SACRAMENTO, CA.- The Crocker Art Museum has received a gift of 37 works by ceramist Rob Barnard, one of the foremost practitioners of the wood-fired tradition. The collection, given by Rob Wood, brings to the Museum a fully developed view of Barnard’s studio practice up to the present. This generous gift enhances the Crocker’s ceramics holdings, contributing to its status as an international destination for the research and exhibition of contemporary ceramics.

Collector Rob Wood first became aware of Barnard’s work in 1988 and met Barnard later that year during the artist’s solo exhibition at Washington, D.C.’s Anton Gallery. Wood has been collecting Barnard’s work since that time. “What struck me about Barnard’s work then, and continues to resonate with me today, is just how complex ‘simple’ can be,” Wood said. “Barnard’s work is the physical manifestation of that riddle. It is everything the early 21st century is not—profoundly minimal, quiet and restrained—yet it is also unmistakably a product of our time.”

Barnard began studying pottery at the University of Kentucky in 1971. He went on to study under the distinguished Kazuo Yagi at Kyoto University of Fine Arts in 1974. He has participated in numerous juried and solo exhibitions in the United States and Japan. Currently, he is a lecturer in ceramics at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

“We are deeply appreciative of Mr. Wood’s generosity in making this gift to the Crocker Art Museum,” said Diana L. Daniels, associate curator, Crocker Art Museum. “Rob Barnard has been an influential maker, author, and advocate for ceramics appreciation. This gift makes us the first major museum to receive a thoughtfully developed survey of Barnard’s production.” An exhibition and catalogue of Barnard’s work is being planned.

“As one of the premier institutions in the United States committed to the field of international ceramics, the Crocker Art Museum is the obvious choice for this gift,” said Wood.

On October 10, 2010 the Crocker Art Museum will celebrate the public opening of its dramatic 125,000-square-foot expansion designed by Charles Gwathmey and Gwathmey Siegel and Associates Architects. The new Teel Family Pavilion complements the 125-year-old Crocker’s historic structures and more than triples the museum’s current size, enhancing its role as a cultural and educational resource for Sacramento and California’s many visitors. Extensive new galleries enable the Crocker to present an expanded program of traveling exhibitions and exhibit significantly more of its permanent collection, which has grown by more than 4,000 objects in the past decade.