{
"data": {
"id": 133469,
"accession_number": "1956.116",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Free Form Fruit Bowl, 1955. Frederick A. Miller (American, Cleveland, 1913\u20132000). Silver; overall: 16.6 x 26.8 x 21 cm (6 9/16 x 10 9/16 x 8 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Silver Jubilee Treasure Fund, 1956.116",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Free Form Fruit Bowl",
"creation_date": "1955",
"creation_date_earliest": 1955,
"creation_date_latest": 1955,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America, Ohio, Cleveland"
],
"technique": "silver",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Decorative Art and Design",
"collection": "Decorative Arts",
"type": "Silver",
"measurements": "Overall: 16.6 x 26.8 x 21 cm (6 9/16 x 10 9/16 x 8 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.166,
"width": 0.268,
"depth": 0.21
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 301164,
"title": "The May Show: 38th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen",
"description": "The May Show: 38th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 2-June 10, 1956).",
"opening_date": "1956-05-02T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 701740,
"title": "Craftsmanship in a Changing World",
"description": "Craftsmanship in a Changing World. Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (organizer) (September 29-November 4, 1956).",
"opening_date": "1956-09-29T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 518724,
"title": "Work of Frederick A. Miller",
"description": "Work of Frederick A. Miller. Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (organizer) (February 17-March 5, 1961).",
"opening_date": "1961-02-17T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 517806,
"title": "Fine Arts Award Exhibition: Frederick A. Miller",
"description": "Fine Arts Award Exhibition: Frederick A. Miller. The Women's City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 25-April 25, 1968).",
"opening_date": "1968-03-25T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 221961,
"title": "Bringing Modernism Home: Ohio Decorative Arts, 1890-1960",
"description": "Bringing Modernism Home: Ohio Decorative Arts, 1890-1960. Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (organizer) (January 28-April 17, 2005).",
"opening_date": "2005-01-28T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 213443,
"title": "Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design",
"description": "Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design. Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (September 16, 2005-January 22, 2006); Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV (February 18-May 14, 2006); The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (organizer) (June 18-September 24, 2006); The Wolfsonian - Florida International University, Miami, FL (November 17, 2006-March 25, 2007); The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN (April 22-July 15, 2007).",
"opening_date": "2005-09-16T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 198152,
"title": "In Honor of The Cleveland Arts Prize",
"description": "In Honor of The Cleveland Arts Prize. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 13, 2010-March 13, 2011).",
"opening_date": "2010-06-13T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Columbus Museum of Art (1/28/2005 - 4/17/2005): \"Bringing Modernism Home, Ohio Decorative Arts, 1890-1960\", ex. cat. no. 66, p. 134.",
"opening_date": "2005-01-28T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Dallas Museum of Art (organizer). Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (9/16/2005 - 1/22/2006), Nevada Art Museum (2/2006 - 5/2006), Dallas Art Museum, TX (6/2006 - 9/2006), The Wolfsonian - Florida International University (11/2006 - 3/2007), and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN (4/22/2007 - 7/15/2007)",
"opening_date": "2005-09-16T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art (06/13/2010 - 11/4/2010): \"In Honor of the Cleveland Arts Prize\"",
"opening_date": "2010-06-13T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"1486.1956"
],
"did_you_know": "Fred Miller made this bowl by hand from a single disc of silver.",
"description": "Frederick Miller was an exceptional silversmith who reintroduced the look, if not the technique, of hand-wrought fabrication to an industry that had fully mechanized its production by the 1950s. His work was often raised from a single disc of silver, beaten until stretched into a biomorphic or free form shape, such as in this fruit bowl. These unique shapes, gracefully lifted onto ebonized feet, were adapted and standardized by larger silver companies without his permission and became statements of modern design in the home. Designers and critics alike admired his work, but because of its expensive and time-consuming manner of production, Miller never achieved the commercial success of his peers whose designs were made by large manufacturers.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80025795"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Milliken, William. \"Review of the Exhibition.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 43, no. 5 (May 1956): 76-100.
",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 74; Mentioned: p. 83",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25142128"
},
{
"citation": "Frederick A. Miller Entry Card to 1956 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMS11117/"
},
{
"citation": "Johnston, Phillip M. Catalogue of American Silver: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1994.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 108",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Frederick A. Miller collection. Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/FrederickMiller"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1956.116",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Silver Jubilee Treasure Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 133469,
"creators": [
{
"id": 8576,
"description": "Frederick A. Miller (American, Cleveland, 1913\u20132000)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "fabricator",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1913",
"death_year": "2000",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1956-04-30T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1955,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1955",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:03:05.100000"
}
}