RECENT ACQUISITIONS

 

Over the past few months the museum has benefited greatly from the generosity of donors, and a number of wonderful new works have been added to the museum’s holdings. Paul K. Kania, a long-time museum supporter from Philadelphia, has substantially added to the museum’s holdings of early 20th-century works on paper with his generous gift of 12 wood engravings by the artist Clare Leighton (1898–1989), one of the leading wood engravers of her time. Kania’s generous donation also included “The Noon Recess,” a print by American landscape painter and printmaker Winslow Homer (1836–1910), an untitled etching by English landscapist and marine painter Joseph Gray (1890–1962), and an aquatint and a drypoint by British printmaker Frank Short (1857–1945).

Leighton, who was born in England and received her early artistic training there, emigrated to the United States in 1939, eventually settling in Woodbury, Conn. Leighton’s compositions, which combine strong contrasts of light and dark with intricate detailing, mostly portray life and work on farms and logging camps, reflecting her love for the land and respect for the people working it. Although best known for her prints, she also had a long and prolific career as a book illustrator, and, in the latter part of her career, as a designer for Steuben Glass and Wedgwood. Her work is found in the collections of the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in N.Y., the Art Institute of Chicago, and many other public and private collections in the U.S. and Europe.

An exciting addition to the museum’s contemporary American ceramics collection is a distinctive and unusual work by ceramic sculptor William Tersteeg, an award-winning Pennsylvania artist and a professor of art at Keystone College. The sculpture, a joint gift of Tersteeg and collector Myer Alperin, is a superb example of Tersteeg’s blending of the principles and elements of traditional ceramic art with his own creation of imagery with puzzle-like intricacy.

Tersteeg, a resident of Dalton, Pennsylvania, has been creating sculpture in clay for the past 35 years. His work is both wheel thrown and hand built, and he uses a raku firing method after hand painting the designed surface of the sculpture. Much of his imagery reflects the natural environment of northeastern Pennsylvania and is often combined with complex patterning that gives additional depth and texture to his work. Tersteeg’s ceramic sculptures are found in numerous public and private institutions such as the Everson Museum in Syracuse, N.Y., the Everhardt Museum in Scranton, Pa., Penn State University, the Ceramic Research Center in Tempe, Ariz., and in various corporate collections. Tersteeg’s stunning sculpture is on display in one of the showcases in the museum’s decorative arts corridor.

  

Clare Leighton, British (1898-1989). "Limbing," 1931, wood engraving. Gift of Paul K. Kania, 2009.

 

William J. Tersteeg, American. "I Stand on the Edge and Stuggle to See the Spirit in Me," incised in raku fired wheel-thrown ceramic. Gift of William Tersteeg and Myer Alperin, 2009.
 
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