As the American Studio Movement becoming more and more intriguing and its legacy has been documented and explored, its next personality to be rediscovered is California-based artist J.B. Blunk (1926-2002), with a new monograph ‘J.B. Blunk: Cups, Plates, Bowls & Sculptures: Ceramics 1950 – 1999.’ Like many of his peers, the founders of the Movement, Blunk sought to craft modern design and to turn his back to all traditions and conventional. He had created an extensive body of work in wood, stone, cast bronze, painting, jewelry and clay, always seeking to extend, and perhaps even ignore boundaries, bringing art, craft, sculpture, and furniture together, always thinking out of the box. He was particularly known for one public work, ‘The Planet,’ (1969), which he created at the Oakland, California Museum (above and below); crafted of a single two-ton redwood burl, it still considered as one of the most iconic masterpieces of the Studio Movement.
