From Pots to Sculptures. A New Ceramics exhibition at The Met

By Irina Sheynfeld

March 15, 2021

A compact new exhibition Shapes from Out of Nowhere: Ceramics from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art should not be overlooked. Celebrating Met’s 150th anniversary Robert A. Ellison Jr. gave the museum 125 modern and contemporary ceramics. The exhibition includes over 75 works from 49 artists from the second half of the twentieth century until the present:

The exhibition highlights the myriad approaches embraced by artists who have challenged the long history of clay and its reliance on the potter’s wheel—from slight deviations of traditional vessel forms to deconstructions that reject utility and exploit the boundless experimentation that clay affords. [1]

Clay is a humble material that was traditionally used by artisans, and later by art students and sculptors for preparatory models or exercises. The malleability and low cost of the material allow artists to create sculptures and complex compositions impossible in more “noble” sculpting mediums such as marble, bronze, or wood. But in the second half of the twentieth-century clay left behind its modest yet proud origins as the medium of utility and was claimed by fine artists as their own. In Shapes from Out of Nowhere, some of the earlier experiments with clay still bear resemblance with containers such as the Double Spouted Vase from 1958 by Toshiko Takaezu (1922-2011) or Vase with Six Necks from 1956 by William Wyman (1922-1980). As the shape of the modern car quickly but not immediately abandoned the prototype of a carriage, so did a clay sculpture evolved into a free form composition that now could hardly be traced back to its roots.

At the exhibition’s entrance, there is a Vase (1945) by Axel Salto (1889-1961). It is a transitional work of art, a unique object that represents a shift toward abstraction in ceramic art. Its complex, polyhedron shape is actively spinning away from being a vessel and announcing its objecthood as a sculpture.

In Arnie Zimmerman’s (b.1954) work Bladder, Tongue and Tangle (1994) clay is free and wild and fun. Gone is the symmetry, the roundness, and the usefulness. Digital Sculpture: RE34-1-word (2001) by Raymon Elozua (b. 1947) consists of the clay slabs precariously balanced on iron rods like a transient settlement of gypsies, here today, gone with the wind at the moment’s notice tomorrow.

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 913

Photo credit © Irina Sheynfeld, 2021

 [1] “Metmuseum.org,” metmuseum.org, accessed March 15, 2021, https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2021/shapes-from-out-of-nowhere.

The Whimsy of Contemporary Ceramics

By Irina Sheynfeld

February 1, 2021

The art and craft of Ceramics have been around from the dawn of civilization. Some traditional techniques used in ceramics have come down to us from ancient times, while new experimental approaches are emerging continuously. Ceramics started their upward mobility toward the status of fine art during the first half of the 20th century by such artists as George Ohr, Viola Frey, Peter Voulkos, and Wayne Higby, but only recently it started to emerge as a new, innovative field of sculpture. The popularity of ceramics can be observed through the increased representation of the medium at the major art fairs, public and private museums, and mega gallery shows.

Robb Report from December 2018 listed works by Haas Brothers as one of “7 Things Not to Miss at Art Basel Miami Beach”. The biomorphic playful tabletop ceramics by the LA-based twins Nikolai and Simon Haas were sold within the first minutes of the 2018 fair. Designer/artist team’s just had their first solo show Ferngully at The Bass in April 2019. Their works are in the permanent collections of RISD Museum, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. During the 2017 holiday season brothers took over Barney’s department store designing whimsical environments, that included fantastical ceramic creatures and plants, for window displays. Brothers’ work for Barneys focused on love, friendship, and inclusiveness rather than traditional winter motifs. The Haas team’s collaboration with the high-fashion outlet demonstrates the current trend for ceramics in popular culture and art. 

The growing popularity of artists that specialize in contemporary ceramic sculptures points to the increased interest in the field. Ron Nagle was featured in The New York Times article by Anna Furman “An Artist Who Makes Irreverent, and Pocket-Size, Sculptures” in April 2019 issue. Forty of his tiny ceramic sculptures were exhibited in Matthew Marks Gallery in a solo show Getting to No in June 2019. While Nagle is an established visual artist – his work was featured in the 55th Venice Biennale and his sculptures were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, recently his work is gaining popularity on the market and beginning to sell for record prices around $45-35K. The Artling magazine July 2019 issue featured 13 artists that are particularly influential in the field. One of them is Grayson Perry, an artist that works in a variety of mediums, but is best known for his ceramics. Artist’s work Men have Lost their Spirits sold for  £50,000 at the auction. Perry was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003, and his richly decorated vases are part of many museum collections including Tate Gallery in London.

Shigekazu Nagae is one of the leading masters of porcelain casting and firing techniques in Japan. His exquisite thin-walled white porcelain sculptures are part of the collection of the V&A museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ceramics Now magazine reports that in the past three years, in large part due to the institutional acquisitions, artist’s prices have skyrocketed. 

In the 2018 show Sterling Ruby: Ceramics at the MAD museum, the artist presented his most innovative and disruptive work – The Basin Theology series. His otherworldly, large, brightly colored, and thickly glazed basins hold the remains of the previous destroyed works. As Roberta Smith wrote in her New York Times article “Sterling Ruby Pipes Down, a Bit.”

All this adds up to a sense of destruction, of nature’s cruelty but also of redemption, as well as a decidedly archaeological mien, like waste heaps that are always being picked through during excavations for the information they hold about past cultures.

Ruby is represented by the Gagosian Gallery and his works are now part of major private and public museums.

All these developments testify to the rising popularity of ceramics in the contemporary art world, as can be testified by their recent institutional and market recognition. Today ceramics have truly transcended the utilitarian world of household objects and entered the pantheon of sculpture.

Bibliography

1.     See, Grace Ignacia. “These 13 Ceramic Artists are Reshaping the Medium”, The Artling. July 25, 2019

2.     Straaten, Laura Van. “7 Things Not to Miss at Art Basel Miami Beach”, Robb Report, December 7, 2018

3.     Furman, Anna. “An Artist Who Makes Irreverent, and Pocket-Size, Sculptures”, The New York Times Magazine, April 29, 2019