Clay at the PU Art Museum

At the Princeton Art Museum today for the exhibit New Jersey/Non-Site or New Jersey Avant Garde(n) State today, and sure enough, NJ was a hotbed of crazy art making in the 20th century. In films shown in the gallery, one young artist, Charles Simmonds wallowed naked in the Sayreville Clay Pits, building with miniature bricks on his belly, slithering about and squeezing the clay into a swirling mass, and emerging from being buried as if from an earthy grave or the womb. My reaction: "I want to go there!" That is to the Sayreville Clay Pits. But here is a link to the museum's  exhibit and Simmonds' photo.

http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/njns/objects/85752/2185099

Tampa Clay Piece 3

Outside the gallery in the permanent exhibits I came across some clay wall pieces by Robert Rauschenberg. They are really perfectly accurate clay reproductions of crushed cardboard boxes.

There is even a natural "soil patina" to truly make it realistic. Actually they are quite beautiful. Rauschenberg was very good I think, at seeing and highlighting the urban landscape and making you see it differently.

Tampa Clay Piece 4