Bennett Bean
1941Born Cincinnati, Ohio
EDUCATION
1963BA University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
1966MFA Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California
PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE
1966-1979Professor, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York
APPRENTICESHIPS AND RESIDENCIES
—Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, Colorado
—Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
—Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina
Bennett Bean is best known for his thrown and altered white earthenware vessels, particularly non-functional bowls and teapots. Initially he used little surface decoration other than the spontaneous markings resulting from his use of the pit-firing technique. Gradually his forms and surface decoration evolved in complexity. In 1982 Bean began using acrylic paints to execute extensive abstract surface designs on the fired vessels, and in 1983 he began to apply at first 24K gold leaf and, later, a silver metallic to the interiors. By the mid-1990s Bean had begun to deconstruct his pieces into the two, three or four interrelated abstract vessel forms. He often painted across these groupings unifying them into one design. Firing patterns are incorporated into the surface treatment. These are arranged on a shallow, grey, wooden plinth.
After graduating from the University of Iowa, Bean accepted a position teaching ceramics at Wagner College where he remained until 1979 when he left to become an independent studio artist.
His work has been influenced by Japanese, Native American pottery, English pottery in the tradition of Bernard Leach, and American studio potters, particularly the work of George Ohr.
An interview with Bennett Bean conducted June 16 and 17, 2001 by Mija Reidel, for the Archives of American Art’s Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America is available at:
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-bennett-bean-15953.
Public Collections
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
Arkansas Art Center, Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, Arkansas
Brunnier Museum, University Mueums, Iowa State University, Ames. Iowa
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee
JB Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Longhouse Foundation Collection, East Hampton, New York
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York
Museum of Arts & Sciences, Macon, Georgia
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey
Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, New Jersey
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada
St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis, Missouri
The Studio Potter, 10th Anniversary Collection, New Hampshire
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.
The Toledo Museum of Art, George and Dorothy Saxe Collection, Toledo, Ohio
University of Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York
University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa
White House Collection of American Crafts, Clinton Presidential Library, Little Rock, Arkansas
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
