Linda Arbuckle
James Melchert is primarily known for bright colored sculptures that reveal his ties to Conceptual Art,as well as for his later works using factory produced ceramic tiles, in some cases broken, drawn ...
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Typical Marks
About
- Biography
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James Melchert is primarily known for bright colored sculptures that reveal his ties to Conceptual Art,as well as for his later works using factory produced ceramic tiles, in some cases broken, drawn on, reassembled, and painted with glazes.
As a student of Peter Voulkos at Berkeley in the early 1960s he was part of the beginnings of the California Clay Movement. Melchert employed various techniques as needed to produce his work. In 1962 Melchert and Ron Nagle formulated a white earthenware (whiteware) clay which, unlike traditional earthenware, did not dull colors but intensified them. This whiteware advance was immediately adopted by Robert Arneson and others.
In the early 1990s Melchert completed a 225 foot long by 12 foot high tile wall installation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology biology building. Melchert made the tiles while an artist-in-residence at the Tile Guild Inc. in Los Angeles. The Tile Guild's Artist Residency program allows artists to produce large tile works using a kiln with a capacity of 750 square feet of tile per day.
First introduced to clay when, as an art professor at Carthage College, he was required to teach a class in clay, Melchert enrolled in a summer program at the University of Montana given by Peter Voulkus. He went on to do his MA in Ceramics at UC Berkeley with Voulkus. Melchert taught in the San Francisco Bay area, first ceramics at the San Francisco Art Institute and then sculpture at UC Berkeley.
Melchert?s work was exhibited in the 1967 ?Funk? ceramics exhibition at the UC Berkeley.
In addition to clay, Melchert has worked in a variety of media, including photography, film, and works on paper.
An interview with James Melchert with Constance Lewallen in The Brooklyn Rail can be accessed here:https://brooklynrail.org/2020/12/art/JIM-MELCHERT-with-Constance-Lewallen
An interview with James Melchert conducted September 17 and 18, 2002 by Renny Pritikin for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America is available at: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-james-melchert-11926.
" - Apprenticeships & Residencies
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-1991
Artist in Residence, Watershed Center f
-2001Artist in Residence, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana
- Primary Work Experience
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1985-1990
Assistant Professor and Instructor, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
1992--Tenured Professor, Ceramics, School of Art and Art History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
Other
- Public Collections
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Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helen, Montana
Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan
Jingdezhen Ceramic Museum, Jingdezhen, People’s Republic of China
Lamar Dodd Art Center, LaGrange College, LaGrange, Georgia
Margaret Harlow Collection, Bemidji University, Bemidji, Minnesota
Museum of Decorative Arts, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin
rosenfieldcollection.com
Stetson University, Deland, Florida
Weisman Museum of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota
World Ceramics Exposition Korea International Collection, Inchon, Korea
- Bibliography
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Adamson, Glenn and Davira Tragin. Tea Anyone?; the Donna Moog Teapot Collection. Racine, WI: Racine Art Museum, 2003.
Adcock, Craig. “Linda Arbuckle, Clary Illian, Doug Hanson, and Chuck Hindes.” Ceramic Art and Perception, no. 83 (March-May 2011).
Arbuckle, Linda. “The Colorful World of Majolica.” Ceramics Monthly 59, no.6 (June-August 2011).
___________. “Answers From the CM Technical Staff.” Ceramics Monthly 54, no.3 (March 2006).
___________. “Learning to Use Color.” Studio Potter 35, no.1 (2006).
___________, guest editor. “Majolica Feature.” Studio Potter 24, no.2.
Brown, Glen. “Private Gestures.” Ceramic review the International Magazine of Ceramic Art and Craft, no.203 (September/October 2003).
Campbell, Joe. “Why Go to Workshops.” Clay Times 3, no.5 (September/October 1997).
Hall, Sherman. “Utilitarian Clay IV: Celebrate the Object.” Ceramics Monthly 52, no10 (December 2004).
Hopper, Robin. Making Marks: Discovering the Ceramic Surface. Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2004.
__________. Functional Pottery: Form and Aesthetic in Pots of Purpose, Second Edition. WI: Krause Publications, 1999.
Hluch, Kevin. The Art of Contemporary American Pottery. Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2001.
Lawton, Jim. 500 Teapots, v.2. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 2013
Ostermann, Matthias. Masters: Earthenware: Major Works by Leading Artists. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 2010.
________________. Ceramic Surface Decoration: Contemporary Approaches and Techniques. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
________________. The New Majolica; Contemporary Approaches to Color and Technique in Tin Glaze. London, England: A & C Black, 1999.
Phethean, Richard. Throwing (New Ceramics). London, England: A & C Black, 2012.
Ponzo, Angelica, Ceramics for Beginners: Surfaces, Glazes and Firing. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 2010.
Strawler, Janice. “Full Circle: Majolica Decorating Technilquest.” Pottery Making Illustrated 15, no.6 (November/December 2012).
Taylor, Brian and Kate Doody. Glaze: the Ultimate Collection of Ceramic Glazes, and How They Were Made. London, England: Quarto Publishing, 2014.
Zakin, Richard. Electric Kiln Ceramics. Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2004.
- CV or Resume
- Website(s)
Citation: Linda Arbuckle, "The Marks Project."
Last modified April 29, 2026. https://www.themarksproject.org/artists/linda-arbuckle
Objects
Collections
Clay Art Center, Port Chester, New York
United States
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Clay Art Center, Port Chester, New York
United States
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas
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rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas
