Vase with lid 1922

Herman Kähler's vase with lid sits here in the Met, a dark and glossy form. The vase is covered in a deep glaze, its surface alive with subtle variations. It's impossible to ignore the way the light plays on the curves, catching every undulation and revealing the hand of the maker. You can imagine Kähler turning it on the wheel, coaxing that clay into shape, then building up the glaze in layers. There is an all-over crackling in the glaze that looks almost like a map of the world - a world contained within this vessel. The little knob on the lid is just *chef's kiss*. It reminds me of a later piece by Lucie Rie, her bottles glazed in bright greens and blues. Each of them shares a kind of conversation about form, and the magic that happens when you let the material do its thing. Art isn’t about answers. It’s a process.