Michael Gustavson "Eclipse 16" Raku Ceramic, Abstract Crescent Sculpture in White and Yellow, Carmel California Art, Original 9 X 19 Inches, 2025

Details

Description

In this raku-fired ceramic sculpture by California artist Michael Gustavson, a pale crescent form leans on a lilac-blue base, its … Read more In this raku-fired ceramic sculpture by California artist Michael Gustavson, a pale crescent form leans on a lilac-blue base, its curved edge sweeping up into a sharp point. The face is white with fine crackle, scattered with a navy disc, a red dot and a pale teal circle, and crossed by a bold yellow triangle and a black-and-white striped wedge along the straight side. The reverse switches to orange, green and a dark disc with a ring of cracks, so the piece looks different from each angle. Gustavson draws with glaze in thin lines and flat fields, and the dots feel like planets passing across a cool sky. The curve, set against hard angles, gives the sculpture a lifted, sail-like movement.

A curved silhouette like this looks best where it can be seen from two sides, such as a console in a hallway, a low credenza or a shelf near a window. The white and yellow brighten gray or navy walls, and the lilac base blends with soft textiles. Put it beside a lamp or books to give a living room a graphic, light accent.

Raku-fired glazed ceramic, 9 x 19 x 7 in (22.9 x 48.3 x 17.8 cm).

Gustavson fires his work in raku, the traditional Japanese process, which he has adapted over decades into his own method. For his large pieces he does not lift them from the kiln into combustible material; instead they stay in the kiln while pine needles are introduced at lower temperatures to create the reduction atmosphere. Layered glazes, crackle, drips and fine drawn lines build luminous color, and he treats every form as a three-dimensional canvas.

Michael Gustavson is a ceramic artist based in Murphys, California, who has worked in clay for more than four decades. He earned his MFA from San Jose State University in 1980 and describes himself as a painter-sculptor, treating each form as a three-dimensional canvas and glaze as his paint. His work is held in private and public collections worldwide, including IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Seagate, Cranbrook Museum and Eastman Kodak.

Building on the traditional Japanese process of raku, he developed his own firing approach, leaving large pieces in the kiln and introducing pine needles at lower temperatures to create reduction. The method allows larger scale and unusually vivid color. His wheel-thrown, hand-stretched vessels suggest the figure in motion, his wall reliefs use fragmented slabs and negative space, and recent outdoor sculptures and benches carry his surfaces into tectonic forms, with nods to Miró, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Pollock. See less