Doyle Lane (1925-20020, an African American potter, was based in California. While at the University of Southern California he studied with Vivika Heino and Carlton Ball.
His work ranged from beaded necklaces to delicate vases he called weed pots to ceramic sculptures to clay paintings and large scale wall mosaics. The Orange Wall, commissioned for 301 E. Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena at 18 feet long is one of his largest mosaics. This piece is now installed at The Huntington Library in San Marion, CA.
Lane’s clay paintings were often round with areas defined by color fields or they were composed of pieces that had been cut from the whole, glazed and then reassembled. Typically the clay paintings are mounted on a wooden background.
A glaze specialist, in the Glen Lukens tradition, he developed glazes to enhance his small simple forms. They often crawl, bubble, crack and melt off the lower edges of his pieces.
Lane, whose work is in the collection of the California African American Museum in Los Angeles and was featured in a Venice Biennale show in 2015, was apparently a modest man. “I don’t think an artist should really put his work on a pedestal because he isn’t the one to determine the aesthetic value,” he said in a 1981 interview with Studio Potter magazine. “When someone buys a piece of work, that is the only compliment. Anything else could just be flattery.”
