Despite this early success, by 1970 Bean decided to return to ceramics as his primary medium. He moved to rural New Jersey, where he still resides, and set up his studio and kiln. His current body of work dates to the latter years of the 1970s, when he began to augment fired-on glazes with painted decoration applied after firing to the clay surface. His signature use of gold leaf inside his vessel-sculptures began in 1983.
Exhibition:
His work is represented in the permanent collections of museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Massachusetts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Honors:
Wagner College Research grants (1968, 1970, 1977, 1978)
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1980)
New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship (1988, 1978)
Editorial Award, “Design 100”, Metropolitan Home(1990)
Purchase Award Winner, Hammonds National (1996)
Editorial Award, “Design 100”, Metropolitan Home (2003)
Style:
Presentation- From the mid 1990s, he began arranging his bowls in pairs or trios, and often painted them to create the appearance of continuity among separate, independent objects. “There are things I think about, how to put an object into the world yet separate from the world.” That is the purpose of the black slab that is used under each piece of his pair or trio bowls.
Idea of control- ‘refusing to let the fire have the last work’ Benette Bean’s surface decorations take part after firing, such as applying 24 carat gold leaf to bowls’ interiors and using acrylic paint as well as various glazes to apply extensive abstract designs to their exteriors.
Sources:
His works are known to be eye engaging. His sensuous, thrown white earthenware forms are embellished with gold and transparent glazes, richly colored acrylic paint, and touched by the organic effects of pit firing. He often slices open his pots, as he unpretentiously calls his work, and combines them in choreographed dance of formal elements. His works are a visual representation of Bean’s intellectual concerns which nearly always involve dualities: space inside and surface outside; traditional ceramic decorating techniques and non-ceramic methods; form in dialogue with form; and controlling the viewer’s experience of a dimensional object. Some of these issues could be explored in other media but some are specific to ceramics.
Images:
1) Master #1118, Paired Teapot from “The Marriage Series”
”Shotgun Wedding”
Pit-fired, painted, and gilded earthenware with MDF spout.
8.5”h x 25”w x 4”d
2) Master #1245, New Wing
”Memory”
Pit-fired, painted, and gilded earthenware on aluminum base.
11”h x 18”w x 2.5”d
I feel that this work of art is very interesting. Although it is being titled “memory” it is shaped in the form of a heart, which then brings the viewer to question whether this memory that it has took after was related to love. Looking at the sculpture, the heart is painted with various colors including silver, white, pink, black, orange and red. The artist had made use of these colors and decorated the two sides of the heart, and in some way resembles cells that we can find in our human body. I feel that this makes it really unique and differs greatly from others. Although earthenware clay is being used, the artist manages to change the traditional perceptions of clay sculptures into something very contemporary, designing it with scientific elements that can be related to any human being in life. The lines used in this sculpture is mostly outlined in black, creating a darker and more eye-catching shape, which draws the viewer’s attention. Looking carefully at the heart shaped sculpture, it is noticed that the shape seems to be broken into 7 different parts, which then draws me to wonder whether it was a sad memory that the artist had experienced that influenced him to create this wonderful piece of art.
3) Master #194, Dolmen
Pit-fired, painted, and gilded earthenware on pink granite base.
42.25”h x 16”w xx12”d
Master #1466, Triple on Base
(three part vessels)
Pit-fired, painted, and gilded earthenware on aluminum base.
16.75”h x 29”w x 15”d
I feel that this art piece is very interesting. Referring back to what the artist had mentioned about his three part vessels, he wanted to create a sense of continuity in three distinct and separate objects to emphasize that. I think that he successfully portrays this feeling. When one looks at the sculpture, it is quite hard to tell whether the three objects are indeed separate or are a whole, since he creates space in between to make it seem like they are separated in a way. I feel that the choice of colors and designs are really interesting, and seems to be abstract art. Another thing that I find interesting is how the artist uses gold to cover the interior of his work, which allows it to reflect light and make the colors look a bit more varied.
