"Mapa" Ceramic Vase by Gabriela Valenzuela-Hirsch

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Glass Pestle #27 is raku-fired, hand built and hand sculptured. This piece is made of three separate pieces of green rust patinaed wood fired stoneware. "In his process, Hirsch is a reducer, endlessly honing and refining his forms to their simplest and most powerful presence. It is the same “less is more” aesthetic evidenced by the work of Noguchi, Brancusi, and Giacometti, artists he holds in greatest esteem. His content is principally the vocabulary of form, color, and surface, subtly referencing utility while defying overt narration and cultural specificity. A mortar and pestle like this one, for example, might be discernible in a piece, but presented with such economy that it becomes only important as a stand-in for larger issues; their anima/animus relationship or as a record of human use and wear over considerable time. For Hirsch, the particular only exists for the purpose of making the universal palpable. His is a point of view similar...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Altar bowl with Ladle #3 was made in 2007. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay with low fire white glaze and raku patinas. In the book "With Fire: Richard Hirsch, A Life Between Chance and Design" Scott Meyer said; "As Hirsch's work progressed over the years, it would be a mistake to portray these advances as chronological. In fact, items found provocative would be added to the roster of possibility. The vessel might change in character with the deep interior space of a mortar becoming the shallow concavity of a Japanese, stone Tsubi basin or natural geode form. The corresponding implement might change from bulbous pestle to delicate ladle, alluding to the ceremonial cleansing for participants in the Tea Ceremony. In this sense, the proximity of these objects to their implied ceremonial use was similar to that which traditional Raku bowls...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Mortar and Pestle Sculpture was assembled in 2010. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay, lowfired slips, black glaze, raku pati...

Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Scholar Rock Cup Sculpture was assembled in 2018. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay with red and black glaze, raku rust patinas and polychrome enamel paint. Hirsch creates ceramic sculptures that explore the spirituality and ritual embedded in familiar vessel forms. He imbues his work with the look of age and antiquity by applying certain ceramic surfaces and incorporating other materials such as iron, glass, bronze, and wood. As Hirsch states in his artist statement, "Ultimately, this work is an attempt to metamorphosize the seemingly mundane vessel-object into a sacred entity." This three piece sculpture...