Blue Ware Ornamental

Artist Kirsten Hassenfeld American, born 1971

Printer Dieu Donné American, 1976-

Date2008

MediumHand-stenciled and screen-printed pigmented linen pulp with watermarked linen and abaca collage

DimensionsSheet: 24 x 18 in. (61 x 45.7 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 31 1/8 x 25 x 1 1/2 in. (79.1 x 63.5 x 3.8 cm)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineGift of Tobin A. Sparling in memory of Frances Swatzburg

Object number2009.12.3

On View

Not on view

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Works on Paper

SignedSigned LR in silver, possibly pencil, "Kirsten Hassenfeld", cursive

DescriptionPrinted in cobalt blue ink on a white ground. A semi-abstract, thick-trunked tree with stubby branches having a few large, blue collaged leaves. The trunk is composed of innumerable ornamental elements including ogee-edged cartouches, quatrefoils, heart shapes, serpentine and c-scrolls, shell forms, florets, bird shapes and a strand of beads. A large goose with a diamond on its wing is placed above an owl that balances on the upper curl of a compound scroll.

The ornament is drawn from forms and decoration of the baroque and rococo periods and later revivals therof. The artist was particularly inspired by ceramics, especially English and Dutch tin-glazed earthenwares of the 17th and 18th centuries as well as the later, derivative 'blue willow' or 'willow ware' produced in Staffordshire, England in the 19th century. Tin-glazed ceramics made beginning in the 17th century at Delft in Holland became synonymous with these wares to the degree that the English version was also called 'delftware', but with a lower-case d. Early Delft was intended to imitate Chinese porcelain which was very expensive to import to the West and was highly desirable because the West did not discover how to make true porcelain until about 1710. By the early 19th century imitations of Chinese blue and white porcelains from Canton were being mass-produced in England by means of transfer printing. One of the most popular patterns adapted by the English was a traditional design with a large willow tree, bridge and pagoda. Blue willow is perhaps the most ubiquitous ceramics pattern of all time--the source of the term 'blue plate special'---and continues to be reproduced.

The 'goose-with-diamond' design in the Hassenfeld print also recalls so-called "bird-on-rock" designs in 18th century and earlier Chinese blue and white porcelains.

The integration of larger pictoral elements into a complex decorative ground is reminiscent of Gustav Klimt.Exhibition History"What's New? Recent Acquisitions 2008-2010", Hoopes Gallery, The Hyde Collection, March 3 - May 29, 2011.ProvenancePurchased by the donor from Dieu Donné Editions Club