Working primarily in wood and ceramic, artist James Blain Blunk (1926–2002) developed a distinct style that drew upon the Japanese principle of directness as well as an unfaltering reverence for the qualities of natural materials. Taking archetypal forms and translating them instinctively through raw, salvaged materials, Blunk produced a body of work that represents an innate expression of, and conversation with, nature.
In the early 1950s, Blunk spent four formative years in Japan undertaking apprenticeships with master Japanese ceramicists Rosanjin Kitaoji and Kaneshige Toyo, who instructed him in the power of the elemental—earth, water, and fire—that would become fundamental to the character of his own work. He took these principles back to the US in 1954, eventually settling off the grid in Inverness, CA in 1958. There he built the Blunk House, a home and studio for his family using only salvaged materials, on an acre of land gifted from his friend and patron, the surrealist painter Gordon Onslow Ford.
Having produced both the structure and contents of the home single-handedly, from the wooden furniture to the ceramics used daily for eating and drinking, Blunk considered it his masterpiece. In a conversation with Olivia H. Emery for her 1977 book Craftsmans Lifestyle, JB said: ‘I consider this whole place—house, studio, fruit trees, vegetable garden and chickens—one big sculpture.’
Throughout his career, he moved seamlessly between ceramics, jewelry, painting, weaving, furniture and sculpture, allowing the techniques of one medium to inform another. Blunk began working with wood in the 1960s, first making stools and small tables and eventually earning commissions for large-scale pieces and public sculptures. His most recognizable works are monumental sculptural seating environments, each carved out of a single piece of salvaged wood, on which the public can eat, play, and sit. For a 1981 exhibition, the artist Isamu Noguchi aptly described Blunk’s creative process: ‘I like to think that the courage and independence JB has shown is typically Californian, or at least Western, with a continent between to be free from the categories that are called art. Here the links seem to me more to the open sky and spaces, and the far reaches of time from where comes the burled stumps of those great trees.’
Blunk is represented by BLUM (Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo), Kasmin (New York), and Kate MacGarry (London). His work has been exhibited widely, including a retrospective exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA (2018), and a two-person show with sculptor Alma Allen at the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA (2018). A major monograph on the artist was published in 2020 by Blunk Books and Dent–De–Leone and is now in its third edition. Blunk’s work is in public collections worldwide, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; M+ Museum, Hong Kong, China; Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, among others.
JB Blunk, Inverness, California, 1969. Photo Mimi Jacobs.
JB Blunk, Northern California, c. 1968. Photo Gordon Ashby.
JB Blunk and Toyo Kaneshige in the studio, Bizen, Japan, c. 1952.
JB Blunk working on Santa Cruz (Blunk’s Hunk), 1968. Photo Geoffrey P Fulton.
Chronology
Shoji Hamada in his studio, Japan, c. 1955.
JB Blunk, Little Man, c. 1956.
JB Blunk working on the roof of Gordon Onslow Ford and Jacqueline Johnson’s house, Bishop Pine Preserve, Inverness, California, c. 1958.
Nancy Waite Harlow building the Blunk House, c. 1960. Photo JB Blunk.
JB Blunk bench in Leonard Park in Mt. Kisco, New York, 1966.
JB Blunk carving a sculpture, c. 1968. Photo Gordon Ashby.
JB Blunk, Greens, 1979.
Rick Yoshimoto and JB Blunk working on Station Hill, Lunny Ranch, Point Reyes, California, 1987. Photo Art Rogers.
JB Blunk in his studio, Inverness, California, c. 1988. Photo Jan Watson.
JB Blunk, Six Stones, 1993, Stanford University.
JB Blunk, c. 2000. Photo Jan Watson
1926
Born 28 August in Ottawa, Kansas
1946
Moves to Santa Monica, CA. Studies ceramics at UCLA under Laura Andreson. Sees exhibition of ceramics by Shoji Hamada
1949
Earns B.A. from University of California at Los Angeles
1949 – 1950
Sails and works in West Indies, including Haiti
1950
Drafted into service during the Korean War. Trains in Japan.
1952
Meets Yoshiko (Shirley) Yamaguchi and Isamu Noguchi in Takumi, a mingei store in Tokyo, while on leave. Discharged from the army.
1952 – 1954
Lives and works in Japan as an apprentice to two Japanese National Treasures: Kitaoji Rosanjin in Kamakura (4 months), and Kaneshige Toyo in Bizen (1 year).
1954
First exhibition of artworks at Chuo-Koron Gallery, Tokyo, organized by Isamu Noguchi, August 9–14.
1954 – 1955
Returns to the US. Artist in Residence at Palos Verdes College in Rolling Hills, CA. Meets his first wife, Nancy Waite Harlow. Begins making jewelry.
1955
Moves to Plantation, Northern California; works at Farm Camp, a rural children’s camp and sheep ranch. Builds his first wood-fired kiln on the camp’s property.
1956
Moves to Inverness, CA.
1957
Isamu Noguchi introduces JB Blunk to Gordon Onslow Ford. First son Bruno Blunk born 3 November1957.
1958
Helps construct roof of Onslow Ford’s house in Inverness (designed by Warren Callister). Gordon Onslow Ford gifts JB Blunk & Nancy Waite Harlow one acre of land on his property.
1959–1962
JB Blunk and Nancy Waite Harlow build their house with salvaged materials. Blunk learns to use a chainsaw. Works odd jobs, principally wood cutting and carpentry. Second son Rufus Blunk born 16 February 1959.
1962
Carves first wood sculpture with a chainsaw.
1965
Separates from Nancy Waite Harlow.
1966
Completes first public work, a bench in Leonard Park in Mt. Kisco, NY.
1967
Meets Gordon Ashby at Warren Callister’s party. Ashby introduces JB Blunk to Paul Mills, Director of Oakland Museum, and other important patrons.
1968
Lawrence Halprin commissions the first permanent, site-specific public seating installation, Santa Cruz (known as “Blunk’s Hunk”) for Stevenson College at UC Santa Cruz. Meets his second wife, Christine Nielson.
1969
Completes seating installation The Planet at Oakland Museum of California. Completes seating installation The Ark at the Prairie School in Racine, WI.
1969–1970
Travels to Mexico, Peru, Haiti, and Guatemala with Christine Nielson.
1971
Receives Apprenticeship Grant from Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Completes seating installation Lattin at the Weyerhaeuser Company in Tacoma, WA. Completes seating installation 3-scape (Threescape) at Grubb & Ellis in Oakland, CA.
1974
Completes seating installation The Muse at The Experiment in International Living in Brattleboro, VT.
1976
Completes seating installation at Tassajara Mountain Zen Center in Carmel, CA.
1977
Meets Rick Yoshimoto in Inverness, CA. Hires Rick to assist him.
1978
Receives California State Art in Public Places Program competition award for sculpture. Daughter Mariah Nielson Blunk born 15 November 1978.
1979
Receives Cultural Exchange Travel Grant to Indonesia, U.S.I.C.A. Completes seating installation The Magic Boat at the Orientation Center for the Blind, Albany, CA. Completes seating installation at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, CA.
1983
Travels to Japan. Completes seating installation The Fallen Giant at Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley.
1984
Completes seating installation Alpha + 2 at the public library in Thousand Oaks, CA.
1984
Completes seating installation at Martinelli Park in Inverness, CA.
1985
Starts biennial ceramics show with Rick Yoshimoto at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station, continues until 1993.
1986
Receives California State Art in Public Places Program competition award for sculpture.
1987
Completes seating installation Station Hill at the Menlo Park, CA Caltrain station. Completes seating installation Santa Fe at Desert Cafe Restaurant in Santa Fe, NM.
1988
Receives First Prize and Honorable Mention for Garden Design in the UC Davis Arboretum International Design Arts Competition as part of a team with a landscape architect.
1989
Lectures at California College of Arts and Craft (now CCA), San Francisco, CA.
1990
Art Consultant to Land Studio Landscape Architects, MW Steele Group Architects, and architect Raphael Garcia on Kansas City Cultural Corridor proposal for the Brush Creek Waterway.
1993
Completes seating installation Rolling Stone in Mountain View, CA. Completes seating installation Six Stones (or “Group of Six”) at the Littlefield Center, Stanford University.
2002
Dies 15 June in Inverness, CA.
CV
Exhibitions
2024 Continuum, Martell Foundation, Cognac, France
2024 JB Blunk, BLUM, Los Angeles, CA
2024 Inner Space, Future Perfect, Los Angeles, CA
2023 100 Hooks, Blunk Space, Point Reyes, CA
2023 Rick Yoshimoto & JB Blunk, Best Western, Santa Fe, NM
2023 JSP JBB: James Sterling Pitt and JB Blunk, Blunk Space, Point Reyes, CA
2022 Gordon Onslow Ford and JB Blunk, Blunk Space, Point Reyes, CA
2022 Three Landscapes: JB Blunk, Anna and Lawrence Halprin, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
2022 Muse: JB Blunk, Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY
2022 Bright Garden: JB, Bruno & Rufus Blunk, Blunk Space, Point Reyes, CA
2022 Three Landscapes: JB Blunk, Anna and Lawrence Haplrin, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
2022 FOG Design + Art Fair, with Leslie Williamson and Blum & Poe, San Francisco, CA
2021 Lives of an Object, ARCH, Athens, Greece
2021 Three Forms: JB Blunk, Blunk Space, Point Reyes, CA
2021 New Iconography: Artists Raising Children, The Landing, Los Angeles, CA
2021 Objects: USA 2020, R & Company, New York, NY
2021 Between Earth and Sky, Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Blue Jeans & Brown Clay: Artists and Designers at the JB Blunk House, Kate MacGarry, London, UK
2020 JB Blunk, Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY
2019 Dallas Art Fair, with Reform/the Landing, Dallas, TX
2019 In Conversation: Alma Allen and JB Blunk, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
2019 Ship of Dreams: Artists, Poets, and Visionaries of the S.S. Vallejo, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA
2019 FOG Design + Art Fair, with Reform/the Landing, San Francisco, CA
2018 JB Blunk, Kate MacGarry, London, UK
2018 Frieze New York, Blum & Poe, New York, NY
2018 Ship of Dreams: Artists, Poets, and Visionaries of the S.S. Vallejo, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, CA
2018 JB Blunk: Nature, Art & Everyday Life, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
2018 Marin Collects, College of Marin Fine Arts Gallery, Kentfield, CA
2018 Designed in California, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
2018 In Conversation: Alma Allen and JB Blunk, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA
2018 FOG Design + Art Fair, with Reform/The Landing and Blum & Poe, San Francisco, CA
2017 Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia, The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
2017 Chair Stories, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA
2016 JB Blunk, Blum & Poe, Tokyo, Japan
2015 JB Blunk: painting, drawing, sculpture, the Landing, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Art and Other Tactics, Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA
2012 Frieze Art Fair with Blum & Poe, New York, NY
2011 Big A@# Sculpture Show, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 Crafting Modernism, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
2010 The Anniversary Show, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
2010 Frieze Art Fair, Blum & Poe, New York, NY
2010 Solo show, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
2008 SF20 Design Fair with Reform Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Design Miami/Basel with Reform Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
2007 Design Miami/Basel with Reform Gallery, Miami, FL
2005 Solo show, Dance Palace Community Center, Point Reyes Station, CA
2000 Solo show, California Spirit, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA
1999 Group show with John Anderson, Eubank Studio, Point Reyes Station, CA
1991 Group show, Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA
1989 Solo show, Sculptures, Ceramics, Stone, Wood, Smith Anderson Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
1986 Solo show, A Sculptor’s Place, San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
1984 Solo show, Pickard Galleries, Oklahoma City, OK
1984 Solo show of ceramics, 100 Plates Plus, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
1983 Group show, David Cole Gallery, Inverness, CA
1982 Group show, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
1982 Solo show of ceramics, J.B. Blunk: 100 Plates, University of North Dakota, ND
1981 Solo show of ceramics, 100 + Plates by J.B. Blunk, Art Space, Santa Monica, CA
1981 Solo show of ceramics, 100 Plates Plus, David Cole Gallery, Inverness, CA
1978 Group show, Galerie Schreiner, Basel, Switzerland
1978 Solo show, Sculptures 1952-1977, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
1977 Group show, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
1976 Sculpture in the Bay Area, James Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1974 Outdoor Sculpture, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
1973 Group show, Lester Gallery, Inverness, CA
1970 With These Hands, ABC Documentary Film
1969 Objects USA, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
1965 Group show, Egg and the Eye Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1958 East/West Exhibition, San Francisco Museum, San Francisco, CA
1956 Group show at the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
1954 Solo show, Chuo-Koron Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Catalogs
100 Hooks, Blunk Space, December 2023
JSP JBB: James Sterling Pitt and JB Blunk, Blunk Space, January 2023
Gordon Onslow Ford & JB Blunk, Blunk Space, November 2022
Cups, plates, bowls and sculptures: ceramics 1950 – 1999, Dent De Leone, December 2016
JB Blunk: painting, drawing, sculpture, the Landing, 2015
Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design, Museum of Art and Design, New York, 2011
JB Blunk, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, California, 2010
JB Blunk: A collection of work from 1952 – 1992, SF 20/Reform Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2008
JB Blunk: California Spirit, Bolinas Museum, California, 2000
JB Blunk: 100 Plates, Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma, 1984
JB Blunk: Sculpture, Pickard Galleries, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1984
Books
Objects: USA 2020, Glenn Adamson (R & Company, The Monacelli Press: 2020)
JB Blunk (Blunk Books, Dent de Leone: 2020)
Alma Allen & JB Blunk: In Conversation, ed. Brooke Hodge (August Editions: 2019)
The Once and Future Forest, Save the Redwoods League (Heyday: 2018)
Handcrafted Modern, Leslie Williamson (Rizzoli International Publications: 2010)
Modern Americana: Studio Furniture from High Craft to High Gloss, Todd Merrill and Julia V. Levine (Rizzoli International Publications: 2008)
The Makers Hand: American Studio Furniture, 1940 – 1990, Edward S. Cook Jr., Gerald W. R. Ward, Kelly H. L'Ecuyer (MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts Boston: 2003)
Contemporary Natural, Phyllis Richardson (Thames & Hudson Ltd: 2002)
Craftsman Lifestyle: the Gentle Revolution, Olivia H. Emery (A California Design Publication: 1976)
Handmade Houses: A Guide to Woodbutcher's Art, Art Boericke and Barry Shapiro (Scrimshaw Press: 1973)
Objects: USA, Lee Nordness (Viking Press: 1970)
Press & Discussions
Press
New York Times, October 2024
Milk Decoration, August 2024
Monocle, August 2024
Architectural Digest, August 2024
Cabana, July 2024
Wallpaper*, July 2024
M Le Monde, July 2024
Wallpaper*, July 2024
Dezeen, June 2024
Cultured Mag, June 2024
Whitewall, June 2024
Le Figaro, June 2024
Design Considered, June 2024
Harper’s Bazaar France, June 2024
intramuros, June 2024
e-flux, June 2024
Sud Ouest Dimanche, June 2024
Charente Libre, June 2024
Art Daily, June 2024
Artnet, June 2024
The Grand Tourist, May 2024
Ocula, May 2024
Whitewall, May 2024
Art Daily, May 2024
Galerie, May 2024
American Craft, May 2024
Cultured Mag, May 2024
Family Style Magazine, May 2024
Architectural Digest, March 2024
1stDibs, March 2024
Galerie Magazine, March 2024
Wallpaper Mag, March 2024
LA Times, February 2024
Surface Mag, February 2024
Beaux Arts, January 2024
C Magazine, November 2023
Untapped, October 2023
Marin IJ, July 2023
Wallpaper*, July 2023
Creative Voyage, June 2023
Artnet, November 2022
Cultured Mag, November 2022
TOAST, February 2022
Hole & Corner Issue 22: Family, January 2022
The Lost Chapter by Leslie Williamson, December 2021
The Guardian/The Observer Magazine, October 2021
Studio AHEAD, September 2021
Elle Decor China, September 2021
MarinArts, August 2021
Sabato, March 2021
Milk Decoration 35, 2021
Apollo, October 2020
The Design Edit, October 2020
Design Miami, October 2020
Cultured, October 2020
Financial Times, September 2020
Hole & Corner, August 2020
AnOther, July 2020
Totokaelo, July 2020
Cereal, July 2020
Antiques and The Arts Weekly, July 2020
Departures, June 2020
Wallpaper*, Summer 2020
T Magazine, May 2020
Studio Potter, May 2020
World of Interiors, November 2018
Frieze profile, September 2018
Architectural Digest, July 2018
San Francisco Chronicle, exhibition review, June 2018
C Magazine, May 2018
San Francisco Magazine, April 2018
The New Order, Vol. 18, Spring/Summer 2018
Wallpaper, February 2018
La Garconne, February 2018
Architectural Digest, February 2018
SPACES, Marin Magazine, Winter/Spring 2018
Modern Magazine, Winter 2018
Remodelista, Issue 51, December 2017
her. Magazine, Volume 04, 2017
MacGuffin Magazine, Issue No. 4 – The Sink, 2017
Mohawk Maker Quarterly, Issue 11, 2017
Art Agenda exhibition review, January 2017
Frieze exhibition review, January 2017
New York Times Style Magazine, November 2016
Apartamento, Issue 18, 2016
Maharam Stories, October 2016
The Modern House, April 2016
New York Times, November 2015
Cultured Magazine, Winter 2015
Apartamento, Issue 08, 2013
Man of the World, No. 4, 2013
Casa/Brutus, August 2012
ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST Germany, March 2012
Wallpaper, January 2012
Apartamento, Spring/Summer 2011
Dwell, November 2010
Casa/Brutus, November 2010
C Magazine, May 2009
California Home & Design, July 2008
American Craft, October/November 2007
World of Interiors, June 2000
Woodwork - Magazine for All Woodworkers, October 1999