Collection Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Earl, Jack (American, 1934-2023) |
Title |
There is a Stone Story from Myth to Truth that Lives in the Soul of Man. It was Spoken Again by the King of Salem as He Laid His Hand on Abraham. |
Date |
1987 |
Medium |
Earthenware/Oil Paint |
Material |
Ceramic |
Technique |
Hand-built earthenware and oil paint |
Height (in) |
36.000 |
Width (in) |
16.000 |
Depth (in) |
14.000 |
Circumference (in) |
47.000 |
Credit line |
Gift of Margaret Pennington |
Notes |
Jack Earl hand-builds figural ceramic sculpture that depict things, scenes, and people from the world around him in small-town Ohio. Earl was initially inspired by the European figural ceramics tradition exemplified by Meissen. Rather than turning to the classical repertoire of Rococo figurines, Earl creates his own cast of personalities, often engaged in the humdrum activities of rural America. "Stone Story" relates to Earl's parallel interest in religion. Its full title is inscribed on the reverse of the form: "There is a Stone Story from Myth to Truth / that Lives in the soul of man. / It was spoken again by the King of Salem / as He Laid His hand on Abraham." The title refers to the King of Salem, who is the biblical priest Melchizedek, and to the blessing he bestows on Abraham after the Battle of Siddim. "Stone Story" is a two-part construction. The bottom two-thirds comprise a fool-the-eye rendering of the type of weathered stone carving that lines the portals of Gothic cathedrals. The figure cuts off just before the shoulders, forming a flat surface on which sits a slightly smaller portrait bust of an unknown man wearing a white button-down shirt, tie, and jacket. He is an open-faced individual, who stares out as if caught in contemplation. Although much is made of Earl as a recorder of the human condition, it has also been noted that his use of curiously unrelated imagery can create surreal, metaphoric, or symbolic narratives. Such is the case with "Stone Story." Is this composite figure a modern-day Melchizedek, a priest of the "most high God"? A small-town minister whose faith is rooted in scripture? Or a character like Hazel Motes, from Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood," whose attempt to reconcile the secular and the spiritual comes to a bad end? Jack Earl has lived and worked for most of his life in northwestern Ohio, where he was born in 1934. He attended Bluffton College and received an MA from Ohio State University in 1964. Earl has exhibited his work throughout the US and abroad, including American Craft Museum, Kansas City Art Institute, and Everson Museum of Art. His sculpture can be found in the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He is a fellow of the American Craft Council. |
Object ID |
2016.01 a-b |
Object Type |
Ceramic |