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Born to a wealthy family in New York City, Gifford Beal (1879-1956) began studying painting at the age of twelve with American artist William Merritt Chase. Beal’s tutelage under Chase, who established the first school of plein air painting in the United States, inspired a life-long commitment to painting his surroundings. Beal continued his education at Princeton University and the Art Students League, where he studied with Frank Vincent DuMond and George Bridgeman, two extremely influential teachers in the twentieth century. Over the course of his long career, Beal encountered numerous artistic influences, but his style remained distinct due to his profound interest in revealing the beauty of both urban and non-urban settings. Read More

John Sloan (1871-1951) began his career as an illustrator for Philadelphia newspapers before moving to New York City in 1904, where he joined a group of artist friends who, together, made a significant impact on early twentieth century American painting. In 1908, Sloan and seven of his peers organized an exhibition of their work as a protest against the stringent policies of the National Academy of Design, which was the driving force behind modern art tastes in the United States. Dubbed The Eight, these artists broke free from academic traditions and European-centric styles of painting. Several of The Eight, including Sloan, also belonged to the Ashcan School, a group of painters known for depicting gritty scenes of everyday life in New York City. The Ashcan artists typically painted residents of the city’s poorer neighborhoods, showing what life was like for a large portion of the population. Read More

Coille McLaughlin Hooven was born into an important pottery heritage. Hooven’s great aunt Mary Louise McLaughlin was instrumental to the American art pottery movement as one of the first studio potters in the United States. McLaughlin wrote the first manual on china painting in the US, helped to found the Cincinnati Pottery Club, and was the first American artist to develop an underglaze technique for decorating ceramics at a time when few others in the world had the ability. While Hooven never had the opportunity to converse with her great aunt about ceramics—McLaughlin died in 1939, the same year Hooven was born—she feels deeply connected to her ancestor and carries her legacy of innovation and skill into the twenty-first century. Read More

Vivika and Otto Heino are one of several collaborative husband and wife teams that made a significant impact on American ceramics in the twentieth century. Vivika had extensive academic training in the medium; she studied at the California School of Fine Art in San Francisco, at the University of Southern California under master ceramist Glen Lukens, and at Alfred University, where in 1944 she was the second student to ever receive the Master of Fine Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics. Otto approached ceramics through a less academically rigorous path. After serving in the military during World War II, Otto returned to the United States and used his GI Bill funding to take classes at the League of New Hampshire Arts and Crafts in Concord. Read More

Myrton Purkiss moved from Canada to the United States at age twelve, and eventually attended the University of Southern California to study under master ceramist Glen Lukens, who influenced generations of ceramic students with his groundbreaking experimentation in materials and techniques. Purkiss completed his formal education at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles before being drafted into military service, where he used his design skills working as a cartographer, building scale models of the European landscape. He took advantage of this time abroad, studying ceramics and decorative arts across England and France. Read More