Faucet Pot

ca. 1966

American, born 1940

A long-time faculty member at the University of Washington, Patti Warashina was essential in pushing the envelope of a West Coast countercultural aesthetic in ceramics in the Northwest. Using bright colors, bold designs, and her signature humor and wit, Warashina’s work is distinguished from her male contemporaries’ work by its subversive and wry provocations of gender stereotypes. In Faucet Pot, she brings two clichés about a ceramic vessel into sharp collision: its utilitarian function as a water container and its ubiquitous use as a metaphor for fertility and the female body.

Stoneware with glaze and low-fire luster

30 1/4 x 17 1/2 in. (76.9 x 44.5 cm)

Gift of Dr. R. Joseph Monsen and Dr. Elaine R. Monsen

84.182

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Collection Highlights: 1945 To The Present, September 12, 1996 - June 1, 1997.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Unpretty Pictures, June 26, 1997 - January 30, 1998.

Seattle, Washington, Henry Art Gallery, Around the Bend and Over the Edge: Seattle Ceramics 1964-1976, February 11 – May 6, 2012.

Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue Arts Museum, Patti Warashina: Wit and Wisdom, July 12 - October 27, 2013.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, June 21 - September 2, 2024.

Published ReferencesDrexler Lynn, Martha. American Studio Ceramics: Innovation and Identity, 1940-1979. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015; pp. 220-221, reproduced p. 221.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM