Rose Cabat

1914Born

2015Died

EDUCATION

—Greenwich House, New York, New York

PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE

—Munitions plant during WWII

1940-2015Studio potter

BIOGRAPHY 

Rose Cabat worked in earthenware, stoneware, and beginning in the 1950s porcelain. Although best known for her expressive "feelies", small forms usually between two to eight inches in height with thin neck openings challenging their assumed vessel function. Cabat also created a series of wind-bells in the 1950s and other forms based on insects and animals.

Cabot, a self taught artist, first encountered clay as an artistic medium in 1940 when her husband, Erni, brought it home from work. Her first works were coil built, then, as electric wheels became increasingly available, she started throwing pottery. After a glaze calculation class at the University of Hawaii in 1956 she and Erni began developing the lustrous satin glazes used on her "feelies.” 

 An interview with Rose Cabat by Lisa Bunker done for the Perspectives of the Past Oral History Project is at the Pima County Public Library in Tucson, Arizona. 

Public Collections

American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, California

Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona

Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York

Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Kansas

Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

National Museum of American History, Washington, DC

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona

Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, California

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC

Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona

Bibliography

Block, Bruce. “A Visit with Rose Cabat.” Journal of the American Art Pottery Association. 20, no.4 (2004).

Kaplos, Janet and Bruce Metcalf. Makers: A History of American Studio Craft. Salem, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Rago, David and John Sollo. Collecting Modern: A Guide to Midcentury Studio Furniture and Ceramics. Salt Lake City, Utah: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2001.

Regan, Margaret. “Ninety and Nimble.” Tucson Weekly (October 7, 2004

Wolf, Peter. “Hooked on a Feelie.” Modernism (Spring 2005).

Southern Highland Craft Guild