In his book Pitchers of American Life: Art Within Reach, Professor Ezra Shales discusses various vessels preserved from ancient indigenous American cultures, those caught in the spiderwebs of antique shops, and common tools used for drinks lurking in modern kitchens. In each chapter of this book, Shales interprets a single object as a revealing time capsule, a collective relic that, if regarded closely and with compassion, still resonates with our yearnings for sociability and communion. Might a history of art extracted from the common cupboard liberate us from the usual hierarchies of civilization and the expenses of the Grand Tour—and make the idea of art more accessible and relevant? 

Shales’ presentation will include “show-and-touch” engagement with a selection from the immense backlog of discarded mass-produced goods piling ever higher. The audience will engage firsthand with a design once displayed at the London Crystal Palace in 1851 and weigh it in relation to one from our Plasticene era.

Ezra Shales Biography

Ezra is the author of The Shape of Craft (2017) and Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era (2010).  He has also written numerous articles and contributed to exhibition catalogs for artists Polly Apfelbaum, Neil Brownsword, Kim Dickey, Shari Mendelson, and Dan Walsh.  He learned much of what he knows about art while working in New York City’s flea markets, as a museum preparator/art handler and as an educator at The Brooklyn Museum. Ezra is currently a professor in the History of Art department at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.