Greenwich Historical Society will host a lecture and guided tour on Friday, November 10 from 10:00am – 11:00am, that explores connections between the lives and legacies of ceramic artists Leon Gambetta Volkmar (1879-1959) and Katherine Choy (1927-1958).
Photo courtesy of Greenwich Historical Society
Volkmar, whose pottery enterprise Durant Kilns was based in Bedford Village, New York from 1910 to the mid-1940s, was a prominent figure in the New York art pottery world.
His handcrafted and sensitively glazed ceramic vessels were nationally recognized and collected broadly by Greenwich-area connoisseurs, including the Bush-Holley House’s one-time resident Constant Holley MacRae.
A selection of Volkmar pieces on display in the Greenwich Historical Society Permanent Collections Gallery will form the basis for the illustrated lecture, to be followed by a special guided tour of the Historical Society’s exhibition on nationally renowned ceramic artist Katherine Choy.
Choy co-founded Port Chester’s Clay Art Center in 1957 at a time when she was breaking boundaries in her approach to ceramics. The exhibition titled: Radical Pots and Cooperative Hands: Katherine Choy and Clay Art Center, is on display through February 4. The November 10 guided tour focuses on the legacy and influence of art potters of Volkmar’s generation on Katherine Choy and her fellow pioneers in the studio craft movement.
The lecture and guided tour at the Historical Society’s campus at 47 Strickland Rd., Cos Cob, will be led by Assistant Curator for Interpretation and Collections Kelsie Dalton and Curator of Exhibitions and Collections Maggie Dimock. For more information and to register: https://greenwichhistory.org/event/volkmar/