American Art Pottery
Copyright (c) 1984 Duke Coleman. Silver Spring, Maryland. All rights reserved.
APRIL 1984, NUMBER 95
Rupert J. Deese
by Thomas Turnquist
Rupert Deese of Claremont, California, is a studio potter who has been producing studio pots since 1950. Born in 1924 in Guam, Deese received a BA from Pomona College in 1950 and an MFA from Claremont Graduate School in 1957. He studied ceramics with Richard Petterson and sculpture with Albert Stewart at Scripps. Deese has, since 1950, produced studio pottery, usually sharing Harrison McIntosh's studio in Claremont.
The major portion of his time from 1964 to 1983 was spent as a ceramic designer for Franciscan, doing his studio work "after hours." Fellow designers at Franciscan were Jerry Rothman, Henry Takemoto, Francis Chun and Dora DeLarios. Presently, Deese is working full time as a studio potter in McIntosh's studio.
The largest portion of his work has been in the vessel realm. He has pressed, slip cast, and thrown vessels. At present, Deese almost exclusively works at the wheel. There are occasional ventures into ceramic sculpture which is normally thrown and assembled. The clay utilized is brown stoneware fired at cone 5.
Deese's work in clay has been exhibited at the Scripps Annuals, the Ceramic Nationals in Syracuse, and at several other shows through the years. His work is in the collections of Scripps, Henry Gallery at the University of Washington, Everson Museum, St. Paul Gallery (Minnesota), Long Beach Museum, and the House Dining Room in the Capital in Washington, DC.
Rupert Deese's work is strong and alive. The artistic impulses given by the work are readily absorbed by eyes tuned into fine ceramic art forms. Deese, along with other fine California studio potters like McIntosh, Vivika and Otto Heino, Andreson, and Richard Petterson, has moved quality studio pottery into an accepted art form.
Deese signs his work with a stylized conjoined R and D inside a circle. The mark may be accompanied by a sticker. Rupert Deese is a living master of the medium of clay and collectors should take an extensive look at his work.
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RUPERT T. DEESE BIOGRAPHY
1952 Born September 19th, Upland, California
1974/76 University of California, Santa Barbara BA/MFA
ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
1976 Art Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara
1980 San Luis Obispo Art Center.San Luis Obispo, California
1981 Cuesta College Art Gallery, San Luis Obispo, California
1986 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
1990 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
1991 Southern Sierra Nevada Rivers: Preparatory Studies from Geological and Geographical Information,Franklin and
Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
1994 Artist in Residence, The Chianti Foundation, Marfa, Texas
1997 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
1999 Prints, Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
2000 Tobey C, Moss Gallery, Los Angeles
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1972 University Galleries, University of California, San Diego
Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara
1975 California Crafts IX, CrockerArt Gallery, Sacramento graduate Show, Main Gallery, University of Caiifornia, Santa Barbara Pottery V, California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo
1976 Graduate Show, Main Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara
Ink and Ctay IV, California Polytechnic University, Pomona
1978 Clay From Molds: Multiples, Altered Castings, Combinations, Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin (catalogue)
1981 California Watercolor and Drawing, Eureka
Group Show, Space Gallery, Los Angeles
1981/82 Texas Fine Arts Association National Exhibition, Texas
1982 Mode! Citizens Against Post-Modernism, Express Gallery, New York
1985 Summer Pleasures, Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
1986 A View of Nature, Atdrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut, (catalogue)
1967 Diamonds Are Forever, New York State Museum, Albany; New York
Public Library, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (catalogue)
1990 Buckminster Fuller: Harmonizing Art, Nature, Humanity, and Technology, Blum Art Institute, Bard College, Annandale
on-Hudson, New York
1995 Irrational Landscapes, University Art Museum, SUNY Binghampton; American Acadamy of Sciences, New York
1998 Conversation: Berenice Abbot and Rupert Deese, A.R.T. Resources, New York
Picturing the Sierra Nevada, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada (catalogue)
1999 A.R.T. Resources and Adamson Editions. Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont
COLLECTIONS
Dow Jones, New Jersey
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Nevada Museum of Art, Nevada
Reader's Digest, New York
Prudential, New Jersey
SELECTED BIOGRAPHY
enson, Michael. Review. The New York Times, January 26, 1990. (Review. The New York Times, June 6, 1986)
Noble, Robert. Designed Density: The Paintings of Rupert Deese, ARTS Magazine, May 1986, pp. 26-29 (illustrated)
Finkbeiner, Ann K. Once Upon the Start of Time, The Sciences, Sept/Oct, 1992 (image) Kanigel, Robert. Bubble Bubble Jean Taylor and the Mathematics of Minimal Sufaces, The Sciences, May/June 1993 (image). Tribiano, Shana. Universes Without End, The Sciences, Sept/Oct 1994 (image)