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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
Extinction Vessel #6 Veneer
Harlan W. Butt (born in 1950)
2020
Object Place: Denton, Texas
Medium/Technique
Enamel on copper, silver
Dimensions
Height x width x depth: 30.5 × 11.4 × 11.4 cm (12 × 4 1/2 × 4 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of The Enamel Arts Foundation
Accession Number2024.2218
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsEnamels
DescriptionThe artist wrote: “The format of this vessel is modeled after late 19th century and early 20th century Japanese cloisonné vases, like those of Namikawa Yasuyuki. The cloisonné imagery on my vessel is of the honeybee on a clover blossom and a Monarch butterfly on a milkweed plant. Although neither of these creatures is presently extinct, their long-term survival is in question. The surface of this piece is interrupted in three places, as if the enameled skin is peeling off and, in these areas, there are images of deforestation, air pollution and a flotsam of plastic on a coastal sea.”
InscriptionsSigned on base: "Harlan W. Butt 2020"
Provenance2020, gift of the artist to the Enamel Arts Foundation, Los Angeles; 2023, gift of the Enamel Arts Foundation to the MFA. (Accession date: February 14, 2024)