Happy Hour: Adelaide Robineau: Breaking the Porcelain Ceiling

Adelaide Alsop Robineau, (1865-1929) is considered one of America’s preeminent studio potters. She began her ceramics career as a china painter, painting designs on porcelain blanks produced by other craftsmen. After moving to Syracuse with her husband in 1901, Robineau started experimenting with making her own porcelain forms.

She quickly became a master of the medium, known for decorative techniques that included intricate excising and carving away of clay. Robineau developed an innovative approach to glazing her ceramics, experimenting with, and perfecting complex crystalline glazes in greens, blues, ivory, and gold.

In 1910, Adelaide Robineau created The Scarab Vase, a porcelain masterpiece that famously took 1,000 hours of laborious hand-carving to complete. Garth Johnson, the Everson Museum of Art’s Paul Phillips and Sharon Sullivan Curator of Ceramics will explain how Robineau sparked a revolution in ceramics, and why she deserves to be seen as a feminist icon.

This ESU Happy Hour is sponsored by the Syracuse Branch. ESU Happy Hour programs are online, free to attend, and open to all members and the public. Registration is required to receive the webinar link.

About Garth Johnson

Writer, curator, and educator, Garth Johnson is the Paul Phillips and Sharon Sullivan Curator of Ceramics at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York. Before arriving at the Everson, Johnson served as the Curator of Ceramics at the Arizona State University Ceramics Research Center. Johnson has also exhibited his work and published his writing nationally and internationally, including contributions to the recent books Funk published by Natsoulas Press and Funk You Too: Humor and Irreverence in Ceramic Sculpture published by the Museum of Arts and Design. 

Johnson is a self-described craft activist who explores the craft’s influence and relevance in the 21st century. His research interests range from 1960s and 70s artist-led movements in the field of ceramics to the intersection of clay, video, and performance.

Cocktail
 
Old Pal
The Old Pal is a Prohibition-era cocktail, a variation of the Negroni, made with equal parts rye whiskey, Campari, and dry vermouth, typically stirred and garnished with a lemon twist. It is known for being drier and spicier than its cousin, the Boulevardier (which uses sweet vermouth), with the rye providing a peppery kick.

Ingredients
1 oz Rye Whiskey, 1 oz Campari, 1 oz Dry Vermouth, and Lemon peel for garnish.
Use French vermouth to celebrate Robineau’s French husband, Samuel, plus Campari to celebrate Robineau’s triumph at the 1911 World’s Fair in Turin, Italy.
Combine all three liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. 
Stir until well-chilled (about 30 seconds). 
Strain into a chilled coupe or rocks glass (with a large ice cube). 
Garnish with a lemon twist, expressing the oils over the drink before dropping it in.