Book Party!

The Alfred Ceramic Art Museum is pleased to announce the publication of the hardcover book William Underhill: Casting a Legacy.

To celebrate the publication, a book party is scheduled at the Museum November 10, 2023, from 4:30 to 6pm during which the book is available at a reduced market price. Additionally, all Museum books and catalogues are being offered at a significantly, reduced rate. Everyone is invited to visit or revisit the current exhibitions and share in the celebration of the Museum’s latest publication on William Underhill. Refreshments will be served.

William Underhill: Casting a Legacy was published by the Museum in collaboration with Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, Germany. It serves as a compressive catalogue for the Museum’s retrospective exhibition of the same title held April 20 to December 30, 2022. The book was edited by Wayne Higby, the Director and Principal Curator of the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum who also wrote the introduction. The book contains the magnificent photography of Underhill’s work by his good friend Brian Oglesbee as well as an important biographical essay by Edward Lebow (AU BFA 1976). Also included is an insightful essay as a walk through the exhibition at the Museum by Mary Drach McInnes.

William Underhill: Casting a Legacy tracks the life and career of William (Bill) Underhill who taught sculpture at NYSCC School of Art and Design at Alfred University, 1969-1997. The detailed chronology is written by Edward Lebow with numerous, historical photos restored by Brian Oglesbee. Higby writes for the book: “I am reminded of the mythic ideal of the philosophers’ stone and the transmutation of base materials into an elixir of life and immortality. William Underhill’s magnum opus was the result of his deeply personal devotion to his alchemical enquiry into meaning. He found that his philosophers’ stone was hand and mind, emotion and spirit engaged without unnecessary interruption toward the goal of understanding the power of art.”

The book is dedicated to the memory of William Underhill and to his family who have become, so lovingly, the central caretakers of that memory. William Underhill was an extraordinary artist of major importance who passed away on February 16, 2022. He lives on in his art.