Vince Pitelka on sat 2 nov 96
>These debates firmly entrenched 2-D art as the medium of choice for the
Christian world.
>Patricia,
>If what you say is true then it is possible that craft and by extension crafts
>people have been unreasonably denied their rightful place among the higher
>forms of art.
>mayonaise
Mayo -
You're obviously an intelligent guy. Don't tell me you just thought of
this???
In discussing ancient Aegean ceramics with my students we talked about how
in the Greek world ceramics was a primary art form. Ceramics diminished in
importance during the Roman Empire, and in Western civilization (of European
derivation) ceramics has never again attained the kind of prestige it had in
ancient Greece. It's strange, when you consider that we seem to emmulate so
much about the ancient Greeks. In the rebirth of Greek humanism, art and
culture during the Italian Rennaissance, why didn't ceramics recoup some of
its ancient prestige?? It comes close in Italian Renaissance Maiolica and
some ceramic sculpture, but do we ever see that work in the standard art
history books? Don't cite Luca Della Robbia to me, because he is an
isolated extraordinary example, and the history books barely give him his due.
Tricia was right on the money. And whatever "back seat" role ceramic found
itself in through the last two thousand years was immeasureably amplified by
the effects of the Industrial Revolution, when supposedly "progressive"
promoters of industrial products, and certainly all factory owners,
aggressively circulated the idea that handmade goods were supposedly
irregular, unreliable, and generally inferior, compared to the consistency
and uniformity of factory-made goods. And of course throughout this period
sculpture, painting, printmaking, etc., those items which were minimally
affected by industrialization, became the "true art." The functional arts,
those which are allied with day-to-day activities of life, became distanced
from "true art", and as a consequence, art became distanced fromt the
realities of everyday life. Wow! Is it any damn wonder that ceramics has
struggled and is struggling to attain its rightful place among the fine arts.
European-based Western civilization is arrogant in the extreme in its
historically-based assumptions and prejudices. We tend to accept so many of
our historical preferences as THE correct way. Consider the cultures where
ceramics occupied (and often still does!) a primary role as fine art:
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mycenaean, Minoan, Greek, Etruscan, African
(tribal), Islamic (throughout the spread of Islam), Mesoamerican, Native
American, Peruvian, etc.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka - vpitelka@Dekalb.Net
Phone - home 615/597-5376, work 615/597-6801
Appalachian Center for Crafts, Smithville TN 37166
Darrol F. Shillingburg on wed 6 nov 96
Vince,
Good to hear your insightful perspective on history and the expressions of"fine
art/true art".
> And whatever "back seat" role ceramic found
>itself in through the last two thousand years was immeasureably amplified by
>the effects of the Industrial Revolution, when supposedly "progressive"
>promoters of industrial products, and certainly all factory owners,
>aggressively circulated the idea that handmade goods were supposedly
>irregular, unreliable, and generally inferior, compared to the consistency
>and uniformity of factory-made goods.
The Industrial Revolution carried human kind not only away from the handmade in
ceramics, but in most other areas of life also. The factories became the great
intervention between man and earth. People stopped making things from the earth
for themselves and the spirit of life changed dramatically.
The root of all art is ritual, spiritual, social ritual. Part of the dance
between the human life and all other life. Part of the dance between human and
earth prior to the consciousness of being "other". Seems to me that in ceramics,
closest to "earth" of all art forms, the separation has been the greatest. Not
surprising considering the loss of personal spiritual relationship with earth.
>The functional arts, those which are allied with day-to-day activities of life,
became distanced
>from "true art", and as a consequence, art became distanced from the
>realities of everyday life.
Love your definition of "functional arts". Allows space for the rebirth of art
as ritual in life. It allows us to penetrate the common veil of separation
between functional and nonfunctional to see again that things created by human
hands have spirit and spirit is functional. There was/is a time when the
function of the firgurine was to hold spirit and the function of the vessel was
to hold spirit and water. All things are functional, if we can just see through
the separation imbedded in our language.
>Wow! Is it any damn wonder that ceramics has
>struggled and is struggling to attain its rightful place among the fine arts.
No, seems obvious to me. The farther we move from a personal relationship with
"earth" the farther we move "earth art" ceramics from art. As art becomes an
increasingly "digital affair" and even more distant from the manipualtion of
materials in a material world will ceramics move any closer to the lofty realms
of fine art? I think not!
Fortunately there are the neoclassical neanderthals on this list who persist in
breathing spirit into mud, honoring our ceramic ancestry and weaving anew the
whole cloth of human and earth.
Darrol in Elephant Butte, NM
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