From what we are seeing around Europe at the moment there is a great ceramics revival: clay is oozing back into contemporary art. Many of the exhibitions l have seen show the ceramic medium more it would seem than before. Inevitably, over the past decade or so, it’s an arena dominated by works exploring the digital world: a preoccupation reflected in the glitzy hi-tech buzz of exhibitions around Europe. I enjoyed David Hockney’s work on the iPads. Would you believe that that is back in 2012?
David Hockney Unveils his Ipad
But when the art form becomes « gadgetized » and nothing seems to be real anymore - (here I’m referring to photos which have been so color changed that one wonders what the original looked like) - and videos too some artists l enjoyed years ago have now become way-out in my book. I discovered Jean Michel Aberola in the 80’s and found his videos very moving then some how he went overboard. In this little video from Youtube, there are some things l like but most l don’t. On the other hand, Yves Montand singing - I adore;
Jean Michel Aberola
So we were now to explore ceramics. There are two major exhibitions on in Paris at the moment. One at the Sèvres Museum for ceramics. The video is an excellent example of « putting me off »
CERAMIX
What little I had seen about the follow up exhibition at the Maison Rouge, tempted me. « From Rodin to Schütte ». I knew nothing about Schütte.
Thomas Schütte (born November 16, 1954) is a German contemporary artist. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.
So what has he done and would l like it ?….this particular creation, I did. Even if on black, there is something very delicate about her and of course, minamalist. Off l went……
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| Anna - 2014 |
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| Balzac - Large Head - 1899 |
Once again it was divided into chapters which associated the ceramics with periods.
It’s not surprising perhaps that the introduction is a monumental head by Auguste Rodin (around 1897). This was apparently the beginning of the ceramic sculpture period.
Next there was a series of faces by Jean Carries. A little bit about him as I certainly knew nothing before going.
Jean-Joseph Marie Carriès (February 15, 1855 – July 1, 1894) was a French sculptor, ceramist, and miniaturist. Born in Lyon, Carriès was orphaned at age six and was raised in a Roman Catholic orphanage. He apprenticed with a local sculptor then in 1874 moved to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts under Augustin-Alexandre Dumont. He first showed at the Paris Salon of 1875 and gained considerable recognition for his sculpted busts at the Paris Salons of 1879 and 1881. However, after seeing an exhibition of Japanese works at the 1878 World's Fair in Paris, he began to devote himself to the creation of polychrome Horror Masks.
Jean-Joseph Carriès was a friend of John Singer Sargent who painted his portrait in 1880.
His works exhibited at the Salon du Champ-de-Mars in 1892 were widely acclaimed and were acquired by the French Ministry of Culture and by the a museum in Hamburg, Germany. That year, the government of France made him a member of the Legion of Honor. In 1894, a year after he had sculpted perhaps his most famous work entitled Faune, Jean-Joseph Carriès died of pleurisy at the age of thirty-nine. (Wikipedia)
I chose to show you this text, for myself of course, but his Horror Masks are fascinating. Here are two of them.
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| Mask of Horror, 1891 |
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| Laughing Mask, 1891 |
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| Raoul Dufy "Garden with blue female bathers" 1925-30 |
This was the first we had been able to take photographs in The Maison Rouge - except alas for certain beautiful little sculptures by Raoul Dufy. He was close to the Fauves. You could feel this in the strong colors used for his work. Unfortunately this was the only one which l could photograph and there were two ferocious ladies checking on everything we took. I didn’t dare….
Picasso of course. For a while he dedicated himself practically entirely to ceramics and made would you believe some 4000 pieces.
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| P.P. "Vase; Woman with amphore"1947-48 |
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| Woman with mantilla : 1948 |
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| Brick fragment decorate with female face - 1962 |
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| Bruno Manari "Bull Dog", 1934 |
Bruno Munari an Italian (1907-1998) created imaginary animals, not without humour either…
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| Sculptural harmony - 1933 & Gas Mask, 1932 |
Ivos Pacetti’s (another Italian) « Gas Mask » along side « Sculptural
Harmony » is not frankly a harmonious position for the latter work.
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| The 15 year old girl , 1929 |
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« The 15 year old Girl » by another Italian, Tullio D’Albisola (1899-1971) is someone I know. It is a face known to me but she’s not 15. A strange confrontation.
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| Woman with Comb, 1936 |
Italian again, Renato Bertelli (1900-1974) « Woman with a Comb » and can you see the comb?
The work becomes decidedly punk with the Americans. Robert Arneson (1930-1992) with his « Current Event » done in 1973 startled me as l still can’t work out what the title meant.
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| Current Event, 1973 |
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| Current Event, 1973 |
This is really Funk Art which came into being in the early 1960s as a reaction then to what was the really dominant Abstract Expression. It’s a new style of figuration, the use of irony and a Dadaist and Surrealist use of humour. Here are just a few samples of the work.
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| Kathy Butterly "Royal Float", 1998 |
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| Ken Price "Green Egg", 1962 (for Easter?) |
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| David Gilhooly 1943-2013 "The Garbage Art" |
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| 1976 |
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| 1976 |
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| It's a dog with a bone.... |
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| Viola Frey, 1933-2004 "Artist Mind artist studio" 1933 |
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| Robeert Arneson, "Captain Ace", 978 |
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| Robert Arneson "George and Mona in the Baths of COlona" 1976 |
The change is pretty abrupt as we come into « Eros and Thanatos » This is also a horror erotic film. I will not be seing it. But can Eros be described as a dreaded game? Here the work is monochrome, white porcelaine. This huge work by Elmar Trenkwalder, an Austrian looks gothic from a little way off and then next to it, faces, parts of the body emerge…disturbing.
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| "WVZ 20, 2008" |
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| Elmar Trenkwalder "WVZ 20, 2008" |
This on the other hand, I rather like....something ethereal about it.
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| Katsuyo Aoki " Predictive Dream XLlll", 2013 |
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| Rachel Kneebone , 2013 |
Rachel Kneebone’s work (English)
« The Consciousness of an Unbearable Tragedy At Once Dreaded and Desired » doesn’t leave too much to the imagination.
Such works seem to better from a little way off as in the gallery rather than standing on top of them.
Now look at this horror An Iranian, Bita Fayyazi « Cockroaches » I can imagine that it caused quite a turmoil when it was first presented in Teheran in 1998. I would have nightmares if that was in my home.
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| Bita Fayyazi "Cockroaches" 1998-1999 |
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| "Cockroaches" 1998-1999 |
Elsa Sahal, who is French, also seems to be preoccupied by the human figure.
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| "Fountain", 2012 |
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| "Artemise", 2015 |
Even the fountain of a little girl who urinates like a little boy does not appeal to my sense of humour….something tells me that it’s going to get worse….but it doesn’t.
There is now a section called « Teatrini - Italy in the 30s to Today »
Johan Creten works mainly with ceramics lamenting the art world’s failure to take the material as seriously as it should.
« In contemporary art, for sometime we have given more importance to the intellect than to the hands. All conceptual minimalist artists who use their brain are clearly better, more intelligent and more refined that the poor guy who dares actually touch his materials with his hands ».
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| "Lovers - Roosters" 1944 |
Looking at a lot of these ceramics, the old question comes back. « Is this art ? »
I quite like his « Lovers - Roosters, » done in 1944.
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| 1944 |
And his « Odore di femmina » is surprising if you divorce it from the title.
We now come into a room which is called « Relics of a Fragile World » Latin America and it’s identity. Just three of the four artists who exhibit here share an interest in the modest origins of ceramics.
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| Gabriel Orozco "Fish" 1933 |
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| Carol Young "More than the sum of its parts," 2015 |
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| Paula De Solminhac |
Finally one room is dedicated to the Sacred and Profane….Revisited traditions. Monstrous grotesque and huge ceramics beside refined symbols of another era.
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| Philip Eglin "The Virgin with the Dead Christ" 1988 |
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| Eglin: "Venus and Love", 1990 |
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| Shary Boyle, "King Cobra," 2010 |
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| Jessica Harrison "Painted Lady 4", 2014 |
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| Marlène Mocquet "Eggs on Floral Dish", 2013 |
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| Carolein Smit "Skeleton with bird " 2014 |
I went into the bookshop and bought a rather beautiful catalogue for my daughter’s birthday present - she mainly works in ceramics - l’m not so sure that she appreciated it. Probably my feelings are the same about the exhibition.
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| And that is on the ceiling..... |
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