Bruce bangert

Bruce Bangert
"Bineola "
Clay, 2000.
LCFA#2002:05:12

Biography

Bruce Bangert attended the Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, CA, before receiving an AA degree in architecture-engineering from the College of San Francisco in 1962. He received his BA in clay design and ceramic chemistry from San Jose University in 1966. Bangert studied at the Pond Farm workshops founded by Marguerite Wildenhain from 1961-1963. He later studied sculpture at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN, and clay at the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC. At Penland, he was a member of the Resident Program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

During his career, Bangert has been an instructor in various colleges and universities. From 1969-1983, he was the Head of the Aesthetics Studies Program in Ceramics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. After a year’s sabbatical, he opened a private studio in Santa Cruz, CA. In 1995 he founded the Higgins Canyon Sculpture Studio at Half Moon Bay, California. He has experience in bronze casting and mold making, black-smithing and steel fabrication, and industrial tile design.

Bangert has exhibited widely in galleries and museums. He also has had his art work featured in numerous magazines and books. He was the featured artist in an issue of Museum of Art & History in 1997.

The ceramic work by Bangert in the Fine Arts Collection is part of the Pond Farm Collection. It is a large, abstracted sculpture in vessel form (architectonic form) made from a series of slabs and voids. It is a pear shaped form on a slab base. The sculpture was reduction soda ash fired resulting in a reddish-orange-brown textured surface.

Ref: Bangert, Bruce and Laura Cera. “Symphonic Transformation in Nature & Architecture.” Ceramics: Art and Perception. Vol. 43. 2001; Ripples: Marguerite Wildenhain and her Pond Farm Students. Curated by Billie Sessions. San Bernardino, CA: California State University, 2002; Pond Farm Collection: Works of Art Created by Students Who Studied with Marguerite Wildenhain at her Pond Farm Studio. Text by Jane Kemp. Decorah, IA: Luther College, 2003; Fine Arts Collection files

Updated 02/06/2009