Ron Meyers (potter)
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Ron Meyers (born 1934) is an American studio potter and ceramics teacher known for producing functional pottery featuring animal and human forms. His work is featured in numerous museums and notable collections, including the
Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...
, the
Georgia Museum of Art Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
, and the Rosenfield Collection, and he has presented more than 100 workshops in the US and internationally. He has been described as "one of his generation's most important potters" and "an icon of the American ceramics community."


Biography


Early life and education

Meyers was born in Buffalo, NY, in 1934. His family cottage along
Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...
in Irving, NY, would later become the site of his summer studio, and he credits his comfort there to his childhood connection. "All the family ghosts are there. It's a blue collar area. I just feel real comfortable there. It's just a nice place to be - I remember my past there and I want to stay connected with it." Meyers' parents encouraged him to pursue the arts after seeing a poster he drew in middle school. As noted in a 2016 exhibition at
Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...
, "When continuing on to high school he enrolled in the art program and discovered a love for comic books. It was not so much their stories, but rather the stark black-and-white drawings of ''femmes fatales'' in comics like ''
Terry and the Pirates ''Terry and the Pirates'' is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndica ...
'' and '' Steven Canyon'' that captured his attention." Meyers earned his
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
(1956) and
Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
(1961) in Art Education from the State University College at Buffalo, followed by his MFA in
Ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...
(1967) from the School for American Craftsmen at the
Rochester Institute of Technology The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York, Rochester. It was founded in 1829. It is one of only two institute of technology, institut ...
where he studied under noted potter Frans Wildenhain. Wildenhain and Hobart Cowles served as advisors for his MFA thesis, "Ceramic hibachis and serving dishes".


Teaching career

Before teaching ceramics at Rochester Institute of Technology, he taught art at Gowanda Central School District in Gowanda New York. He taught ceramics at the
University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina (USC, SC, or Carolina) is a Public university, public research university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, It is the flagship of the University of South Car ...
from 1967-1972, and then at the
University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...
from 1972 until his retirement in 1992. He remains an emeritus faculty member of the
Lamar Dodd School of Art The Lamar Dodd School of Art is the art school of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia, United States. History In 1927, the University of Georgia’s board of trustees voted to establis ...
at the University of Georgia. In 2019, the Lamar Dodd school launched a student support fund to raise the necessary capital to endow the Ron Meyers Graduate Award in Ceramics, which will be awarded annually in honor of Meyers' legacy.


Post-Retirement

In 1995, the Museum of Arts and Sciences in
Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Situated near the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is southeast of Atlanta and near the ...
, hosted a retrospective show titled "Ron Meyers: Thirty Years", featuring 75 works. In 2008, the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, inducted him as a Regis Master, which seeks to honor "senior artists who have had a major impact on the development of 20th and 21st century ceramics." Past recipients include Don Reitz, Val Cushing, Nino Caruso,
Gutte Eriksen Gudrum "Gutte" Agnete Tryde Eriksen (20 November 1918 – 8 July 2008) was a Danish ceramist whose works were influenced by the years she spent in Japan studying Asian techniques. It is above all the specially produced glaze which is the distingui ...
, and
Paul Soldner Paul Edmund Soldner (April 24, 1921 – January 3, 2011) was an American ceramic artist and educator, noted for his experimentation with the 16th-century Japanese technique called raku, introducing new methods of firing and post firing, which bec ...
, and Meyers later said he was "awestruck" at the honor as he was a C student most of his life. That same year, he was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award by the
National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Founded in 1966, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) is an organization in the United States serving the interests of ceramics as an art form and in creative education. Most major American ceramic artists since the 1970s, ...
. In 2013, the
Arkansas Arts Center The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA), formerly known as the Arkansas Arts Center, is an art museum located in MacArthur Park, Little Rock, Arkansas. The museum's most recent expansion and renovation was designed by architecture and urban des ...
hosted "Ron Meyers: A Potter's Menagerie", billed as "the first comprehensive exhibition of the artist's work", featuring "more than one hundred ceramics in a variety of forms." Also in 2013, fellow potter and former student George McCauley released a film about Ron's work titled "Ron Meyers and the Usual Suspects," which screened at numerous locations including the
Mobile Museum of Art The Mobile Museum of Art (MMofA) is an art museum located in Mobile, Alabama. It features extensive art collections from the United States, Europe, and non-western art. The museum hosts exhibitions, multi-disciplinary programs (including film, ...
. The 'usual suspects' in the film's title refer to the animals that recur frequently in Meyers', including pigs, rabbits, rats, fish, cats, etc.


Work

Meyers is known for his functional pottery, including plates, cups, bowls, vases, teapots, and other usable forms. His primary work is wheel-thrown, though he also has a body of sculptural work including candlesticks and masks, as well as drawings. His earlier works were primarily in
stoneware Stoneware is a broad class of pottery fired at a relatively high temperature, to be impervious to water. A modern definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire ...
before switching to low-fire
earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed Vitrification#Ceramics, nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids ...
in the late 1970s-1980s. In the mid-1990s, Meyers expanded his work to include low-fired, salt-glazed pieces, about which he said, "I needed a vehicle to reduce the color and instill a pure sense of form." He is noted for the "spontaneous and gestural" but "casual and relaxing manner" of his work and the colored slip paintings they incorporated. The slip paintings on his vessels can be seen as "funny, pointed, provocative and/or confrontational." Notably, the vast majority of his work is unsigned. His main studio is outside his home in Athens, Georgia, and includes an
anagama kiln The ''anagama'' kiln (Japanese Kanji: 穴窯/ Hiragana: あながま) is an ancient type of pottery kiln brought to Japan from China via Korea in the 5th century. It is a version of the climbing dragon kiln of south China, whose further deve ...
. He built his summer studio behind his family cottage in Irving, NY.


Influences

Meyers' cited influences begin with his childhood interest in cartoons, and his later interest in Japanese
Shino ware is Japanese pottery, usually stoneware, originally from Mino Province, in present-day Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It emerged in the 16th century, but the use of shino glaze is now widespread, both in Japan and abroad. It is identified by thick whi ...
and English
slipware Slipware is pottery identified by its primary decorating process where slip is placed onto the leather-hard (semi-hardened) clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, whi ...
of the 16th through 18th centuries. He noted a memorable encounter with a 16th century Japanese Shino water ewer at the Royal Ontario Museum of Arts, saying "it had a crooked spout, finger marks, a drippy, grazing glaze, a handle slightly askew...It seemed to revel in its blemishes and technical faults. It was the spirit or approach...that I was after." Likewise, he noted that English slipware had a "playfulness and sense of humor...these pieces had a naive quality, lack of pretense, no-guilt approach...it was this attitude...that I wished to adopt." Others have noted influences including
Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
,
Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...
,
Bernard Leach Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979) was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery". Biography Early years (Japan) Leach was born in Hong Kong. His mother Eleanor (n ...
, and
Shoji Hamada A is a door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame. Where light transmission is not needed, the similar but opaque '' fusuma'' is used (/close ...
.


Relationships

Meyers studied under Frans Wildenhain at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He later said, "What I was to really learn from Frans was the type of commitment and passion that it took to be an artist. Frans' whole life revolved around his work, and it was inspiring to see how his work and environment reflected his awareness and concern for nature and life itself." Meyers noted that Wildenhain expressed "subtle disapproval" for his choice to base a thesis on ceramic hibachis and serving dishes, noting "To say that Frans was delighted by my choice would definitely be a gross exaggeration." Meyers is also a long-time friend of noted potter Chuck Hindes, and the two have presented numerous workshops and been featured in gallery shows together.


Collections

Meyers' work is found in numerous museums and notable collections, including: * Georgia Museum of Art * John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University * Rosenfield Collection * Smithsonian American Art Museum


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyers, Ron 1934 births Living people 20th-century American ceramists 21st-century American ceramists Artists from Buffalo, New York Ceramists from New York (state) Artists from Georgia (U.S. state)