Doyle Lane Show Set for Fall 2026
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| Doyle Lane Weed Pots (1950s–1970s) in a 2020 show at David Kordansky Gallery. Photo: David Kordansky Gallery |
The Huntington is an organizing an exhibition of ceramic artist Doyle Lane (1923–2002). Underappreciated in his time, Lane has gained a following with contemporary artists such as Ricky Swallow and Takashi Murakami. The Huntington's "Doyle Lane: Master of Clay" will assemble about 70 works from public and private collections and is to run Sep. 13, 2026–Feb. 22, 2027. As far as I can tell, it's Lane's first single-artist museum show.
Born in New Orleans, Lane studied at USC and become one of the first successful African American (and gay) studio ceramicists. He is best known for his "weed pots," small, multi-color glazed vessels barely large enough to hold a dried flower. Lane promoted the pots by asking Modernist architects to display them in their offices. This resulted in architectural commissions such as an 18-ft tile mosaic mural for Welton Becket's Mutual Savings and Loan, Pasadena—now exhibited at the Huntington in an outdoor courtyard.
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| Doyle Lane, Mutual Savings and Loan Mural, 1964. The Huntington |
Comments
> and become one of the
> first successful African
> American (and gay)
> studio ceramicists.
A large work by Kehinde Wiley, also black and gay, is displayed in the Huntington's main gallery of largely 18th-century British art. However, Wiley is more closely identified with the museum. When growing up in LA, it was his inspiration for the format of classical, figurative art.
> it's Lane's first single-artist
> museum show.
He was skilled and talented, but he too fits the category of artists that must cost less for a museum to organize and exhibit. I'm guessing the Lane show will be in the Scott Galleries for American art, which the Huntington didn't even have until the 1980s.
Meanwhile, a video posted by the Metropolitan earlier this year about the centennial of their American collection and the galleries where it's displayed is a wowsa.
In comparison, the Huntington or LACMA, etc, sometimes gives the impression of the family tooling around in a turnip truck.
As for British art, a relative of mine a few years ago, after her trip to London, mentioned as an aside that museums there were better than the ones in LA. She said it with a bit of embarrassment or wistfulness. But that city is hundreds of years old, whereas LA doesn't really date much before the 20th century.
Regarding artists like Lane or Wiley, etc, they're good, and exhibits for them (ie, in the category of contemporary) are fine,. However, when it comes to the international art and museum scene, there's the custom of LA being on the outside looking in.
Oh well. But even Paris in just the 50 years has evolved way beyond merely the Louvre.
Serious collectors have always shown an interest in ceramics. See the Frick's group of Sevres porcelain. The pieces were purchased by Henry Frick himself.
The Met actively collects in this area. See the recent exhibition, "Making it Modern: European Ceramics from the Martin Eidelberg Collection." (Eidelberg was a Professor of Art History, with an expertise in ceramics and Tiffany glass.)
The Yale Art Gallery has also taken a scholarly interest. See "The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art" (2015). Yale also actively collects in this area.
> thinks ceramics are "turnips."
LOL.In turn, aren't you the "Save LACMA mob/MAGA crowd" guy?
As for turnip trucks, that's what I thought of when I read today's write-up about the exhibit of artist Tavares Strachan. It looks like a typical contemporary-art display found in a Anytown-USA museum. But it's at least in the Broad building, however. and not near the "Met chandeliers" in the Resnick Pavilion.
The tourist from Minnesota who several years ago compared LACMA unfavorably with the Minneapolis Institute of Art (don't recall if her comments were posted before or after BCAM and Resnick had been built) wasn't necessarily focusing on the contents of one museum versus the other. But with exhibits in LACMA like the Strachan show, her opinion still very much applies.
> culturally, but with better food.
NYC is like the rowdy, snot-nosed black sheep of the family who grew up and turned out quite well. If I had been around over 70-90 years ago and theorized what its future would be like (using major European cities as a comparison point), I would have been way too skeptical.
I guess the same metaphor applies to America versus Europe in general too.
I recall a writer based on the East Coast (maybe in Time magazine, the NY Times or the Washington Post?) who years ago commented that while upstart Los Angeles had evolved to the next level, older San Francisco had not.
The height of ceramic heights was achieved by these collectors' amassing a sizeable amount of arguably Europe's rarest extant ceramic treasure: the mid-16th century wares produced at Saint-Porchaire.
The Met has 8 that I know of, including one in the Lehman Collection. The Frick has 2, I believe. The decorative motifs of these wares draw from contemporary bookbinding.
A joy to envisage!
It's almost as stupid as thinking that Strachan's work fell of some "turnip truck."
Strachan has an MFA from Yale.
He is a recipient of "the" MacArthur Foundation Grant
He is represented by the Marian Goodman Gallery.
His work has been shown at the Royal Academy (London), the Louisiana Museum of Art (Copenhagen), and most recently at the Kunsthalle Mannheim (Germany).
Princeton will open up its new museum building with a special exhibition, "Toshiko Takaezu: Dialogues in Clay."
> from Yale. He is a
> recipient of "the"
> MacArthur Foundation
> Grant. He is represented
> by the Marian Goodman
> Gallery.
So? You might just as well say that members of the movie industry - who really, really know their craft, right? - and vote for nominees for the Academy Awards indicates an Oscar is always - always - handed out to people who really, really deserve it. And not bestowed to people who don't. Correct?
Some of the same dynamics of very subjective dealing (and also backroom politics) apply to the Nobel Prize too.