Enamels

Enameling—the process of fusing powdered glass onto a metal surface through kiln firing—gained popularity in the United States in the early 20th century. Its development was shaped by three major traditions: the Arts and Crafts movement, Viennese modernism, and the French Limoges school. Over time, artists combined techniques from these traditions to develop their own innovative approaches and forms.

_{Installation view of the enamels galleries.}

More than 200 enamel artworks, generously gifted to the Crocker Art Museum by the Enamel Arts Foundation in 2021, illuminate this rich history. To showcase this significant gift, the Museum opened two gallery spaces displaying enamels from the collection. With 130 artworks on view, including jewelry, vessel-inspired forms, sculpture, and wall-mounted panels, the galleries highlight a wide range of styles and techniques that trace the evolution of enameling across the 20th and 21st centuries.

_{Little Dreams in Glass and Metal: Enameling in America, 1920 to the Present, Crocker Art Museum, June 19–September 11, 2016.}

The gift from the Enamel Arts Foundation followed the Crocker’s presentation of the traveling exhibition Little Dreams in Glass and Metal: Enameling in America, 1920 to the Present in 2016. The exhibition brought together 122 works from the Enamel Arts Foundation’s collection highlighting themes including nature, still life, spirituality, and abstraction. Taken together, the works shown in the exhibition and those gifted to the Museum’s collection demonstrate how artists pushed the boundaries of enamel, moving it beyond its traditional association with small, precious objects into a medium capable of large-scale sculpture—one that aligns with the innovations in postwar painting and sculpture.

_{“California Crafts,” Sacramento Bee (March 16, 1969). Pictured from left to right are CALS members Virginia Burd, Susan Willoughby, Dora Hunter, Barbara Herberholz.}

Prior to these projects, visitors to the Crocker would have encountered contemporary enamels in the long-running California Crafts exhibition series. Organized biannually from 1959 through 1989, California Crafts was a juried exhibition organized by the Creative Arts League of Sacramento (CALS). Founded in 1952 by ten women, the CALS worked with Crocker staff to showcase local artists at a time when the region offered few public opportunities to exhibit. The inaugural 1959 exhibition debuted with a lively selection of enamels by artists who would eventually become part of the Crocker’s collection, including Los Angeles–based Zella Eckels Marggraf and Sausalito artist June Schwarcz, the latter earning an honorable mention for her enameled copper bowl. A similar work by Schwarcz titled Dragonfly Tray (1950–1960) is currently on view.

_{Installation image of California Crafts II in 1961 featuring a display case including works in enamel and metal such as two etched enamel bowls by Dextra Frankel.}

Among the artists most closely associated with both CALS and the Crocker was Sacramento enamellist Fred Uhl Ball, whose work is well represented in the collection. Widely regarded as one of the most innovative enamel artists of the 20th century, Ball studied enameling with his mother and CALS member, Kathryn Uhl Ball. Before earning both his BA and MA from California State University, Sacramento, Ball’s work was accepted into local art competitions, including the California State Fair and the Thirty-Seventh Annual Kingsley Exhibition in 1962. The Crocker presented a solo exhibition of his work in 1974, followed by a CALS-organized retrospective in 1987.

_{Kurt Edward Fishback (American, born 1942), Fred Ball, 1980. Gelatin silver print, 12 x 18 1/2 in. Crocker Art Museum, gift of the Artist, 1987.6.}

This rich exhibition and collection history, paired with the galleries of enamels on view, demonstrates the deep ties of enamel art to the Sacramento region and to the Museum’s commitment to this artistic tradition. Thanks to generous gifts from collectors, the collection has significantly expanded to incorporate both historic and contemporary works and bringing a diverse range of artistic voices and visions into dialogue.

References:

Bernard N. Jazzar and Harold B. Nelson. Little Dreams in Glass and Metal: Enameling in America 1920 to the Present. Los Angeles: The Enamel Arts Foundation, 2016.

Bernard N. Jazzar and Harold B. Nelson. Fred Ball Enamels. Los Angeles: The Enamel Arts Foundation, 2009.

Creative Arts League of Sacramento and the Crocker Art Museum. Material Witness: Masters from California Crafts. Sacramento: Crocker Art Museum, 2000.

The Kingsley Art Club. A Tribute Exhibition: Works on Paper and Sculpture by Selected Crocker-Kingsley Artists. Sacramento: Crocker Art Museum, 1991.

Creative Arts League of Sacramento. California Crafts XV: Fred Uhl Ball Retrospective. Sacramento: Crocker Art Museum, 1987.