In 2006 in the Fitzwilliam Museum three enormous porcelain vases from seventeenth or eighteenth century China were smashed by a museum visitor who fell down the stairs. This
presentation "follows the vases' progress from scattered fragments to their redisplay in the Fitzwilliam Museum. The site includes slideshows, film clips of the conservation process and a timelapse of one of the vases under reconstruction".
[more inside]
posted by paduasoy
on May 5, 2008 -
20 comments
Rudy Autio, the Matisse of the ceramics world, has
passed away at age 70. Born in 1926 to a Finnish family in ethnically diverse and bustling
Butte, Montana, Rudy went on to study ceramics with
Frances Senska at MSU. There he met future ceramics titan,
Peter Voulkos, and became founding residents of the
Archie Bray Foundation. Because of their revolutionary work, the 2 of them helped bring recognition to a field that had previously only been considered craft. Autio's giant torso-shaped vessels are often decorated with post-impressionistic
horses and dancing
women, but he also ventured into
printmaking,
tapestry design and
murals. According to Ken Little, "If the ceramics world had a Mount Rushmore, it would be
Peter Voulkos,
Rudy,
Paul Soldner and
Don Reitz."
posted by ikahime
on Jun 22, 2007 -
8 comments
The Gregg Museum of Art & Design at NC State University has a great
collection of folk arts. The strongest section is in
ceramics, with stupendous representation from the NC wood-fired, salt and alkaline glazed traditions. There's this
1868 Hartsoe Alkaline glazed jug, this
19th cent. jug with kild-drip, this
Hancock Half-Gallon jug, this
Randolph Cty salt-glazed jug with ashy shoulder, and then the moderns:
Burlon Craig,
Vernon Owen,
Mark Hewitt. There are also
great photographs, weird
furniture, outsider
critters, and
more.
There isn't a good browse function, so you need some idea of what you want to search for.
posted by OmieWise
on Mar 15, 2007 -
9 comments
The images on the ceramics were thought to be
mythical narratives,
imagery the
priestly class used to
underscore its coercive power. Without proper archaeological evidence, the representations were too horrific to take literally. They depicted
gruesome scenes of
torture: captives skinned alive, drained of blood (which was drunk by priests in front of them), throats slit, bodies decapitated and left to the vultures, bones meticulously defleshed and hung from ropes.
Unfortunately for the victims, these
bloody rites actually happened. They took place in an otherwise vibrant and highly advanced culture, a culture renowned for its
artists and builders. These were a people who developed advanced agricultural knowledge, extremely
sophisticated metallurgy, and built
the largest pre-Columbian adobe structure in the Americas. Because they had no written language, though, it is by
their ceramics that we know them best.
The Moche.
posted by crumbly
on Jan 25, 2006 -
27 comments
