George Washington Carver Vessel

Object NameVessel

Artist / Maker Roberto Lugo ((American, b. 1981))

Date2020

MediumPorcelain, china paint, and luster.

ClassificationsDecorative Arts, Ceramics

Credit LineCommissioned by University Museums with funds from the Joyce Tomlinson Brewer Fund for Art Acquisition. In the permanent collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM2020.19ab

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label Text125 years ago, in 1896, George Washington Carver completed his Master’s Degree at Iowa State University. Born into slavery in Missouri, Carver made his way to Iowa as a young man, studying art and music at Simpson College. His lifelong interest in plants was noted by instructors and led to his enrollment at Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University), where he became the first African American student on campus, studying botany. By many accounts, he was exceptionally successful while attending Iowa State and was persuaded by professors to remain on campus for his master’s degree. Carver moved on to a distinguished career at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and was one of the most renowned agricultural scientists of his time. Throughout his career he developed tools and techniques that would significantly add to agricultural knowledge, while also helping Black farmers in the rural south to achieve prosperity and independence from a system that continually held them down. To honor George Washington Carver, University Museums commissioned the ceramic artist Roberto Lugo to create an example of his iconic porcelain vessels depicting the scientist and Iowa State alumnus. Lugo is an internationally recognized ceramicist whose sculptures employ porcelain, a material that is historically associated with wealthy white patrons who had the privilege to own such fine wares. Lugo first experimented with art through graffiti as a young man growing up in Philadelphia. As he came into pottery, an unknown artform to him as he grew up, he relied on what he knew, including graffiti, to develop an exceptionally unique style. Lugo uses historic shapes and forms from the great European porcelain manufactories, wares that represent the elitist nature of the material. But he has revolutionized and revitalized those forms with colorful patterning and portraits of black and brown people. He includes a range of both historical and present-day figures – including Tupac Shakur, Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, Michael Jordan, and at times himself. Lugo depicts individuals who, because of the color of their skin, have not been included in artistic portraiture throughout history. He is using ceramics as his medium to honor the black leaders, hero’s, and figures that are continually underrepresented in art, even today. For University Museums it is important to add different and new voices into the contemporary decorative arts collection, ones not represented in the historical collection. Roberto Lugo was the ideal artist to honor George Washington Carver, as both are considered leaders in their fields, working to gain better representation for people of color in this country.

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