Ceramic Artist Molly Hatch has been commissioned to produce a monumental three-part installation in the niches in the Engelhard Court. Hatch is known for her murals made up of underglaze-painted porcelain plates, including two major installations at the High Museum in Atlanta. Repertoire will be her largest commission to date, honoring the Newark Museum’s 107-year-tradition of collecting contemporary ceramic art, and commemorating the retirement of Curator of Decorative Arts Ulysses Dietz after 37 years.
The three parts of the installation were inspired by global textiles in the Museum’s collection. The western panel, “Dyula Woven,” is based on a rare early-twentieth-century Dyula textile from Cote d’Ivoire, collected by the Museum’s founder, John Cotton Dana, in 1928. The central panel, “Qianlong Silk,” is based on a velvet throne carpet made in eighteenth-century China. The eastern niche will be filled with “Bergen Jacquard,” designed after a jacquard-woven blue and white coverlet made in Bergen County, New Jersey in the 1840s. Repertoire combines the iconography of the two great global art-forms of human creativity: clay and cloth.
See video of installation here.
Made possible in part by:
Barbara and William Weldon
Raymond and Mary Courtien
Newark Museum Volunteer Organization
Raymond and Mary Courtien
Newark Museum Volunteer Organization
