Modern ceramics

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fig. 1: Tatsuzo Shimaoka (JAP), vessel with rope structure, 1979

Modern ceramics has been a common term for ceramic art as part of the visual arts since the beginning of the 20th century , derived from the term modern art . It includes objects made of ceramic , which emancipate themselves from the handicraft tradition of everyday objects and decorative figurative representations. It differs from historical ceramic art and is subject to similar developments as other branches of modern and contemporary visual arts.

prehistory

Fig. 2: Bernard Leach (UK), cup, 1958

The production of vessels, sculptures and other workpieces from ceramic materials has a long cultural-historical development, which took one to approx. 6000 years BC. History of ceramics in the Middle East and Europe, which goes back to 11000 BC. Reflected tradition in Japan. Since these beginnings, the production of ceramics has developed into a specialized craft in the production of everyday objects (such as storage, cooking and eating utensils), but also for the aesthetic design of the human ambience (for example by decorating walls and floors with ceramic tiles , which already can be proven in the ancient Orient). The potter's wheel was an early modeling technique. On this handicraft basis, handicraft designs and stylistic refinements have been made since ancient times. The Chinese terracotta armies or Chinese porcelain , the Greek vase painting , the Roman ceramic mosaic , the Korean celadon ceramic, the majolica and faience techniques of the European Renaissance, the Delft ceramics and other techniques inspired by Chinese porcelain are just examples here called.

In the design of ceramic objects, a diverse aesthetic deepening and specialized design language has developed, which assigns the character of ceramic art to such products - although created as utility ceramics and decorative ceramics - in retrospect of art and cultural history .

History of "modern ceramics"

The development of ceramics in Europe then went from handicraft production to industrial mass production in order to meet the bourgeoisie 's growing demand for decorative tableware. It is not for nothing that the first forerunners of industrialization were the porcelain and stoneware factories founded in the 18th century . Stylistically, the products made there were more like copies of traditional shapes and decorations than independent further developments and artistic innovations.

The single pieces in a studio formed ceramics, in English section of this also summarized studio pottery (Studio pottery), comes towards the end of the 19th century by the influence mostly East Asian (Chinese and Japanese) ceramics and in the optimism of Art Nouveau to Validity. Above all, the Japanese pottery with its freer and more abstract design, its unconventional use of clay and the experimental possibilities of glaze design (see Fig. 1) inspired the pioneers of modern art ceramics. The Massier ceramics dynasty in Vallauris , France , where a biennial for contemporary ceramic art still takes place today, played a major role in this. Even Pablo Picasso spent several years of his life as an artist (1948-1955) in Vallauris and created there significant ceramic sculptures. In England, Bernard Leach was a pioneer in style - also under the influence of Japanese folk art ceramics (see Fig. 2).

In the German-speaking area, after the turn of the century, modern ceramics were able to develop further in artist communities and art schools such as the Werkbund or the Bauhaus . Here, however, there was always tension and debate about the question of how artistic design and industrial techniques can be combined. As represented Walter Gropius (Bauhaus) and Hermann Muthesius (Werkbund) the view that artists should act as designers and designers to be but then mass produced their products, similar to the design of printmaking .

Current situation

Fig. 4: Lucie Rie (UK), Thrown Jar (Krug) 1971
Fig. 5: Maria Baumgartner (AUT), Houses 2010
Fig. 6: Hans Josef Linnartz (FRG), The thing from another world 2010
Fig. 7: Antoine de Vinck (BEL): Atlas 1987

Basics of modern ceramic art

While modern ceramic art was previously taught in workshop and master schools such as the German Werkbund or the Austrian Werkbund , after the turning point of the Second World War, ceramics was anchored as an artistic training in many European countries at the academies and art colleges, which contributed to a growing number by ceramic artists. In this way, an increasing number of ceramic studios arose throughout Europe and worldwide, which place the individual ceramic piece at the center of their work. In Germany, the leading group of artists who contested and designed the important Biennale Form und Glasur (1969–2000) (including Volker Ellwanger, Brigitte Schuller , Görge Hohlt, Beate Kuhn , Karl and Ursula Scheid, and Gerald and Gotlind Weigel). In Austria, artists such as Robert Obsieger , Kurt Ohnsorg , Günter Praschak and Franz Josef Altenburg contributed significantly to the establishment of modern ceramics.

The shape of the ceramic objects became and is becoming more and more free. As a prototype for modern ceramics, the unique ceramic is to be seen, be it as a ceramic plastic ( see e.g. Fig. 3, 7), as a further development of the vessel shape (e.g. Fig. 4, 5, 8), or as an abstract Object (see e.g. Fig. 6).

Modern ceramics in Germany in the post-war period until 1990

Modern ceramics is not a new style worn by like-minded people, but arose from the appreciation of the material clay as a means of artistic design and expression. In the field of modernity, it is an antithesis to the Bauhaus principle “form follows function” and the considerable emancipation from the concept of “applied art”.

It is the simultaneous encounter of a few, looking for a new way to go beyond traditional ceramic craftsmanship. Walter Popp begins teaching at the Kassel Art College in the ceramics department in the 1950s. Through his teaching, which can be described as interdisciplinary, he imparted to his students, the later so-called Kassel School for Ceramics , the intellectual attitude required for their own creativity. Students from the fields of fine art - e.g. B. Robert Sturm , Konrad Quillmann (sculpture), Dieter Crumbiegel (painting), Antje Brüggemann-Breckwoldt and Reinhold Rieckmann (graphics), inspired by Popp, turn clay into a specifically artistic means of expression. With his ceramic assemblies, Walter Popp overrides the functional function of the vessel in favor of artistic expression.

At the same time, in 1961, Jakob Wilhelm Hinder had settled in Deidesheim and opened a gallery for ceramic utensils and objects there. With Lotte Reimers , who has worked with him since 1952, he expands his permanent collection and in 1972 founded the “Museum of Modern Ceramics”. Hinder recognized the extraordinarily new, supported Popp and the Kassel students through purchases and inclusion of these works in his show and model collection, recommended them to his customers, the new collectors Gottfried Cremer (Frechen), Ilse and Hermann T. Wolff (Hinang) to call. In this way he creates a - modest - economic existence for the artists and wins further friends for the "modern ceramics".

New galleries were created: Köster (Mönchengladbach), Böwig (Hanover), Vehring (Syke), Deisenroth (Fulda) and the like. a. Hinder publishes at irregular intervals in the "Keramische Zeitschrift" about the ceramicists he represents, thus establishing the first attempts at a literary approach. In 1971 Hinder and Reimers published the first compendium “Modern Ceramics from Germany”. In addition to the Kassel School of Ceramics , the circle is expanding to include ceramic artists who bring their work beyond the traditional craftsmanship to the artistic field: Ingeborg and Bruno Asshoff, Ursula and Karl Scheid, Signe Pistorius-Lehmann , Klaus Lehmann and Beate Kuhn , die creates a specifically ceramic-sculptural work.

In 1969 the Society of Ceramic Friends awards the Richard Bampi Prize for the first time. In 1972 the Prize of the Frechener Kulturstiftung was established, and in 1973 the Westerwald Prize for Ceramics was awarded for the first time in Höhr-Grenzhausen. In 1976, the Westerwaldkreis founded the Westerwald Ceramics Museum, which contains historical ceramics as well as a collection of modern ceramics. In the 1980s, some modern ceramics artists themselves taught the tendencies of modern ceramics as teachers at universities: Dieter Crumbiegel in Höhr-Grenzhausen and Krefeld, Johannes Gebhardt in Kiel, Fritz Vehring in Bremen. Some of Crumbiegel's pupils (such as Gerhard Hahn , Frank Louis and others) have meanwhile made the step from a ceramic object of daily use to a free art object, thus ending the period of “modern ceramics” around 1990 as a historical transition phase.

Ceramic collections and ceramic museums

Important to establish Modern Ceramics in the art world, the development was private and public collections since the Second World War, inasmuch as then augmented by private patrons and existing ceramic museums were purchased works of contemporary ceramic art and thus made visible to the public. In the meantime, however, most of the private collections have become public property. The following collections and museums should be mentioned here:

  • The collection of the German stoneware producer Gottfried Cremer , which has been housed in the Keramion Ceramic Museum since 2002 ;
  • The collection of the Paderborn glass and ceramics producers Ingrid and Rudolf Welle , which has been on view in the Museum of Applied Arts (Gera) since 2007 ;
  • The Rudolf Strasser porcelain and ceramics collection , acquired by the Landshut City Museums in 2003 ;
  • The ceramists Jakob Wilhelm Hinder and Lotte Reimers , who built up a collection in Deidesheim and ran a “museum for modern ceramics” there; This collection was taken over in 1993 by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and has been shown since 2005 as “Modern Ceramics of the 20th Century” at Ludwigshöhe Palace in Edenkoben (Germany).
  • The Dutch Japanologist Cornelis Ouwehand , whose collection of modern ceramics tw. was donated to the Museum Bellerive of the Zurich University of the Arts ;
  • The Westerwald Ceramics Museum in Höhr-Grenzhausen (FRG) houses a collection of historical and contemporary ceramics;
  • The Hetjens Museum (German Ceramics Museum) in Düsseldorf , which houses collections on historical, Islamic and Japanese ceramics as well as the collection of modern ceramics by the collector Günter Lontzen ;
  • Museum Schloss Glücksburg (Römhild) - Collection of contemporary international ceramic art from the Römhild Ceramic Symposia (since 1975);
  • The Musée Ariana (Swiss Museum for Ceramics and Glass) in Geneva is the largest corresponding museum in Switzerland and houses a large collection of modern ceramics.
  • The Center de la céramique. Keramis in La Louvière (Belgium), founded in 2015;
  • The Musée national de Céramique - Sèvres , which in addition to the world-famous porcelain collection also has extensive holdings of modern ceramics;
  • The collection of Studio Pottery of the York Art Gallery , the u. a. was created through the acquisition of the Henry Rothschild collection .
  • The American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) in Pomona (Cal.) Also houses a collection of modern ceramics.
  • The Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Gifu (Japan), founded in 2005, collects modern ceramics worldwide.
  • The Scheibbs Ceramics Museum for the Scheibbs clay industry , an important manufacture from the interwar period of Expressionism with a penchant for the Far Eastern grotesque with a connection to the Wiener Werkstätte.
  • In 2018 gave France and Wolfgang Kermer their collection of French ceramics from the period 1970 to 2000, the city of Sarreguemines (Musées de Sarreguemines). The collection, whose inventory catalog lists works by around one hundred artists, had previously been shown in various German museums.

The current ceramic scene

In order to find out about the latest developments in the field of modern ceramics, it makes sense to look around in the relevant magazines and follow what is happening at ceramic symposia . Here are some notes that are not exhaustive:

  • The magazine Neue Keramik. The European ceramic magazine is published by the Ceramic Museum Westerwald , appears six times a year and also has an English edition.
  • The Ceramic Magazine Switzerland is an online portal with all the news and information on ceramics, potters and ceramists, published by the Swiss Association for Ceramics in Zurich.
  • Ceramic Review magazine . The International Magazine of Contemporary and Historical Ceramic Art is published six times a year in London (UK).
  • The magazine La revue de la céramique et du verre is also published every two months in Paris (FRA).
  • Studio Potter magazine appears twice a year, it is published by the British Association of "Studio Potter" (art ceramists).
  • The world-famous symposium of European sculptors in Sankt Margarethen in Burgenland , which Karl Prantl launched in 1959 and thus became the ancestor of all art symposia, was expanded into a ceramic symposium from 1972 under the then leadership of Maria Biljan-Bilger .
  • The International Ceramic Symposium in Römhild (FRG) has been taking place at irregular intervals since 1975.
  • The Gmunden Ceramics Symposium was launched in 1963 by Kurt Ohnsorg , took place until 1969, making it the first symposium specifically for ceramic art worldwide. It was revived in 2003 and has taken place at various intervals since then.
  • The Panevėžys international ceramic symposium has been held annually in the Lithuanian city of Panevėžys since 1988. Works by the participating artists will be exhibited in the Panevėžys Civic Art Gallery on site and also virtually. Works by 183 artists from all over the world can now be seen here.
  • The International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét is the center of modern ceramic art in Hungary, it has been organizing symposia since 1978 and has a large collection of works by over 500 participating artists.

literature

Fig. 8: Arnold Annen (Switzerland), Zwei Schalen 2011
Fig. 9: Rosemary Wren (UK), Hippo figure 2004
  • Richard Borrmann: Modern ceramics, Seemann, Leipzig 1902.
  • Jakob Hinder and Lotte Reimers: Modern Ceramics from Germany , Museum for Modern Ceramics, Deidesheim 1971.
  • Ekkart blade: German ceramics today , handicraft publishing house, Düsseldorf 1984.
  • Keramion - Museum f. Contemporary Ceramic Art (ed.): Contemporary European ceramics: second international exhibition at Keramion , Greven & Bechthold, Cologne 1986.
  • Societe d'Encouragement aux Metiers d'Art (SEMA) (ed.) / Bazin, Mireille (ed.): L'Europe des ceramistes , Metiers d'Art, Paris 1989.
  • Association for Ceramic Art eV (Ed.) Movement. European ceramics '96 , Frechen b. Cologne 1996.
  • Ingrid Vetter: Ceramics in Germany - 1955–1990 , Arnoldsche, Stuttgart, 1997, ISBN 3-925369-77-5
  • Walter Helmut Lokau: The failed institutionalization. A critical assessment of the reception of contemporary ceramics in Germany after 1945 , Univ. Freiburg, dissertation 2007, also online .
  • Ingrid Vetter: Modern ceramics of the 20th century. Arnoldsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 2007. ISBN 978-3-89790-275-6
  • France Kermer et al .: Modern ceramics from France 1970 to 2000. From the Kermer collection, Theodor-Zink-Museum, Kaiserslautern 2014. ISBN 978-3-936036-38-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the article in the English language Wikipedia Studio pottery
  2. ↑ Info Volker Ellwanger , requested on March 17, 2016.
  3. ↑ Information from Görge Hohlt queried on March 17, 2016.
  4. ^ Information from Karl Scheid , requested on March 17, 2016.
  5. ↑ Info Ursula Scheid , requested on March 17, 2016.
  6. ↑ Information Gerald Weigel , requested on March 17, 2016.
  7. ↑ Info Gotlind Weigel , requested on March 17, 2016.
  8. ^ Ingrid Vetter: Ceramics in Germany - 1955–1990 , Arnoldsche, Stuttgart, 1997, ISBN 3-925369-77-5
  9. ^ Competitions and award winners of the Society of Ceramic Friends
  10. ^ Prize winners of the Frechen Cultural Foundation
  11. ↑ Ceramics Museum Höhr-Grenzhausen starts the Westerwald Prize 2019 , press release on radio westerwald from September 28, 2018
  12. ↑ Homepage Ceramic Museum Westerwald
  13. ↑ Ekkart blade: Ceramics of the 20th century. Welle Collection , Dumont, Cologne 1996. ISBN 3-7701-3859-7
  14. ^ Niehoff, Franz (ed.): The world of vessels - contemporary ceramics - Rudolf Strasser collection , museums of the city. Landshut 2000. ISBN 3-924943-17-6
  15. ↑ Information on the Reimers Collection , requested on March 23, 2016.
  16. ↑ Keramis , queried April 30, 2016
  17. ↑ York Art Gallery ceramics collection , consulted March 22, 2016.
  18. ↑ Information about the Gifu Ceramic Museum ( Memento from August 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), requested March 22, 2016.
  19. ↑ Klaus Kadel-Magin: Ceramic art in their stronghold: France and Wolfgang Kermer donate their collection to the Museum of Sarreguemines . In: Die Rheinpfalz , No. 99, April 28, 2018, supplement: Your weekend, m. Fig.
  20. ^ Céramique française 1970–2000: Donation France et Wolfgang Kermer . [Texts: Céleste Lett; France Kermer; Wolfgang Kermer] Sarreguemines, Édition Musées de Sarreguemines, 2018 ISBN 978-2-91375-924-4
  21. ^ Marlene Jochem: Modern ceramics from France 1970 to 2000: from the Kermer collection . In: Keramos, magazine of the Society of Ceramic Friends. V. Düsseldorf, issue 226, 2014 / IV, pp. 63–72 m. Fig.
  22. ↑ New Ceramics Info , accessed March 22, 2016.
  23. ↑ Information on the Ceramic Magazine Switzerland , requested March 22, 2016.
  24. ↑ Information on the Ceramic Review , requested March 22, 2016.
  25. ↑ Information about the Revue Céramique , requested March 22, 2016.
  26. ↑ About Studio Potter magazine
  27. ↑ Information about the Gmunden Ceramic Symposium , requested on March 22, 2016.
  28. ↑ Information on the symposium in Panevėžys , requested on March 22, 2016.
  29. ↑ Information on the Panevėžys Civic Art Galler collection ( memento from March 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), requested March 22, 2016.
  30. ↑ Information on the ICS Kecskemét and the Modern Ceramics Collection , requested on March 22, 2016.