THE ART OF VIVIKA AND OTTO HEINO
Forest L. Merrill [Collector's Foreword]
Forest L. Merrill [Collector's Foreword]: THE ART OF VIVIKA AND OTTO HEINO [FEATURING WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF FORREST L. MERRILL]. Ventura, CA and Los Angeles: Ventura County Museum of History and Art and Craft and Folk Art Museum, 2005. First edition. A near-fine soft cover book with French-folded thick printed wrappers and minor shelf wear including a slightly thumbed corner. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. 9 x 8.75 soft cover book with 88 pages and approx. 70 illustrations, most in color. Published in conjunction with two exhibitions -- Otto Heino: Celebrating 90 Years [Ventura County Museum of History and Art, Ventura, March 4-May 22, 1995]; Ceramic Masters: The Art of Vivika and Otto Heino and Their Contemporaries [Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, March 10-July 3, 2005]. The exhibition also traveled to Oakland Museum of California [July 2005] and Mingei International Museum, San Diego [October 2005].
Contents
- Collector's Foreword by Forrest L. Merrill
- The Art of Vivika & Otto Heino by Kevin V. Wallace
- Otto Heino An Appreciation by Tim Schiffer
- Selected Exhibitions and Collections
From David A. Keep's "LA Times" obituary for Otto Heino, July 21, 2009: The Finnish American Heino, who worked in collaboration with his wife until her death in 1995, earned an international reputation for robust yet beautiful wheel-thrown stoneware with artistically applied glazes that included glossy cobalt blues, silky reds and raspy earth tones.
In the mid-1990s, he became celebrated in Asia for a buttery yellow glaze that he and his wife had labored on for more than a decade. He claimed to have been offered millions for the formula but never sold it.
"Otto's work is a wonderful blending of Scandinavian modernism and Japanese folk pottery," said Jo Lauria, a coauthor of the ceramics book "Color and Fire" (2000). "He had a macho relationship with clay, and it was a badge of honor to be able to throw huge pieces, but they were always functional, emphasizing the sensuality of the glaze, the way in which it catches the light and invites you to touch it."
Heino's handmade vessels, which retain the ridges his fingers formed when shaping the clay, exhibit a style that was wholly his own.
Unmarked but from the library of A. Quincy Jones and Elaine K. Sewell Jones. Mrs. Jones worked as a publicist for Herman Miller and handled public relations for T&O, the short-lived Textiles & Objects Shop in New York City. The Shop was a Herman Miller store that showcased Alexander Girard fabrics, as well as objects Girard found on his international travels. Mr. Jones was an architect renowned for his work in the Case Study program, as well as his lengthy association with Joseph Eichler.
Spreads from this volume can be viewed here.
out of stock