The UBS Art Gallery

Exhibition highlights will include simple forms with elaborate decorative surfaces, ranging from Rookwood and Marblehead art pottery from the 1900s to stunning examples of 1920s Studio Pottery and Native American Pueblo masterworks. William Hunt Diederich’s 1925 earthenware bowl features a dynamic painted image of St. George battling a dragon, and Beatrice Wood utilizes the surface of a large earthenware plate as a canvas for a Cubist-inspired painting of two musicians (c. 1940-47). Modernist influences are also evident in Maria Martinez’s Bowl with Plumed Serpent (c. 1920-30), including stylized geometric decoration, simple shapes and a sleek polished surface. Shoji Hamada’s stoneware Plate with Painted Decoration (c. 1940-50) features abstract floral images influenced by Asian folk art.

William Hunt Diederich Bowl with decoration of St. George and the Dragon, 1925 Thrown earthenware

Shoji Hamada Plate with painted decoration, 1940–50 Stoneware with temmoku glaze

Great Pots presents a variety of utilitarian ceramics that are works of art as well as functional objects. German designer Paul Wynand transformed a tobacco jar into a striking modernist design statement in the early 1920s. Hans Coper’s thrown stoneware Tripot Vase (1958) is both sculptural and useful, with a form derived from 18th-century Chinese double vases. The varying heights of the vessels also suggests ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, which incorporates three heights of foliage. Covered Jar with Flattened Sides (1952), one of Peter Voulkos’ earliest signature “cookie jars,” features bold calligraphic images. Shimizu Uichi, named a Living National Treasure in Japan, created an austere globular teapot with a black oil-spot glaze in the 1970s, embodying the ongoing Japanese reverence for functional vessels.

The exhibition also highlights works that display wit or humor, evoke a sense of spirituality, or display a rebellious challenge to traditional ceramics. Adrian Saxe’s Antelope Jar (1979) pays ironic homage to the cult of porcelain, whimsically celebrating the Chinese and European ceramic traditions. Magdalene Odundo’s Vessel with Black Surface (1995), which exudes a rhythmic grace, shows influences ranging from traditional African ritual vessels to ancient Greek pottery and Southwestern Indian wares. Grayson Perry’s Essex Man (1999) simultaneously employs and subverts ceramic tradition to comment on the dark side of suburban life. Perry’s title refers to Edward Bingham, a renowned 18th century potter who worked in Perry’s hometown of Essex, England. This work juxtaposes transfer-printed photographs of manicured cottages with stark images of perverse behaviors possibly happening inside.

Adrian Saxe Antelope jar, 1979 Thrown and carved porcelain, stoneware

Magdalene Odundo Vessel with black surface, 1995 Coiled earthenware

Grayson Perry Essex Man, 1999 Thrown and altered earthenware with transfer printed images

Founded in 1909 by famed museologist John Cotton Dana, The Newark Museum today features eighty innovative galleries of world-class art and the sciences. One of the most extensive collections of American art—paintings, sculpture and decorative objects spanning three centuries—comprises the Picturing America galleries. In addition, the Museum contains impressive holdings of African art, Classical art, European and American decorative arts, and the arts of Asia, including the largest collection of Tibetan art in the Western Hemisphere. The Museum complex is also made up of the Victorian Ballantine House, a National Historic Landmark built in 1885, the Alice and Leonard Dreyfuss Planetarium, a 5,000 square-foot natural science exhibit Dynamic Earth: Revealing Nature’s Secrets, a Mini Zoo, the Alice Ransom Memorial Garden, site of contemporary outdoor sculpture, an authentic one-room school house (circa 1784), and the Newark Fire Museum.

The Museum is also unique in its historic commitment to community access, devoting a substantial portion of its facilities and budget to education and family programs. Nearly 600 participants are served by the Educational Loan Collection and traveling exhibitions, making The Newark Museum one of the leading educational institutions of its kind in the country.

Great Pots: The Vessel as Art, 1900-2000 is made possible by UBS.

UBS has a longstanding and ongoing commitment to the support of the arts and culture. UBS sponsors four exhibitions each year in The UBS Art Gallery, located in the lobby of its building at 1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York City. Through its exhibition program, the Gallery offers non-profit arts and cultural organizations a midtown Manhattan exhibition space and the opportunity to introduce their programs to a new audience. The UBS Art Gallery enables many institutions to organize and mount exhibitions that might not otherwise be seen. These exhibitions encourage interest in the arts among the hundreds of employees, clients and members of the general public who pass through the UBS building each day.

UBS also has its own art collection. Recognized internationally as one of the most important corporate collections of contemporary art, The UBS Art Collection comprises more than 900 paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures by many of the world’s leading artists from 1950 to the present. UBS is proud of this heritage of collecting and embraces the Collection as a treasure to be shared with our employees, clients, shareholders and other individuals passionate about art through international loans and tours of selected works. To further share our Collection with the public, UBS provides permanent online access to works in the Collection, information on the artists and online exhibitions via an interactive web museum at www.ubs.com/artcollection.

UBS, one of the world’s leading financial firms, is the largest wealth manager, a top-tier investment banking and securities firm, a key asset manager, and the leader in Swiss retail and commercial banking. Headquartered in Zurich and Basel, UBS employs over 70,000 people and has offices in 50 countries. It is a Swiss public company listed on the SWX Swiss Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). In the U.S., UBS is one of the biggest private client businesses with a client base of nearly 2 million private clients and approximately 7,500 financial advisers in over 350 offices.

Exhibitions at The UBS Art Gallery

Selected for Myself: American Etchings of the 1880s
Organized by The Parrish Art Museum
June 1 – August 11, 2006

Walker Evans
Organized by Yale University School of Art
August 24 – November 9, 2006



Hours and Admission
The UBS Art Gallery is located in the UBS Building at 1285 Avenue of the Americas (between 51st and 52nd Streets) in New York City. The Gallery is on the ground floor of the building and exhibition hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Admission is free.


**For recorded exhibition information: (212) 713-2885**