Mug, Dora Maar

The Dora Maar mug from Jonathan Adler is made of white porcelain with a sculpted face relief running all the way around the mug. The faces emerge from the body in soft volumes and catch the light differently depending on where you place it – as much a decorative object as a mug.

The mug belongs to the Muse series, in which Jonathan Adler shapes and throws the models himself, replacing the house’s geometric relief patterns with body parts: faces, lips, breasts. The result has a surrealist tone, and each piece takes an artist’s muse as its starting point.

The name comes from Dora Maar (1907–1997), French photographer, poet and painter. She was a central figure in the Surrealist movement in 1930s Paris, with a photographic body of work counted among the most significant of the period – and she is also known for her relationship with Pablo Picasso, who portrayed her in several of his best-known paintings.

Specifications:

• Material: porcelain
• Colour: white
• Diameter: 10.6 cm
• Height: 11.5 cm
• Dishwasher safe: yes
• Microwave safe: yes
• Series: Muse
• Designer: Jonathan Adler

About Jonathan Adler:

Jonathan Adler discovered clay at summer camp at the age of twelve and, much later, left his full-time job to work with ceramics for real. In 1993 the New York department store Barneys bought his first collection, and five years later he opened his own shop in SoHo. Today he runs nearly thirty shops worldwide. His design language is consistently playful and glamorous, with the craft of ceramics as the foundation of everything he does.