Ron Nagle (b. 1939)

Ron Nagle is one of the most important sculptors in the United States. He work is highly collected and included in museum collections such as Shigaraki Museum, Japan; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Musée de Plastique, Paris; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Stedelijk Museum in the Netherlands. He was born in San Francisco and began working with ceramics during the 1950s as a high school student. In 1961 he apprenticed to Peter Voulkos at the University of California, Berkeley, and later exhibited his work alongside Voulkos, Ken Price, and other innovative West Coast artists working in clay. His work is inspired by such artists as Giorgio Morandi, Phillip Guston, and George Herriman, and by such varied forms as Japanese Momoyama ceramics and Hawaiian funerary monuments.
As an artist, professor and musician – Nagle’s long and varied career has received recognition on several levels. He has made the cup, in all its forms and embellishments, as the focus of his work, and continues to push the edge of this humble piece.
“Although my work is a part of a ceramic tradition, it is not only the materials or processes that interest me but also the potential for intimacy inherent in the small object and the capability of color to convey emotion. For nearly forty years, I have been investigating the cultural, formal, ceremonial and – sometimes – functional aspects of the cup. Beyond this, it is my hope that the interpretation of my work be as open-ended as possible.”- Ron Nagle