Bowl 1884 - 1905

This bowl was made by the Willets Manufacturing Company, and is now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its smooth, creamy surface and undulating rim invite us to consider the dialogue between form and function. The bowl’s design destabilizes the conventional form of a vessel. The shape, with its leaf-like structure, hints at organic forms, challenging our perception of the distinction between nature and artifice. The use of porcelain, a medium valued for its delicacy, engages with structuralist ideas about the underlying systems that organize our understanding of the material world. Notice how the artist plays with light and shadow through the delicate folds of the rim. These are visual signs that evoke both fragility and strength. The bowl's structure embodies an ongoing conversation about how we perceive and interpret the objects that surround us.