Richard T. Notkin
Cube Skull Teapot (Variation #26)

Cube Skull Teapot (Variation #26)

© Richard T. Notkin

Cube Skull Teapot (Variation #26)
Cube Skull Teapot (Variation #26)
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Cube Skull Teapot (Variation #26)
  • from the series Yixing
Date2001
PlaceHelena, Montana, United States
MediumStoneware
DimensionsOverall: 5 3/8 × 6 × 3 in. (13.7 × 15.2 × 7.6 cm)
Credit LineGarth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection, museum purchase funded by John S. Arnoldy, Philip J. John, Jr., John P. Kotts, S. Reed Morian, and Bill Porter at "One Great Night in November, 2008"
Object number2007.991.A,.B
Non exposé

Explore Further

Object Type
Description

For more than four decades, Richard Notkin has created extraordinary ceramics whose narrative content reflects larger conversations taking place in the world. In the early 1980s, he became fascinated by the pottery of the Yixing kilns in China. Potters in Yixing (in the Yangzi River delta area) used naturally colored stoneware clays to carve, sculpt, and slip-cast vessels. Notkin was intrigued by the exacting detail of the pieces and began to refer to it in a series of teapots that combine the traditions of Chinese Yixing pottery with the artist’s social consciousness.


Notokin's Yixing teapots are small in scale but loaded with potent messages that are often critical of humanity’s failings. The artist frequently uses the human skull as a symbol of death as well as of human intellect. In the Cube Skull Teapot series, he combines the skull with imagery that explores the causes and effects of war.


ProvenanceThe artist; [Garth Clark Gallery]; purchased by MFAH, 2007.
Exhibition History"Deliciously Decadent: Tableware of the 20th and 21st Century," Princessehof Leeuwarden, The National Museum of Ceramics, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, March 21 - October 24, 2004.

"The International Art Teapot Exhibition [Ceci n'est Pas une Exposition de Theires], Taipei: Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, October 4, 2002-January 5, 2003.

"Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics: The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 4 March - 3 June, 2012.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
.A: Etched on underside: "Notkin / 2001"
White sticker, underside: "NNI / 311" in black ink
Yellow circular sticker, underside: "GC / 9" in black ink
.B: Yellow circular sticker inside lid: "GC / 9" in black ink
"Notkin" etched on underside

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Hexagonal Curbside Teapot (variation #8)
Richard T. Notkin
1986
Stoneware
90.253.A,.B
Heart Teapot: Hiroshima II
Richard T. Notkin
1988
Stoneware
2007.992.A-.C
Heart Teapot: Sarajevo
Richard T. Notkin
1991
Stoneware
2007.1136.A,.B
Unpacking photo
Richard T. Notkin
1993
Stoneware
2007.1137.A,.B
Five Tires on Crate Cup
Richard T. Notkin
1998
Stoneware
2010.2097
Cup
Richard T. Notkin
1984
Stoneware
2010.2098
Low resolution photo
Richard T. Notkin
1995
Stoneware
2007.1135
Richard T. Notkin
1995
Stoneware
2007.1793.A-.J
Pre-Columbian Altar Ego
Richard T. Notkin
1980
Porcelain
2007.993
Teapot
Ah Leon
1991
Stoneware
2007.937.A,.B
Large Teapot
Edith Heath
2007
Stoneware
2007.1127.A-.C