Defying strict definitions of art, design, and craft, ceramist David Cressey applied the traditional techniques learned during his training as a studio potter to nonfunctional sculpture as well as production design, most notably for the Los Angeles company Architectural Pottery. Cressey studied ceramics with two of the city’s most significant teachers, Vivika Heino (University of Southern California) and Laura Andreson (at UCLA -- University of California, Los Angeles). In the 1950s, he began making sculpture, building abstract assemblages from individually thrown vessel forms, which he often sliced or textured. Legend, made in December 1959, was first exhibited in "Arts of Southern California IV: Ceramics" (1960), an exhibition organized by the Long Beach Museum of Art, which then traveled to seven additional venues across the country.
Staci Steinberger, Associate Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, 2021
