Lot 78

Larry E. Carnes Pottery Sculpture "Chickasaw Warrior"

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Lot 78
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Larry E. Carnes Pottery Sculpture "Chickasaw Warrior"
Larry E. Carnes Pottery Sculpture "Chickasaw Warrior"
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Larry E. Carnes Pottery Sculpture "Chickasaw Warrior"

Estimate: $800 - $1,200

Starting Bid: $400

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 6, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Larry E. Carnes (American, active XX-XXI century). "Chickasaw Warrior" pottery sculpture. Signed with artist's mark on verso. Label with title and artist's name on interior of base. Ca. 1980–2020 CE. A hand-built stoneware figure rises from a broad, bell-shaped torso to a small, tilted head, the proportions deliberately weighted toward mass and stillness. The wide body swells like a vessel, its surface worked in dense, cross-hatched incisions that catch a slate-gray wash over the warm buff clay, a tactile field that reads as woven garment or ceremonial hide. Above, the shaven head turns slightly, its features economical: heavy-lidded eyes, a strong nose, incised markings tracing cheek and brow like painted or tattooed insignia. The contrast between the monumental, near-abstract lower form and the intimate, watchful face gives the piece its quiet gravity. Carnes titles the work "Chickasaw Warrior," and the reverence he brings to Native American subject matter, filtered through decades of technical mastery, animates the figure less as portrait than as presence. Size: 10" W x 14.5" H x 7.4" D (25.4 cm W x 36.8 cm H x 18.8 cm D).

About the artist: Larry Carnes works clay the way a storyteller works silence, letting whimsy and technical mastery share the same hand. A graduate of Chouinard Art Institute with graduate training at Illinois State University, he arrived at ceramics by way of cartooning and industrial design, then never left.

His education continued for five decades under Otto Heino, the celebrated potter whose work commanded five figure prices before his death. That friendship shaped Carnes into a technical authority in his own right: for more than forty years he has served as advisor to California's major clay manufacturers, including a stint at Gladding McBean in the late 1990s. In an earlier turn of the same lineage, Beatrice Wood, the artist known as the Mama of Dada, studied under Carnes in the early 1960s.

Carnes built his reputation in the northern foothills of California before settling in Ojai, where his studio now sits at the entrance to the town's artist community. His Native American heritage runs through much of the work: a philosophy of reverence for people, animals, plants, and earth, expressed through recurring spherical forms and pieces like his Crow Ponies series.

That heritage found its fullest expression in the Chumash Stones, introduced in 2009 with the blessing of Chumash elders to use symbols drawn from the ancestral cave art surrounding Ojai. Each stone is hand formed, marked with a symbol, and fitted with a clay bead that produces a chime when moved. Carnes arranges them singly, in groupings with carved elder figures, or in wooden assemblies, with a portion of proceeds returned to the tribe. Every piece, from stone to vase to kiln god, carries his signature starburst mark, the quiet signature of a craftsman who has spent a lifetime turning heritage into form.

Provenance: private Denver, Colorado, USA collection; ex-Trautenberg Estate

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Item # 204038

  • Condition: Intact and in excellent overall condition.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000