (Literature: "With Fire: Richard Hirsch, A Life Between Chance and Design", Scott Meyer (Author), RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press 2012 - "Mortars and Pestles" pgs. 57 - 60. The Ceramic Mortar and Pestle...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Glass Pestle Sculpture #2 was assembled in 2020. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay, gold enamel paint, black and ...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Glass Pestle Sculpture #5 was assembled in 2020. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay, gold enamel paint, black and ...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Glass Pestle #27 is raku-fired, hand built and hand sculptured. This piece is made of three separate pieces of green rust patinaed wood fired stoneware. "In his process, Hirsch is a reducer, endlessly honing and refining his forms to their simplest and most powerful presence. It is the same “less is more” aesthetic evidenced by the work of Noguchi, Brancusi, and Giacometti, artists he holds in greatest esteem. His content is principally the vocabulary of form, color, and surface, subtly referencing utility while defying overt narration and cultural specificity. A mortar and pestle like this one, for example, might be discernible in a piece, but presented with such economy that it becomes only important as a stand-in for larger issues; their anima/animus relationship or as a record of human use and wear over considerable time. For Hirsch, the particular only exists for the purpose of making the universal palpable. His is a point of view similar...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Glass Pestle Sculpture #23 was assembled in 2006. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay with low fire slips and glazes, raku patinas and hot blown glass. The following is an excerpt from the book "With Fire: Richard Hirsch, A Life Between Chance and Design" written by Scott Meyer...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Glass Pestle Sculpture was assembled in 2009. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay with red and black glazes, raku patinas and a hot blown glass pestle. The following is an excerpt from the book "With Fire: Richard Hirsch, A Life Between Chance and Design" written by Scott Meyer...