I really enjoy the combination of raw and glazed ceramic surface. I also really love the juxtaposition of classical or refined shapes and contemporary imagery. The latter seems to be appearing more and more in contemporary ceramic art. Sometimes this pairing is done seamlessly and provokes real contemplation and discussion... other times I think it's just like cutting shapes from a magazine and modge-podging them onto an otherwise beautiful vessel.
How do you think this style works best?
(images via Pacini Lubel Gallery and Flickr)
3 comments:
IT seems like people can't make anything really beautiful, so they make something shocking or unsettling, and cause a stir that way.
I hate this trend.
You're an art student - why is this happening?
Thanks, Jesse Lu!
Spessbal
Well... Two reasons- One, many art departments and schools aren't set up very well to develop one's individual voice but they nonetheless place extreme importance on being unique. Two, enrollment. Art schools and programs count on maintained enrollment to secure funding. If you tell students that their ideas are stupid or that, frankly, they don't have any talent and should consider another area of study, how can you maintain a budget that is supportive of developing the voice of young artists who are talented and unique.
Plus people pay far more attention these days to shocking things than to beautiful things which makes it much harder for artists to justify making work for the sake of beauty alone.
"...an avant-garde that in the years since minimalism has been deeply suspicious of beauty, craftsmanship, formal directness, and the absence of irony, and we have the makings of a critical climate chilly to artists of Goldsworthy's kind."
John Beardsley
The Andy Goldsworthy Project
Spessbal
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