David Gil (American, 1922-2002), Face Sculpture for Bennington Pottery

Vermont, circa 1960, unglazed pottery face with cobalt eyes mounted to metal stand, stamped with artist's initials, numbered 1835, and marked Bennington Pottery to posterior.

HOA 13 7/8 x 6 1/4 x 3 in.

Private Collection, Raleigh, North Carolina

David Gil founded Bennington Potters in 1948, a business that is still going strong over 75 years later. During the 1950s, Gil built a national reputation as a designer of exceptional talent. His ceramics received recognition at the annual National Ceramic Show at the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York, and inclusion in the 1955 Good Design exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Gil’s slick, biomorphic ceramics were featured alongside the work of such modern design luminaries as Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Alvar Aalto, and Eva Zeisel.

Though best known for his line of functional dinnerware, in the 1970s Gil created a line of decorative platters and sculptural faces that he referred to as “Artware.” Gil was friends with many of the artists who were active at Bennington College in the 1960s and 1970s, including Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, and Jules Olitski. Some of Gil’s artware platters are reminiscent of their abstract paintings, while his sculptural heads combine modernism with a whimsical charm.

Bio courtesy of Bennington Museum.

Rust spotting to base; some nicks to posterior edge.