Karen Karnes

American ceramist (1925–2016)

Karen Karnes

Born| (1925-11-17)November 17, 1925

New York, New York

Died| July 12, 2016(2016-07-12) (aged 90)

Morgan, Vermont

Alma mater| Brooklyn College
Known for| Ceramics

Karen Karnes (November 17, 1925 – July 12, 2016) was an American ceramist, best known for her salt glazed, earth-toned stoneware ceramics.[1]

## Early life[edit]

Karnes was born on November 17, 1925 in New York City,[2] where she attended art schools for children. Her garment worker parents were Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants, and the family lived in the Bronx Coops.[3]

Karnes applied for and was accepted to the High School of Music & Art. As a child she was surrounded by urban realities and visual influences, but she claims that her parents' old-world ideals kept her grounded. At Brooklyn College she majored in design and graduated in 1946. After graduating, she studied abroad in Italy, where she continued to study ceramics.[4]

After returning from Italy, Karnes began a graduate program at Alfred University, but left before completing her degree to work at Black Mountain College.[5]

## Black Mountain College[edit]

Karnes first encountered Black Mountain Collegein 1947, where she took a summer design class with Josef Albers.[6]

In 1952, she and her husband David Weinrib (whom she later divorced)[2] moved down to North Carolina to become potters-in-residence at the Black Mountain College.[5][4] While at Black Mountain College, Karnes and Weinrib became acquainted with Merce Cunningham and John Cage, and later lived with them at the Gate Hill Community.[5]

During the Pottery Seminar held at the college in 1952, Karnes met international potters Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada, and Marguerite Wildenhain, as well as local potters Malcom Davis and Mark Shapiro. She was involved with the Southern Highland Craft Guild (then known as the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild) during her stay in North Carolina, selling her work in downtown Asheville.[7]

## Gate Hill Community[edit]

Karnes lived at Gate Hill Cooperative in Stony Point, New York, for twenty-five years. She moved to the community in 1954, leaving Black Mountain College before its closing. At Gate Hill, she built her own studio and kilns, and worked with M.C. Richards and a local ceramics engineer to develop and popularize a flameproof clay body. With this clay, Karnes began making oven-top casserole dishes, a design she produced for over fifty years.[5]

## Later life[edit]

In 1967, Karnes first experimented with salt-firing at a workshop at the Penland School of Crafts.[5]

Karnes' later work dealt with contemporary vessels, which were given different attention to design than her original pottery.[2] She made many traditionally functional forms and contemporary forms, but she also continued to produce casseroles, teapots, cups and bowls.

Another of her most well-known forms was the cut-lid jar, a form she first made at a workshop with Paulus Berensohn. Karnes continued to experiment with this form from the late 1960s until she stopped throwing.[8]

In the late 1970s Karnes moved to Vermont with her partner Ann Stannard.[9] She decided to live the rest of her life on a farm, working with clay and using old firing practices such as wood and salt firing.[4] In 1998, her house and studio burned to the ground because of a kiln fire.[3] With the help of donations from a large pottery sale, Karen rebuilt her country house and studio. She received a graduate fellowship from Alfred University, and won a gold medal for the consummate craftsmanship from The American Craft Council.[7] In 1976 she was named a Fellow of the American Craft Council.[10]

Karnes died on July 12, 2016, in Morgan, Vermont.[11][10]

Her work is in the Asheville Art Museum,[12] the Brooklyn Museum,[13] the Detroit Institute of Art,[14] the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[15] the Museum of Arts and Design,[16] the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[17] the Philadelphia Museum of Art,[18] the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[19] and the Victoria and Albert Museum.[20]

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Karen Karnes". Studio Potter. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
2. ^ a b Falino, Jeannine (2011). Crafting modernism: midcentury American art and design: [exhibition Crafting modernism. Midcentury American art and design, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, October 11, 2011 - January 15, 2012; Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, February 27 - May 21, 2012]. New York: Abrams. p. 288\. ISBN 978-0810984806.
3. ^ a b Ed. Shapiro, Mark (2010). A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes. The University of North Carolina Press. p. 13\. ISBN 978-0-8078-3427-5.
4. ^ a b c "Remembering: Karen Karnes | American Craft Council". American Craft Council. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
5. ^ a b c d e Ed. Shapiro, Mark (2010). A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes. The University of North Carolina Press. pp. ix. ISBN 978-0-8078-3427-5.
6. ^ Ed. Shapiro, Mark (2010). A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes. The University of North Carolina Press. p. 14\. ISBN 978-0-8078-3427-5.
7. ^ a b Shapiro, Mark (2016-07-19). "Karen Karnes, Remembered". NCECA Blog. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
8. ^ Ed. Shapiro, Mark (2010). A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes. The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-0-8078-3427-5.
9. ^ "Karen Karnes - Obituary". Caledonian Record. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
10. ^ a b "College of Fellows". American Craft Council. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
11. ^ "Karen Karnes". Craft in America. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
12. ^ "Karen Karnes". Asheville Art Museum. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
13. ^ "Covered Vessel". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
14. ^ "Bowl". Detroit Institute of Arts Museum. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
15. ^ "Karen Karnes | Salt-glaze Vessel". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
16. ^ "Coffee Set". Museum of Arts and Design. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
17. ^ "Artist/Maker: Karen Karnes". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
18. ^ "Karen Karnes". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
19. ^ "Karen Karnes". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
20. ^ Karnes, Karen (1979). "Jar and cover". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 13 December 2023.

## Bibliography[edit]

* "Interview with Karen Karnes." Smithsonian Archives of American Art, August 9–10, 2005
* "Ceramics, Sculpture and Contemporary Art." Ferrin Gallery, 2006
* Don't Know We'll See: The Work of Karen Karnes – Website for a film about Karen Karnes

## External links[edit]

* An interview with Karen Karnes, conducted in 2005 by Mark Shapiro, for the Archives of American Art
* Karen Karnes on the Marks Project

* v
* t
* e

American Craft Council College of Fellows

Honorary Fellows are listed in italics.

1975|

* Adda Husted Andersen
* Dorothy Meredith
* Ed Rossbach
* Frans Wildenhain
* Harvey Littleton
* Lenore Tawney
* Lili Blumenau
* Peter Voulkos
* Sam Maloof
* Toshiko Takaezu
* Trude Guermonprez
* Florence Eastmead
* Francis Sumner Merritt
* Margaret Patch
* Mary Lyon
* Maurine Roberts
* Rudolph Schaeffer

1976|

* Charles Loloma
* Else Regensteiner
* John Paul Miller
* Karen Karnes
* Laura Anderson
* Ronald Hayes Pearson
* Ruth Penington
* Anna Wetherill Olmsted
* Lloyd Kiva New

1977|

* Alice Kagawa Parrott
* Daniel Rhodes
* Don Reitz
* John Prip
* Mary Caroline Richards
* Ramona Solberg
* Robert C. Turner
* Aileen Osborn Webb

1978|

* Alma Eikerman
* Bob Stocksdale
* Dominick Labino
* Frederick Miller
* Jack Lenor Larsen
* L. Brent Kington
* Mary Walker Phillips
* Rudolf Staffel
* Rudy Autio
* Eugenia Campbell Nowlin

1979|

* Arline Fisch
* George Nakashima
* Gerry Williams
* Hans Christensen
* Katherine Westphal
* Joan Mondale
* Margery Anneberg
* Rose Slivka
* William Brown

1980|

* Bernard Kester
* Joel Myers
* Margret Craver
* Mary Nyburg
* Tage Frid
* Warren MacKenzie
* Eudorah Moore
* Robert W. Gray

1983|

* Douglass Morse Howell
* F. Carlton Ball
* Mary Ann Scherr
* Ruth Duckworth
* Sheila Hicks
* Marian Heard
* Susan Peterson

1985|

* John Mason
* Kay Sekimachi
* Marianne Strengell
* Maurice Heaton
* Richard Thomas
* Ted Randall
* Harold Brennan
* Sydney Butchkes

1986|

* Dale Chihuly
* Kenneth Ferguson
* Wendell Castle

1987|

* Beatrice Wood
* Claire Zeisler
* Dominic Di Mare
* Edward Moulthrop
* Heikki Seppä
* June Schwarcz
* Richard DeVore
* Robert Sperry
* Val Cushing
* Carlyle Smith
* James Wallace
* Jonathan Fairbanks
* LaMar Harrington

1988|

* Albert Green
* Arthur Carpenter
* C. Carl Jennings
* Frances Senska
* Fritz Dreisbach
* Glen Kaufman
* Harrison McIntosh
* Mark Peiser
* Mary Scheier
* James McKinnell
* Nan Bangs McKinnell
* Paul Soldner
* Phillip Fike
* Polly Lada-Mocarski
* Ted Hallman
* Walter G. Nottingham
* William Daley
* C. Malcolm Watkins
* James Melchert
* Lloyd Herman
* Marion Stroud Swingle
* Paul J. Smith
* Rudy Turk

1990|

* Edris Eckhardt
* Frances Higgins
* Francis Whitaker
* Gertrud Natzler
* Lillian Elliott
* Margaret Tafoya
* Michael Higgins
* Otto Heino
* Otto Natzler
* Viktor Schreckengost
* Vivika Heino
* Blanche Reeves
* R. Leigh Glover

1992|

* Cynthia Schira
* David Shaner
* Edgar Anderson
* Joyce Anderson
* James 'Mel' Someroski
* Karl Martz
* Kurt Matzdorf
* Marvin Lipofsky
* Robert Arneson
* Stanley Lechtzin
* Walker Weed
* Helen Drutt English
* Mildred Constantine
* Ruth DeYoung Kohler

1993|

* Betty Woodman
* Gerhardt Knodel
* Jere Osgood
* John Marshall
* Kenneth Price
* Margarete Seeler
* Oppi Untracht
* Robert G. Hart

1994|

* Albert Paley
* Henry Halem
* John McQueen
* Merry Renk
* Patti Warashina
* Robert Ebendorf
* Rude Osolnik
* Stephen De Staebler
* Viola Frey
* Lee Nordness

1995|

* Charles Counts
* Ferne Jacobs
* Fred Fenster
* J. Fred Woell
* Karl Drerup
* Richard Marquis
* Wayne Higby
* Michael Monroe

1996|

* Betty Cooke
* Claude Horan
* Garry Knox Bennett
* Helena Hernmarck
* Jun Kaneko
* Kenneth Bates
* Mark Levine
* Mary Lee Hu
* Jean Griffith
* Virginia Harvey

1997|

* Chunghi Choo
* Jack Earl
* Ka Kwong Hui
* Lia Cook
* Bob Winston
* Ron Nagle
* Tommy Simpson
* William Keyser
* Sandra Blain

1998|

* Dan Dailey
* Edwin Scheier
* Eleanor Moty
* James Bassler
* Judy McKie
* Richard Mawdsley
* Richard Shaw
* William Harper
* Paulus Berensohn

1999|

* Dorothy Barnes
* Helen Shirk
* Irena Brynner
* Nancy Crow
* Paul Marioni
* Ralph Baccera
* Therman Statom
* Fred Marer

2000|

* Adrian Saxe
* Anne Wilson
* Cynthia Bringle
* Eugene Pijanowski
* Hiroko Sato-Pijanowski
* James Krenov
* Joyce Scott
* Marjorie Schick
* Paul Stankard
* Christa C. Mayer Thurman
* Theodore Cohen

2001|

* David Ellsworth
* Gary Noffke
* Joan Livingstone
* John Glick
* Michael James
* Norman Schulman
* Thomas Patti
* Warren Seelig
* Alice Rooney

2002|

* Harlan Butt
* Jane Sauer
* John Cederquist
* Paula Winokur
* Robert Winokur
* Garth Clark

2003|

* Ana Lisa Hedstrom
* James Tanner
* Kurt Weiser
* Norma Minkowitz
* Tom Joyce
* Albert LeCoff

2005|

* Alphonse Mattia
* Flora Mace
* Gary Griffin
* Joey Kirkpatrick
* Linda Threadgill
* Patricia Hickman
* Martha Longenecker

2006|

* Akio Takamori
* Howard Ben Tré
* Jason Pollen
* Kiff Slemmons
* Walter Hamady
* Stuart Kestenbaum

2007|

* Arturo Sandoval
* Marilyn da Silva
* Mark Lindquist
* Richard Notkin
* Robert Brady
* William Morris
* Nanette Laitman

2008|

* Adela Akers
* Glenda Arentzen
* Gyöngy Laky
* John Horn
* Robyn Horn
* Tony Hepburn
* Toots Zynsky
* Wendy Maruyama
* Lois Moran

2009|

* Benjamin Moore
* Bernard Bernstein
* Carol Shaw-Sutton
* Jamie Bennett
* Louis Marak
* Rosanne Somerson
* Robert Pfannebecker

2010|

* Ginny Ruffner
* John Garrett
* John Stephenson
* Rebecca Medel
* Ron Ho
* Susanne Stephenson
* William Hunter
* Janet Koplos

2012|

* Andrea Gill
* Anne Currier
* Dante Marioni
* Lewis Knauss
* Sharon Church
* Sherri Smith
* Thomas Loeser
* Bruce Pepich

2014|

* John Gill
* Jane Lackey
* Michael Hurwitz
* Judith Schaechter
* Bruce Metcalf
* William Carlson
* Tina Oldknow

2016|

* Nick Cave
* Michael Cooper
* Françoise Grossen
* Chris Gustin
* Myra Mimlitsch-Gray
* Hank Murta Adams
* Edward S. Cooke Jr.

2018|

* Mark Burns
* Thomas Gentille
* Thomas Hucker
* Mary Jackson
* Beth Lipman
* Consuelo Jimenez Underwood
* Susan Cummins
* Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

2020|

* Sonya Clark
* Lisa Gralnick
* Katherine Gray
* Annabeth Rosen
* Bob Trotman
* Patricia Malarcher

2022|

* Teri Greeves
* Karen Hampton
* Nancy Koenigsberg
* Keith Lewis
* Kristina Madsen
* Mark Pharis
* Preston Singletary
* Tip Toland
* Carolyn Mazloomi
* Howard Risatti
* Lowery Stokes Sims

2024|

* Syd Carpenter
* Michael A. Cummings
* Einar and Jamex de la Torre
* Yuri Kobayashi
* Mark Newport
* Michael Puryear
* Diego Romero
* Lynda Watson
* Diana Baird N'Diaye
* Cindi Strauss

Recipients of the Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship
Dorothy Liebes (1970)
Anni Albers (1981)
Harvey Littleton (1983)
Lucy M. Lewis (1985)
Margret Craver (1986)
Peter Voulkos (1986)
Gerry Williams (1986)
Lenore Tawney (1987)
Sam Maloof (1988)
Ed Rossbach (1990)
John Prip (1992)
Beatrice Wood (1992)
Alma Eikerman (1993)
Douglass Morse Howell (1993)
Marianne Strengell (1993)
Robert C. Turner (1993)
John Paul Miller (1994)
Toshiko Takaezu (1994)
Rudolf Staffel (1995)
Bob Stocksdale (1995)
Jack Lenor Larsen (1996)
Ronald Hayes Pearson (1996)
June Schwarcz (1996)
Wendell Castle (1997)
Ruth Duckworth (1997)
Sheila Hicks (1997)
Kenneth Ferguson (1998)
Karen Karnes (1998)
Warren MacKenzie (1998)
Rudy Autio (1999)
Dominic Di Mare (1999)
L. Brent Kington (2000)
Cynthia Schira (2000)
Arline Fisch (2001)
Gertrud Natzler (2001)
Otto Natzler (2001)
Don Reitz (2002)
Kay Sekimachi (2002)
William Daley (2003)
Fred Fenster (2005)
Dale Chihuly (2006)
Paul Soldner (2008)
Katherine Westphal (2009)
Albert Paley (2010)
Stephen De Staebler (2012)
Betty Woodman (2014)
Gerhardt Knodel (2016)
Jun Kaneko (2018)
Joyce J. Scott (2020)
Jim Bassler (2022)
Lia Cook (2022)
Richard Marquis (2022)
Judy Kensley McKie (2022)
John McQueen (2022)
Patti Warashina (2022)
Nick Cave (2024)
Wendy Maruyama (2024)
Anne Wilson (2024)

Authority control databases

International|

* FAST
* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* Israel
* United States

Other|

* SNAC
* IdRef

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template