Vase

Hans Coper

c. 1960

A hand-thrown stoneware vase in which Hans Coper reduces pottery to a spare, sculptural object—testing balance and volume between function and abstraction.

The piece reads like a small monument: a narrow cylindrical foot swells into a faceted, bulging body and opens to a flared rim, its dusky, speckled glaze giving the surface a weathered, volcanic skin.

Made during the postwar studio-ceramics revival, this work helped recast ceramics as modernist sculpture and inspired makers to treat clay as a language of pure form rather than only utility.

Palette

Art Terms

Abstraction Form Sculpture Design Modern art

Exhibitions

Recent Acquisitions, 1946–1953: Department of Architecture and Design

1953

Good Design: 5th Anniversary

1955

20th Century Design from the Museum Collection

1958

Glass from the Museum of Modern Art Collection

1955