1950s Mid-Century David Gil Split Stoneware Sculpture on Lucite Bennington Potters

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A stoneware sculpture created by artist David Gill for Bennington Potters. It features a head with imprinted numbers, made of … Read more A stoneware sculpture created by artist David Gill for Bennington Potters. It features a head with imprinted numbers, made of two halves attached to a leucite stand.
In the 1950s, Gil co-founded Bennington Potters with other prominent artists to make limited artwork more accessible. This particular piece, from the 1960s, bears the stamp "Bennington Potters/Bennington//Vermont * 1850 to the inside of the head (a bit difficult to see or photograph given the leucite mounting).

When viewed head-on, the head is split, each side revealing a face embedded with numbers in an almost surreal manner. There is no symmetry, underlining the fact that our two cerebral hemispheres are different, each with its own specific role, independent and yet working together.
The central split of the head also could suggest the fragmentation of consciousness, potentially symbolizing a divided mind.

Artist David Gil (1922-2002) was born to immigrant parents and grew up in Harlem, New York. He was welcomed to make art under President Roosevelt’s arts-friendly Works Progress Administration. Gil was hired in 1939 as a teenager to publicly sculpt pottery as a demonstration at the World’s Fair in New York. He attended New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, serving time in the Merchant Marines during WWII amidst his studies. Gil later moved to Bennington, Vermont, with plans to open a design studio. He collaborated with other modern artists and designers and formed Cooperative Design, which later became Bennington Potters. He made artists sculptures affordable for most people. See less