CategoriesStyles and Movements
Contemporary Ceramics
Clay work of recent decades, from functional vessels to sculpture and installation, made by studio potters, designers and artists.
No works indexed yet · 10 related artists
No open-access works for Contemporary Ceramics are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
Contemporary ceramics grew from a break made in the 1950s, when Peter Voulkos and his students in Los Angeles tore, stacked and slashed stoneware into expressive sculpture rather than usable pots. In California in the 1960s Robert Arneson added humour and self-portraiture, while in London Lucie Rie and Hans Coper refined the thrown vessel into spare, modern forms.
Artists today use every clay and process. Betty Woodman made painted vessels that open out into flat, wall-like planes. Sueharu Fukami casts pale blue-white porcelain under pressure into long, blade-like forms. Edmund de Waal arranges groups of thin-walled porcelain pots in vitrines and on shelves, and Grayson Perry covers classical vase shapes with drawings, photographic transfers and text on uncomfortable subjects. Sculptors such as Rebecca Warren, who works in unfired clay and bronze, have also taken up the material. Look for evidence of making: throwing lines, fingerprints, drips and crazed glaze.