John_Mason

John Mason John Mason was born in Madrid, Nebraska, in 1927. He studied art at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles from 1949 to 1952 and again from 1955 to 1956; and he studied at the Chouinard Art Institute also in Los Angeles from 1953 to 1954. In 1957 he established a ceramic studio with Peter Voulkos. Both artists pushed the boundaries of ceramics to the outer limits to break the field wide open. During the late 1950’s and 1960’s, Mason belonged to a group of free-form or abstract expressionists. His early work consisted of pieces that were massive and energetic. Mason’s huge, rough pots, walls, monumental rectangles, “x” shapes and crosses are a testament to his vitality and artistry. Mason created sculpture with little regard to utility and function, focusing mainly on form and elasticity of the clay. He used torque and rhythm to twist the various planes of his pieces through space. While complex in their mason, pieces, work, surfaces, art, torque, through, studied, space, series, sculptures, rough, retained, new, mason’s, los, john, institute, huge, form, firebrick, early, during, create, continues, clay, angeles, wide, while, whether, wed, walls, voulkos, vitality, vibrancy