Karen Karnes

Covered Jar

Donated by Elaine Daniels

5"H 6.5" Diameter

Karen Karnes Artist Biography

Karen Karnes (November 17, 1925 - July 12, 2016) was a ceramic artist who lived and worked in New York City. She is recognized for her wheel thrown pieces, salt glazed pottery, and her lidded casserole dishes. She attended Brooklyn College where she graduated with a major in design. She then traveled to Italy where she concentrated on her ceramics practice in Sesto Fiorentino, and learned how to use the potter's wheel. Karnes later returned to New York where she started a graduate program at Alfred University to continue her study of ceramics. Karnes and her husband David Weinrib led the first Pottery Seminar at Black Mountain College in North Carolina in October 1952, an incredibly important nexus of artists that pioneered the Studio Craft Movement in the US. In 1954, Karnes and Weinrib decided to relocate to Stony Point, New York, where they established the Gate Hill Cooperative with fellow potters and worked for 25 years. While there, she focused on creating pieces with functionality and developed her signature casserole dish. It is not hyperbole to suggest that Karnes' artwork made a major impact on the idea of accepting functional pottery as a form of fine art in the United States. In 1967, Karnes incorporated salt in her kiln firings while she was teaching at Penland School of Craft and would continue to use salt in her firings until a 1998 fire destroyed her kiln shed. She would continue to fire her work in wood-fueled kilns owned by her colleagues.

Karnes earned several awards and other accolades throughout her career, which includes the Artists' Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1976 and 1988, the American Craft Council's Gold Medal of Highest Achievement in Craftsmanship in 1998, the Medal of Excellence from the Society of Arts and Crafts in 1990, and several more. She is truly one of the most important ceramic artists of the 20th century.

Condition Note: There are two small chips on the rim.

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