Robert Chapman Turner

"Robert C. Turner graduated from Alfred University in 1949 and immediately came to Black Mountain College to establish their first ceramics arts program. He taught there until 1951 and then returned to Alfred to found his own studio. In 1958 he joined the ceramic artfaculty at Alfred University, served twice as chairman of the Art Department and was awarded emeritus status upon his retirement in 1979. Turner was also a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, taught summer sessions at Penland School of Crafts and was chairman of the Board of Directors of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME.
A Fellow of the American Craft Council and recipient of its highest honor, the Gold Medal, Turner was also a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and a past president and honorary member of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. Throughout his 60-year career as a ceramic artist, Turner received numerous awards for his work, and participated in a number of group and solo exhibitions, both in the United States and abroad.
Turner’s work is in The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA and numerous other private and public collections. Turner was deeply influence by Chinese and African ceramics and in her book Robert Turner: Shaping Silence: A Life in Clay Marsha Miro says “he creates pots…because the vessel is for him an expressive object with a long history of wide ranging significance.”
This pitcher is one of his earlier forms probably done sometime during the 1950s.
Turner was seminal to the ceramic art movement at Black Mountain College, was involved with Penland School of Crafts and was also one of the most influential potters and teachers of the last half of the 20th century."