{"id":463,"date":"2010-03-03T19:55:56","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T01:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15bytes12\/2010\/03\/03\/francesc-burgos\/"},"modified":"2018-11-24T16:37:36","modified_gmt":"2018-11-24T22:37:36","slug":"francesc-burgos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/francesc-burgos\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Wall, Empty Space: A Conversation with Francesc Burgos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A conversation with Francesc Burgos ranges from ancient ceramic firing methods to the way Mozart visualized a musical composition \u201calmost as a three-dimensional form\u201d before he ever wrote it down, a method not unlike this ceramist and sculptor\u2019s manner of creating his own work.<\/p>\n

That intellectual scope is to be expected from a man who holds a multitude of master\u2019s degrees: one in philosophy from the University of Barcelona in his native Spain; one from the University of California at Berkeley in architecture; one in ceramics from the University of Utah where he studied under David Pendell and was awarded his MFA in 1999.<\/p>\n

That he applies all of these academic degrees to his work will be evident in his\u00a0Phillips Gallery\u00a0show.<\/p>\n

Burgos can\u2019t remember a time when he wasn\u2019t involved in visual art. As a teenager he did freelance illustrations for magazines, then went on to furniture design. When he came to this country he made masks for many years, first in papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9, later in synthetic material. Then, working with paper, he came up with a series of forms that became origami masks that were commissioned by the City of Barcelona for Carnaval and later sold in museum gift shops. \u201cEach mask comes flat and creased. You fold along the lines and it becomes a three-dimensional headgear,\u201d Burgos says.
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\nHe lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 15 years and spent some of that time utilizing his architectural degree. One day, he went to the Asian Art Museum there and saw an exhibition of early ceramics, mostly from the Japanese tea ceremony. \u201cIn all my life,\u201d he says, \u201cI had not paid attention to ceramics. When I left the museum, I knew I was at least going to learn about it.\u201d He began taking classes at the local community college and when his wife, Ruth Tsoffar, got a teaching job at the U of U he determined to start over, to \u201clearn ceramics properly.\u201d And so he did.
\n\"\"<\/a>Today his studio is in Ann Arbor, near the University of Michigan, where his wife teaches comparative literature and women\u2019s studies and Burgos lectures as an adjunct.<\/p>\n

The artist makes unforgettable simple forms and magical abstracted animal shapes of hand-built clay. Several of the pieces for the Phillips show are porcelain and incorporate terra sigillata, a technique used by the Greeks and Romans. A very fine slip fills the surface and enhances the surface texture, Burgos explains in a telephone interview. Although first fired in his electric kiln, these pieces were then surrounded by sawdust and pit fired. \u201cThe smoke created by the sawdust creates random patterns on the surface of the pieces,\u201d Burgos says. \u201cIt\u2019s a very old method.\u201d\u00a0American Indians use only the pit and cow dung to create a similar effect, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s much more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artist is pleased with the spiral piece he completed for the show.\u00a0<\/b>He explains the difficulty with the pieces he makes: \u201cI try to push the structural possibilities of the clay while it is being built, and also afterward, while it is being fired, when the pieces start to become soft at the firing point. I have a certain number of losses,\u201d Burgos says. He frequently will study a form in drawings and templates before starting a piece, sketching \u201celevations, plans and sections to understand how to build it and how it will support itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tower was built and also fired on its side.\u00a0That was necessary so it wouldn\u2019t collapse, Burgos explains. Afterward, most pieces are stable on their own. \u201cI never know if they will stand up as I need them to, but most of the time I get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He has made three related pieces that he likes; one will be in the show of new work. The first piece sold at Phillips and \u201cto some it looked like an antelope and to others it looked like a Chinese symbol, so we decided it would be the Chinese symbol for an antelope,\u201d he says, laughing. The new piece clearly could come directly from\u00a0The I Ching<\/em>, but it is intended as a very abstracted antelope.\u00a0Another delightfully debatable figure, not in the show, is what Burgos describes as \u201cthe Chinese ideogram for a prancing deer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Burgos is inspired by geometry and music, specifically \u201cItalian Renaissance up to Mozart\u201d and Irish music. No incongruity there. Each has a very clear structure, he says, the melody is orderly. \u201cVery often in Renaissance and baroque music the rhythm and structure almost has a volume to it \u2013 it is organized the way an architectural building is organized. Listening to the music often urges me to sketch.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has said his main interest is in vessels, in those structures (natural or human-made) that can \u201ccontain and protect life in its multiplicity of form, a hard wall around an empty space . . .\u201d Most of his clay pieces start with a thin slab as a base. He says he then layers and pinches successive coils or wads of clay around the outside, what he terms one of the oldest clay-building techniques.<\/p>\n

Burgos has requested wall space for this show. He plans to install murals and free-standing structures of different sizes using wood dowels and porcelain connectors. It\u2019s an art form he developed when he had to transport the large, heavy ceramic pieces from his MFA show to Michigan from Utah. He wanted something in the future that was light and cheap to move. One time he used wine corks instead of porcelain to connect the dowels; another time he used no connectors at all. \u201cI figure out the angles I want the dowels to meet and the junction points and then I build the junction pieces I want the connectors to hold together. Very small variations in the spaces in the connectors will affect how the wood responds. I can assemble the same piece at different times and it will have a completely different impact on the viewer. That interests me,\u201d Burgos says. \u201cReferencing the metaphor of music, it\u2019s like a different interpretation every time I assemble it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nGallery-goers will have the opportunity to experience similar structures up close and personal. \u201cIf you poke it very gently, the whole piece quivers and sways like giant soap bubbles,\u201d Burgos says. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to invite viewers at the gallery to poke the pieces because they are very fragile. On the other hand, anyone who has worked with ceramics knows that to truly appreciate something you have to hold it, to touch it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, Phillips Gallery Director Meri DeCaria asks, in the very nicest way, that visitors please not touch the art.<\/p>\n

Francesc Burgos\u2018 sculptures will be on display at Salt Lake\u2019s\u00a0Phillips Gallery\u00a0March 19 to April 9, with a Gallery Stroll reception March 19, 6 to 9 pm.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A conversation with Francesc Burgos ranges from ancient ceramic firing methods to the way Mozart visualized a musical composition \u201calmost as a three-dimensional form\u201d before he ever wrote it down, a method not unlike this ceramist and sculptor\u2019s manner of creating his own work. That intellectual scope is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":844,"featured_media":2754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,14],"tags":[156,157],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artist_profiles","category-visual_arts","tag-francesc-burgos","tag-phillips-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/47s.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 23:03:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40148,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/40148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}