An Artist’s Residency at Sèvres

An Artist’s Residency at Sèvres

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

gallery@bgc.bard.edu

$15 General | $12 Seniors | Free for people associated with a college or university, people with museum ID, people with disabilities and caregivers, and BGC members

Celebrated ceramic artist Kristin McKirdy will tell the story of her four-year artist residency at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres. She will share the various stages of her experience from preliminary research through the development and execution of several porcelain projects made in collaboration with the institution’s master craftsmen. McKirdy will introduce the various facets of this historical institution—where perfect ceramic pieces are made in a timeless setting, using traditional techniques unchanged since the eighteenth century. Followed by a conversation led by Bard Graduate Center student Ev Christie.

Kristin McKirdy is a French-based American ceramic artist known for her organic sculptural forms characterized by purity of design and abstract vision. She holds a master’s degree in art history and archaeology from the Sorbonne specializing in ceramic history and an MFA from UCLA. A four-year artist residency at the Manufacture National de Sèvres culminated in a retrospective exhibition at the Musée de Sèvres in 2012. McKirdy exhibits internationally and has been awarded the prestigious Bettencourt Prize for Exceptional Talent and been named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French minister of culture.

Image: Soft-paste porcelain biscuit modeled after the sculpture l’Amour Menaçant by Étienne-Maurice Falconet (1716–1791) in front of the wood-fired kiln at the Sèvres Manufacture. Photo Nicolas Davis, copyright Sèvres Cité de la Céramique.