Teapots for every taste

One of my very favorite quotations -- a wonderfully concise statement in which I’ve always sensed a subtle, almost startling profundity -- I discovered on the label of a tea bag. It reads: “I am glad I was not born before tea.”

Originally uttered by British clergyman and essayist Sidney Smith (1771-1845), the line appears, quite fittingly, in “The Artful Teapot: 20th-Century Expressions From the Kamm Collection,” a charming, if artistically uneven, exhibition now at the Long Beach Museum of Art. By the time you reach the quote -- which is on a panel between a number of old traveling teapots and a cube-shaped set designed for use on the Cunard Steamship Line -- you would be hard-pressed not to agree, so appealing is the beauty of this ubiquitous object.

With more than 250 teapots from what is purportedly the largest such collection in the United States, if not the world -- that of Irvine residents Sonny and Gloria Kamm -- it’s certainly the most exhaustive show of its kind in recent memory. From the traditional to the experimental to the ridiculous, there’s something here for just about every taste, which creates a pleasantly cheerful atmosphere.

As is often the case, however, variety and accessibility come at the cost of a certain sophistication. Although there are a number of truly fine objects on display here -- a stunning 19th century Chinese teapot made from purple fluorite, for example, and an exquisitely graceful contemporary design by Taiwanese ceramicist Ah Leon -- there are just as many that could pass as roadside kitsch: one shaped like Mr. Potato Head; one Elvis; one with the body of a plucked chicken and the head of Col. Sanders; and one covered, strangely, in frogs and Oreo cookies.

What’s more, because the exhibition is divided thematically rather than by region, period or style -- there are illusionistic teapots (resembling people, animals, plants, buildings and automobiles), teapots made with unusual materials, mechanically novel teapots and so on -- distinctions of quality and historical significance often are lost. Although there is a certain thrift-store pleasure to moving through such a dense assortment of objects, it’s unfortunate to see genuinely captivating works such as Akio Takamori’s beautifully painted “Man on Giant Beast Teapot” (1990) adrift amid sillier fare such as Armilla Marie Burden’s baby blue bow-tied “Poodle Teapot” (1995), or to find an intriguing assortment of mass-produced 1930s-era British ceramics (several shaped like little English cottages, others like nursery rhyme characters) severed from their cultural context.

These problems are, in many ways, extensions of that basic frustration of a collector-driven exhibition: namely being trapped inside the typically obsessive, yet ultimately rather capricious realm of an individual’s (or couple’s) taste. In this case, that taste leans toward work that is clever, amiable and recent, leaving this viewer longing for a more consistent historical range (objects from the 1980s and 1990s are the most plentiful here but by far the least interesting) as well as more from the rigorous traditions of China and Japan, which appear only marginally. (“Coffee, Tea or Chocolate?,” a smaller adjacent exhibition that was organized by the museum and is not traveling with the larger show, is a welcome corollary, providing historical and cultural background information as well as a lovely selection of domestic implements, Eastern as well as Western, from the last 350 years.)

The curator of “The Artful Teapot,” it’s worth pointing out, is Garth Clark, a noted ceramic scholar as well as a prominent dealer. (He had a gallery in L.A. from 1981 to 1994 and has had another in New York since 1983.) Although there are valid questions to be raised about the propriety of a dealer showcasing a collection, these are at least compensated, if not overruled, by the clear expertise he brings to the extensive catalog, the introduction to which -- a condensed cultural history of tea -- is particularly enjoyable.

The show makes the case that no matter how many decorative doodads you pile on, it’s difficult to beat the traditional arrangement of a bulbous belly, spout and handle. The most striking works in the exhibition are those that take this form seriously and let decoration emanate accordingly: a just-slightly-twisted black vessel by renegade potter George E. Ohr (circa 1900); a sleek, creamy beige earthenware set designed for mass production by Otto Lindig in Germany in 1929; two contemporary anonymous Hawaiian teapots made from smoothed coconut shells; and the wonderfully delicate “Neptune Tea Set” (Ireland, circa 1880), each piece of which is ivory-trimmed with soft green and resembles a seashell.

Among the more recent, artistically minded examples, the most memorable are the quixotic designs of Takamori (as mentioned above); Anne Kraus’ narrative teapots, which are painted with figurative scenes and text; and Adrian Saxe’s “Muffy” (1994) and the “Little Shepherdess Teapot” (1973), delightfully tart renditions of the once-popular crinoline teapot, in which the upturned spout has been strategically shifted to the front region of the skirt.

The spirit of tea, whether practiced in its Eastern or Western form, is one of generosity -- a fact that is embodied in the very shape of the teapot itself and thus informs the exhibition as a whole. Despite its limitations, the show is a heartening affair that might just leave you appreciatively thirsty.

*

‘The Artful Teapot: 20th-Century Expressions From the Kamm Collection’

Where: Long Beach Museum of Art, 2300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach

When: Tuesdays-Sundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Ends: Sept. 14

Price: $4-$5

Contact: (562) 439-2119