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EDUCATION
1965 BA Art, St. Cloud State College, St. Cloud, Minnesota
1970 MFA Ceramics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE
1968-1969 Teaching Assistant, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1969-1970 Assistant Professor, Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
1970-2002 Professor, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, Wisconsin
2002—Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, Wisconsin
BIOGRAPHY
Karl Borgeson is known for wheel thrown or, occasionally, hand built, utilitarian stoneware and porcelain pottery. Borgeson develops fine line work on the surface of each piece using the mishima technique. The mishima surface motifs on his pieces include basket weave, checkerboard or parallel line patterns are influenced by African and Indonesian architecture, textiles, baskets and tribal masks.
Mishima is developed in the greenware stage, where leatherhard pots are coated with wax and incised with fine carving tools to develop a design. Later, colored slip or underglaze is applied to the incised line work. The excess slip or underglaze is then sponged off the waxed surface of the pot to reveal the intricately incised lines, usually black in Borgeson's work.
Upon glazing his work, Borgeson casts wood ash over glazed areas in the tacky state. In addition to the wood ash added to the glaze surface, a small amount of salt is introduced into the kiln atmosphere during firing; encouraging salt glaze development on raw clay mishima-designed areas of each piece. Finished work typically incorporates graphically placed areas of glazed and unglazed surfaces.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Bindley Collection, Middelton, Wisconsin
Byer Museum of the Arts, Chicago, Illinois
Columbia Pictures, Burbank, California
First Bank System, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin
Regional Museum of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois
St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota
St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Telephone, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Clark, Garth. American Ceramics: 1876 to the Present. New York, NY: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1987.
“Clay, Wood & Salt.” Ceramics Monthly 53 (2005).
Levin, Elaine. History of American Ceramics: From Pipkins and Bean Pots to Contemporary Forms., 1607 to the Present. New York, NY: Harry N Abrams, 1988.
MacKenzie, Warren, David Lewis, Lyndel Saunders King, and Susan M. Brown. Warren MacKenzie, Potter: a Retrospective. Minneapolis, MN: University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, 1989.
WEBSITE(S):
http://karlborgesonceramics.com/home.html
Citation: "The Marks Project." Last modified June 30, 2023. http://www.themarksproject.org:443/marks/borgeson