FROM THE ESTATE OF DR. EDMUND P. PILLSBURY. CHRIS POWELL (American, b. 1957). From One House to Another, 1985. Ceramic...

Description

FROM THE ESTATE OF DR. EDMUND P. PILLSBURY

CHRIS POWELL (American, b. 1957)
From One House to Another, 1985
Ceramic (in two pieces)
79 x 24 x 14 inches (200.7 x 61.0 x 35.6 cm)

PROVENANCE:
The Fort Worth Gallery, 1987

NOTE:
"This hand-built piece is made of stoneware, with clay slip applications on the surface," sculptor Chris Powell has explained to Heritage in a recent interview. "At the time I made it, and the other one Ted bought about the same time (After an Interval), I was blending ideas about vegetation and the figure, about the figure and architecture, and about architecture and the landscape. The abstracted budding forms in this work are arranged in a way that looks both like a figure and a growing plant. The titles of my sculptures from this period dealt with the passage of time, and its various effects on form."

Powell first met Ted Pillsbury through Dutch Phillips, who had the Fort Worth Gallery. Chris had recently finished his graduate studies in ceramics at Bradley University in Peoria, IL and had just moved back to Fort Worth. Shortly after winning first prize in sculpture at a gallery show at TCU (he recalls David Bates also won a first prize for his painting in the same show), "Dutch Phillips contacted me, telling me he wanted to show my work at his gallery. Not long afterwards--this was in 1984 or 85--Dutch came by with Ted to see my work in progress. I didn't even know who Ted was. I didn't know he was Director of the Kimbell, but he got to see my grad school work, and he was very encouraging. Over the years he bought many different types of work I produced." Laughing heartily the artist recalls, "You know, I think there was a time when Ted owned more of my work than I did! He seemed to understand that as an artist I am not interested in having just one recognizable style. For me, the point is to make things, and I make them in whatever style I need to. Ted understood that, and was totally supportive of whatever I was doing."

"We always lived fairly near Ted and Mireille in Fort Worth, and I'd take my kids to the Kimbell fairly often. I have three sons and when we'd get there they'd always say, "Here's Ted's Museum! Let's go see what's inside."

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