In the catalogue for Robert Turner’s 1986 retrospective, philosopher Kenneth Westphal wrote, “There is nothing accidental or arbitrary in Turner’s pots, and yet there is nothing in them that is forced or contrived. Their combination of necessity and grace is achieved only by Turner’s sensitivity to the materials and structures he uses and to the content they express.” Turner began focusing on abstract vessel forms rather than utilitarian forms in the late 1960s and he often drew inspiration from his various travels across the American Southwest as well as more distant places such as West Africa. He primarily created conical, domed, and cylindrical forms in reds, white, and dark browns, as seen in the present offering, which are all exquisite examples of the artist’s commitment to this restrained vocabulary of forms and palette of glazes. Robert Turner’s work belongs to museum collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others.