Object Details
- Artist
- Peter Shire, born Los Angeles, CA 1947
- Luce Center Label
- Peter Shire's teapots are constructions of color and shapes built out of slabs of clay. Weathervane Teapot is a balancing act of three-dimensional squares and balls, with squiggly rods and hollow tubes. He hoped that his whimsical pots would break down traditional, class-conscious ideas about "tea-time," making it a practice accessible to all. This teapot asks to be picked up, but leaves us wondering where we should hold it to pour the tea, or if it is capable of pouring at all. Shire stopped making clay teapots in 1985, devoting his time thereafter to building furniture.
- Luce Object Quote
- "However crazy and fanciful my work appears, I'm still held by function. The teapots I make are borderline, however. They're more involved with a group of shapes and a material." Artist quoted in Artists Design Furniture, 1984
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Donna and John Donaldson in memory of Jean and John Michael on the occasion of the Fifteenth Anniversary of the James Renwick Alliance and the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Renwick Gallery
- 1981
- Object number
- 1997.109.24A-B
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Decorative Arts-Ceramic
- Crafts
- Medium
- glazed ceramic and wood
- Dimensions
- overall: 12 1/2 x 15 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. (31.8 x 40.0 x 14.0 cm)
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Renwick Gallery
- On View
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor, 53B
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Topic
- Abstract
- Record ID
- saam_1997.109.24A-B
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7e065d737-b5a1-4e2a-8d5a-45809fa25433
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