Pa. German Pie Dish c. 1936

This pie dish, made by William L. Antrim, possibly with paint on ceramic, presents a delightful dance of folk art sensibilities. It’s this playful, almost haphazard approach to decoration, that really grabs my attention. The overall texture feels smooth, but the colors, an earthy red-brown contrasting with a soft green, give depth. Look closely, and you’ll see how the artist used a layering technique to bring dimension to the image of the bird and surrounding flora. The bird, formed by a series of dots, is really working for me. It makes me think of a cosmic constellation. Antrim’s pie dish makes me think of Hilma af Klint. She wasn’t making pottery, but she embraced the world of symbols and playful abstraction in a similarly unrestrained way. It’s this kind of art, where process and intuition meet, that keeps the conversation going across time.