Painted Clay: Graphic Arts and the Ceramic Surface

by Paul Scott

Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: A&C Black (2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0-7136-4754-X
Dimensions: 11.1" x 9.0" x 0.8"
Shipping Weight: 2.16 lbs.

Artists have painted and drawn on ceramic surfaces for centuries. However, the word 'ceramic' has become synonymous with 'pots' or 'pottery' and as a result, painting, drawing and printing on, or in, the ceramic surface has invariably been referred to as 'decoration'. This, in turn, has meant that it has not been seen as a serious subject for critical study in its own right.

Today, however, with the active eroision of traditional boundaries between the fine, applied and decorative arts, there is a growing interest in ceramics from those outside the closed world of studio pottery. These visual artists come from backgrounds with different practices and traditions and with them, see new opportunities. From the use of traditional ceramic painting methods to reflect contemporary concerns to large-scale works for public places to digital imaging, painting, drawing and printing on the ceramic surface has become an area of catalytic activity.

In Painted Clay, Paul Scott proposes an alternative version of ceramic history... one where form and function are not dominant, but where painting and the graphic development of ceramic surface are the prime concerns. Covering a range from pre-Dynastic Egyptian painting on pots, through Chinese porcelain, Persian Minai ware and Maiolica to the blue and white of the industrialised West, he charts the development of increasingly sophisticated painted and graphic works.

The book takes an extensive overview of today's contemporary (graphic) ceramic scene, and the figures and movements that have influenced it. In exploring the use 'painters' such as Picasso, Miro, the CoBrA Group. Conrad Atkinson and others have made of ceramics, it also examines the relationships artists have had with the pottery industry, from Soviet Revolutionary Propaganda ware to collaborations at the Wedgwood Pottery company. It highlights a wide range of work by contemporary ceramic artists, painters and printmakers from around the world: Ann Kraus, Cindy Kolodziejski to Eric Mellon, Grayson Perry and many others.

This is a thought-provoking and beautifully illustrated book. It should appeal to anyone interested in ceramics, as well as to painters, printmakers and graphic artists and all those generally interested in the visual arts.