Over the course of his fifty-year career, American artist Harlan W. Butt (b. 1950) has received international acclaim for his skillfully constructed vessels in metal and enamel. His work, which is inspired by “the earth, its plants and animals, geography and landscape,” can have a mesmerizing almost “dreamlike” quality.[i] In truth, each of Butt’s creations will draw you in, and prompt a closer investigation. This reaction is perhaps stimulated by the fact that he tends to embrace dichotomies.[ii] Butt utilizes pattern, color, and abstraction, but integrates realistic elements as well. His objects can be “heartbreakingly beautiful” and at the same time exude a feeling of “danger.”[iii] Furthermore, there are images and text, complexity and simplicity, a focus on the interior and exterior, and elements yielded from both the Eastern and Western worlds. In essence, “there’s almost a continual dance-around juxtaposition happening in [Butt’s] work.”[iv] This ultimately makes the interaction between the artwork and the viewer endlessly engaging.
RITUAL OBJECTS
Functionality is also important to Butt.[v] However, the idea of “making mugs or some sort of utilitarian object” was not appealing.[vi] Butt instead prefers making ritual or ceremonial objects. This inclination, which is explicitly tied to his explorations of Eastern art, religion, and culture, was evident early on and continues today.[vii]
The Japanese tea ceremony particularly “spoke to” Butt’s fascination with ritual.[viii] During his first trip to Japan in 1980, he had the opportunity to study this practice in greater depth.[ix] Butt describes the tea ceremony as “…not strictly an art; it’s not strictly performance; it’s not strictly entertainment; but it is all of those things…”[x] Certain aspects of the tea ceremony have had a continual impact on his work. For instance, Butt purposely tries to replicate the respectful relationship that transpires between host and guest. He hopes to “create a situation where [people encountering his vessels] will have…enjoyment and appreciation.”[xi] Butt says, “It’s not about me; it’s about you.”[xii]
TEAPOTS
Butt did not make his first teapot until the mid-2000s. This venture was inspired by a teapot exhibition organized by Mobilia Gallery, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Initially, Butt says he wondered, “How am I going to interpret a ‘teapot’?”[xiii] This concept may have been “consistent with the work that [he had] been doing,” but this was a completely “new form.”[xiv] In the end, a good portion of the problem-solving was technical. After considering the key characteristics needed for pouring, he focused his attention on the “enameling problem.”[xv] Prolonged contact between the enamel and tea could be an issue due to the drink’s acidity.[xvi] For this reason, Butt created a liner for the interior of his pots to keep the two separated. However, as time went on, he realized people were probably not going to actually use these teapots to make tea or “if it was used for tea, it would be used very briefly…”[xvii]
KAMM COLLECTION
The Kamm Teapot Foundation has two works of Butt’s in its collection: Earth Beneath Our Feet: Teapot #1 (2005) and Earth Beneath Our Feet: Texas Teapot (2006). Both were exhibited at SOFA Chicago for Mobilia Gallery.[xviii] They are part of a larger Earth Beneath Our Feet series which Butt explored from 1992 until 2007.[xix] The concept behind these works is simple. Butt believes “the source of a lot of our problems in terms of dealing with nature and the environment, [is] that we [are] always separate from it. We could be good stewards, or we could take care of it, or we could conquer it, but we could do those things because it wasn’t us.”[xx] With Earth Beneath Our Feet, Butt is saying “the landscape is where you’re standing; it’s not just someplace out there, and not only where you’re standing, but it’s you, too.”[xxi] In essence, “nature exists all around us.”[xxii] “You’re part of it, not apart from it.”[xxiii]
Earth Beneath Our Feet: Teapot #1 has a ball shaped body, a short tapering spout, and a silver handle that arches over its hinged lid.[xxiv] It is covered in vivid green enamel and a u-shaped cloisonne pattern. On the sides of the pot, Butt included three caterpillars and a butterfly, and, on the rim, there are five etched words: egg, larva, caterpillar, pupa, butterfly. From around 1993-2005 Butt incorporated a series of words somewhere on his objects. These “seemingly random words” provide “clues to the meaning or premise of the piece.”[xxv] Here, of course, Butt is focusing on the transformational lifecycle of a butterfly.
In 2006 Butt began incorporating haiku poetry in his work that reinforced his narrative. The haiku on Earth Beneath Our Feet: Texas Teapot is etched on its silver rim. It reads:
The storm has moved on;
Scattered leaves and dripping trees,
Remnants of its rage.
With Earth Beneath Our Feet: Texas Teapot, Butt conveys that feeling and state of disarray after a strong storm has passed. The form has an ovoid body, a thick tapering spout, an angled upright handle, and a domed lid. The teapot is coated with atmospheric blue and green enamel that includes a cloisonne pattern of spiraling silver lines. Also, Butt has incorporated cast or fabricated silver elements that emphasize connections to the woodland environment. For instance, the y-shaped finial on the lid is a tree branch or twig, and a single mushroom spouts from the bottom of the handle.
Butt retired Professor Emeritus from the University of North Texas College of Visual Arts + Design, where he taught from 1976 to 2017. His work can be found in numerous collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC. Butt has a studio in Denton, Texas and in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, where he spends the summer months.
Further Reading/Viewing:
Clark, Garth. The Artful Teapot. New York: Thames & Hudson, Ltd., 2001.
Harlan Butt Studio Visit, 28 February 2022.
Oral History Interview with Harlan W. Butt, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, 27-28 July 2009.
Notes: