Brother Thomas Bezanson
Brother Thomas began to work in clay in 1953. His works are characterized by simple, symmetrical, thrown porcelain forms. Throughout his career he was constantly refining old forms and seeking to perfect ...
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Typical Marks
About
- Biography
-
Brother Thomas began to work in clay in 1953. His works are characterized by simple, symmetrical, thrown porcelain forms. Throughout his career he was constantly refining old forms and seeking to perfect new ones. He is renowned for his original glaze recipes. It is said that his exacting standards resulted in nearly 80% of each firing being destroyed.
Brother Thomas entered the Benedictine Monastery, Weston Priory, in 1959, where he lived and worked for 25 years. Proceeds from the sale of his work helped support the work of the Priory.
In 1985 he became an Artist-in-Residence at Mount Saint Benedict, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life.
" - Apprenticeships & Residencies
- Primary Work Experience
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1959-1984
Brother, Benedictine Monastery, Weston Priory, Vermont
1985-2007Artist-in-Residence, Mount Saint Benedict, Erie, Pennsylvania
1951-1958Advisor, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada
Other
- Public Collections
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Aidekman Art Center, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
Alfred Ceramic Art Museum, Alfred University, Alfred, New York
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, Massachusetts
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, New Brunswick, Canada
Bellerive Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Erie, Pennsylvania
Bennington Museum of Art, Bennington, Vermont
Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee
Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec, Canada
Canton Art Institute, Canton, Ohio
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio
The Commonwealth School, Boston, Massachusetts
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York, New York
Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire
Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
Dimock Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Erie Art Museum, Erie, Pennsylvania
Everson Museum, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York
Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont
Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Framingham State College, Framingham, Massachusetts
Gardiner Museum of Ceramics, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
G.W.V. Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts
Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
Holderness School, Plymouth, New Hampshire
International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California
Mercyhurst College, Erie, Pennsylvania
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Michele and Donald A'Amour Fine Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts
Musée Bernard Palissy, Lacapelle-Biron, France
Neuestadt Museum, Landsberg Am Lech, Germany
Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
Osaka Municipal Museum, Osaka, Japan
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Roberson Center for the Arts and Sciences, Binghamton, New York
Rose Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, England
St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York
Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art, Haifa, Israel
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts
Vatican Collection, Rome, Italy
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts
Windsor Castle, Windsor, England
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
- Bibliography
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The Ceramics of Weston Priory/Brother Thomas. Springfield, MA: George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, 1980.
Nagano, Paul T. Porcelain of Brother Thomas: The Path to the Beautiful. Boston, MA: David R. Godine Publisher, 1987.
Williams, Rosemary ed. Creation Out of Clay: The Ceramic Art and Writings of Brother Thomas. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999.
- CV or Resume
- Website(s)
Citation: Brother Thomas Bezanson, "The Marks Project."
Last modified April 29, 2026. https://www.themarksproject.org/artists/brother-thomas-bezanson
