Functional or Not

Adrian Saxe's Candle Lamp is a thing of beauty.

Born in Glendale, California, Adrian Saxe studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles from 1965 to 1969 and earned a B.F.A. degree at California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, in 1974. Saxe's vessels are nonfunctional. Often adorned with small sculptural appendages, they have classical shapes and traditional glazes.

To see this artwork in a simulated 3-D movie, go to our online exhibition The Renwick at 25.

Source: Kenneth R. Trapp and Howard Risatti. Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998).

Pictured: Adrian Saxe, born 1943, Untitled Oil Lamp, 1981, porcelain, 7 1/2 x 5 5/8 x 2 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of R. Ford Singletary from the collection of Randy M. Leonard.