Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Warren MacKenzie, 2002 October 29. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Ceramicists -- Minnesota -- Interviews Search this
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Michael Simon, 2005 September 27-28. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with James L. Tanner, 2011 October 7-8. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Ceramicists -- Minnesota -- Interviews Search this
An interview of James L. Tannery conducted 2011 October 7 and 8, by Mary Savig, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Tanner's home, in Janesville, Minnesota.
Biographical / Historical:
James L. Tanner (1941- ) is a ceramic sculptor, painter, printmaker, and educator in Janesville, Minnesota.
General:
Originally recorded as 5 sound files. Duration is 2 hr., 46 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Topic:
Ceramicists -- Minnesota -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Warren MacKenzie conducted 2002 October 29, by Robert Silberman, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Stillwater, Minnesota.
MacKenzie speaks of his early childhood and eagerness to become a painter; being drafted in 1943; returning from active duty in the Army to find all the painting classes full and registering for a ceramic class; the significance of Bernard Leach's, "A Potter's Book" to his early ceramic education, and fellow classmates; his studies at the Chicago Art Institute; museums in Chicago; his first wife, potter, Alix MacKenzie; traveling to England to receive further training from Leach, first being rejected and then returning a year later to work 2 1/2 years at Leach Pottery at St. Ives; contacts such as Shoji Hamada, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Terry Frost, Peter Lanyon, and others; his lack of interest in sculptural ceramics; the good remnants of Leach pottery pots in his pottery today; Korean and Japanese influences; the International Potters and Weavers Conference in 1952 and returning to the U.S.; Alix's role in arranging Hamada's tour of the U.S. and exhibition in St. Paul; building their first pottery; exhibitions at the Walker Arts Center; purchasing the best Hamada pot at the St. Paul exhibit; teaching at the University of Minnesota; his experiences at craft schools; his involvement with NCECA [National Council on Education in Ceramic Art] and the Minnesota Craft Council; his travels; the self-service showroom on his property; changes in the field of ceramics; the 1968 fire that destroyed his barn studio; his working process; his experience with a salt kiln; experimenting in each firing; and his monthly work schedule. MacKenzie also recalls Kathleen Blackshear, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Soetsu Yanagi, Jerry Liebling, Allen Downs, Walter Quirt, Phil Morton, Curt Heuer, Karen Karnes, David Weinrib, Josef Albers, Kenneth Ferguson, Rudy Autio, Peter Voulkos, Tatsuzo Shimaoka, David Lewis, Michael Cardew, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Warren MacKenzie (1924-2018) was a ceramist from Stillwater, Minnesota.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 9 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hrs., 33 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Topic:
Ceramicists -- Minnesota -- Interviews Search this
The Michael Simon papers measure 4.3 linear feet and 50.74 gigabytes and date from circa 1965-2020. The collection documents Simon's career as a ceramicist and educator. Included is printed material related to Simon consisting of publications, articles and exhibition ephemera; personal and professional correspondence with colleagues and galleries; letters from Warren MacKenzie; digital video recordings on his friends and mentors Warren Mackenzie and Ron Meyers; teaching files; writings by Simon and others; biographical information; exhibition checklists and forms; slides and photographs of works of art by Simon and others, Simon at work in his studio, friends, family and travel; materials relating to the book Michael Simon: Evolution edited by Susan Stokes Roberts; personal and financial information; lectures, including video and audio recordings; gallery talks and sales; kiln construction and documentation; glaze and clay body notes and recipes; and sketches. A portion of this material is in electronic format.
Scope and Contents:
The Michael Simon papers measure 4.3 linear feet and 50.74 gigabytes and date from circa 1965-2020. The collection documents Simon's career as a ceramicist and educator. Included is biographic material comprised of resumes, Simon's MFA diploma from University of Georgia and and an adapted version of an interview conducted by Mark Shapiro in September 2005 for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, as well as personal and professional correspondence with some original letters from Simon to others. Also included are wedding invitations, greeting cards and photographs from friends and family. Writings include a manuscript for his book Evolution, artist statements, lecture notes and video recordings, his M.F.A thesis, and notes on Warren Mackenzie. Also found are writings by others such as magazine article drafts and an NPR interview transcript with Warren Mackenzie where Michael Simon is mentioned. An annotated transcript and digital video recording of a University of Minnesota Panel Discussion and an annotated transcript of a Warren Mackenzie lecture and cassette tape recording at the Minnesota Historical Society is also included.
Professional Files document exhibition, publishing, financial and workshop records and recordings. Some documentation of exhibitions, and workshops are in born-digital and audio recorded form. Other materials include studio files regarding the construction and operation of kilns, as well as glaze and slip recipes. Studio files also document Michael Simon's website. Photographic materials make up the bulk of the collection and consist of photographs, including inkjet prints, negatives and slides of Michael Simon, his artwork, workshops, including his 1994 workshop and trip to Chile. Also found are photographs documenting the construction of his salt fire kiln and studio in Georgia, as well as photographs and slides of family, friends, and work by other ceramicists. The papers also include sketches and printed material consisting of magazine features and news clippings on Michael Simon, his book Evolution, and other artists including Warren Mackenzie. Additionally, there are exhibition catalogs, pamphlets, and invitation for both Simon and other ceramicists and reference books and articles on other artists. A portion of this material is in electronic format.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as eight series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1982-2006 (0.1 Linear feet: Box 1; 0.087 Gigabytes: ER0001)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1968-2016 (0.4 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1965-2020 (0.2 Linear feet: Box 1; 4.37 Gigabytes: ER0002-ER0003)
Series 4: Professional Files, circa 1993-2014 (0.2 Linear feet: Box 1, OV ; 30.5 Gigabytes: ER0004-ER0009)
Series 5: Studio Records, circa 1965-2020 (0.2 Linear feet: Box 1-2)
Series 6: Printed Material, circa 1973-2020 (0.6 Linear feet: Box 2; 8.73 Gigabytes: ER0010-ER0012)
Series 7: Photographic Material, circa 1965-2020 (1.8 Linear feet: Box 2-4; 7.06 Gigabytes: ER0013-ER0018)
Series 8: Artwork, circa 1965-2020 (0.1 Linear feet: Box 4)
Biographical / Historical:
Michael Simon (1947-2021) was a functional ceramicist and educator in Georgia. Originally from Minnesota, Simon earned his B.F.A from the University of Minnesota where he was a student of Warren MacKenzie. After receiving his B.F.A in 1970, Michael moved and set up a studio in Athens, GA, and would go on to receive his M.F.A from University of Georgia in 1980. That same year he built his own kiln and began keeping a pot from each kiln load to document his work's development. Throughout his career, his works were usually fired in salt kilns featuring motifs of nature and animals. His work has been shown in multiple exhibitions including a 2011 retrospective at The Northern Clay Center entitled Michael Simon: A Life in Pots covering 30 years of his pottery. In addition to numerous exhibitions, Simon taught several workshops at schools, galleries and studios across the country including at the Arrowmont school in Tennessee, and the Penland School and Cedar Creek Gallery in North Carolina. As well as abroad in Chile and Italy.
In 2011, Simon published his book Michael Simon: Evolution which was edited, and art directed by Susan Stokes Roberts, an award-winning designer, artist and Michael Simon's wife.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds a 2005 September 27-28 oral history interview with Michael Simon.
Provenance:
Donated in 2022 by Susan S. Roberts, Michael Simon's widow.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Archival audiovisual recordings must be digitized for research access. Researchers may access digitized audiovisual materials in the Archives' Washington, D.C. or New York, N.Y. Research Centers by appointment.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Names:
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Extent:
52 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
2005 September 27-28
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Michael Simon conducted 2005 September 27-28, by Mark Shapiro, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the artist's home, in Colbert, Georgia.
Simon discusses studying at University of Minnesota with Warren MacKenzie; the counterculture and chaotic atmosphere at the university in the late 1960s; moving to Athens, Georgia, after college to open a studio on Jerry Chappelle's farm; his first pottery sales; obtaining conscientious objector status and working at a hospital in Athens; the influence of Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada on his work; developing shapes and expanding his repertoire; being inspired by Korean folk potters and by other Asian pottery; teaching at the Penland School of Arts and Crafts and being influenced by fellow potters there; art fairs in Atlanta, Florida, and elsewhere; using various materials for his pots, including Georgia kaolin and grolleg; applying for a fellowship at the University of Georgia, where he completed his Master's of Fine Arts; seeing Mark Pharis's pots in the summer of 1980, which compelled him to build his own salt kiln, which changed subsequent work dramatically; his marriage to Susan Roberts in 1992; experimenting with images on his pots, including fish and bamboo; getting a large commission for dinner plates from the Nakato Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the city's oldest sushi restaurants; visiting the Freer Sackler Galleries and being inspired by Chinese Yangshao pottery from the Neolithic period; the influence of Persian jars on his work; the success of his pottery sales with Ron Myers; going to Cortona, Italy, to teach pottery for the University of Georgia; teaching at a school in Santiago, Chile, exploring the countryside, and learning Chilean pottery techniques; the writing of Michael Cardew and its influence on his work and career; what constitutes a typical work day and what motivates him; and the community of American potters and the support he has received over the years. Simon also recalls Angel Lillo, Laurie Samuelson, Gib Krohn, Mark Pharis, Wayne Branum, Sandra Simon (née Lindstrom), Earl McCutcheon, Shoji Hamada, Cynthia Bringle, Ron Myers, Andy Nasisse, Robert Briscoe, Michael Cardew, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Michael Simon (1947-2021) was a functional ceramist from Athens, Georgia. Mark Shapiro (1955- ) is a ceramist from Worthington, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 30 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
A digital audio recording of an interview with ceramicist Michael Simon conducted February 23, 2018 by ceramics dealer Leslie Ferrin and Lyndel King, director and chief curator of the Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota at Simon's studio in Athens, Georgia. Also present is Simon's wife, Susan Roberts. They talk about Simon's pots and the development of his work. The interview was conducted by Ferrin as part of her effort to place Simon's works in private and public collections.
Also included is a conversation between King and potters Warren MacKenzie and Randy Johnston, and MacKenzie's daughter Tamsyn, March 19, 2018 regarding and exhibition being planned about MacKenzie and the Mingei tradition.
Biographical / Historical:
Leslie Ferrin (1958- ) is the director of Ferrin Contemporary in North Adams, Massachusetts and Ferrin Contemporary Project Art in Cummington, Massachusetts, specializing in contemporary ceramics circa 1950 to the present by artists whose primary medium is clay.
Provenance:
Donated 2018 by Leslie Ferrin.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Use of born digital records with no duplicate copy requires advance notice.
