The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 19

not produce porcelain until 1710, so the Dutch came
up with Delft, an imitation introduced around 1640. The
same development was happening in Italy, France and
other parts of Europe. Delft was earthenware with white
tin-glaze and decorated with cobalt. Tulip vases were one
of the most successful forms. It became a sought-after art
in the seventeenth century at the height of the Golden
Age with famous makers. It is this style of Dutch majolica
that Agee uses as her starting and departure point.
The tulip had another role at this time. It brought the
Dutch economy crashing down around 1670. Tulipmania or tulipomania (Dutch names include: tulpenmanie,
tulpomanie, tulpenwoede, tulpengekte and bollengekte)
was an overheated market in which futures on tulip bulbs

Ann Agee, Tulip Vase, 1994.

were sold at extraordinarily high prices. A single new
tulip strain of great beauty could command a fortune.
A single bulb of one favorite, the Viceroy, cost as much
as the annual wage of a skilled craftsman. When tulip
prices collapsed, it caused the first known financial

of extraordinary wealth and extravagance, which the tulip
and Delft represent. In this tier of vases (the traditional
tulip vases tower in shape), Agee creates a panoply of
postmodernist layering of time, culture, style, and context.

investment bubble. (Bubbles even today are often referred

Then there is its presence as a form. Agee has created

to as tulip-mania.) Given that Stephen worked in the

dramatic extensions of what a tulip vase is. It comes

financial sector, this no doubt had added resonance.

across as a demented octopus. There is movement; the

Then finally we take all of this (and it’s the short list) and we
connect it to Agee’s art. Her decoration is a contemporary
expression of Dutch ceramicists copying a Chinese original.
The figure painted on the vase is in the vernacular of today,

spouts seem to wave in the air and create a furious
linear energy, yet firmly anchor to the pot’s volumetric
center. It does not just sit there, it appears to be
reaching for something. No, it is not just a vase.

and represents a relative of the artist who ate bulbs to avoid

Edward Eberle is one of the finest draftsmen modern

starvation during the worst period of the Second World

ceramics has ever seen. It will not come as a surprise

War. Seen in the full historical context, that bulb eater has

to discover that two of the artist’s major influences are

greater pathos. Her near-starvation contrasts with a period

Greek pottery and old master drawings. But the third

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