Janet Kaiser on wed 9 jul 03
It seems to me that this whole glass vs. ceramic comparison, competition or
whatever you care to call it, is just one of those things that comes around
every now and again... The history books are full of examples and quite
warlike and dramatic if you read between the lines... Some of the early
glass makers of Bohemia and Bavaria even had their Glassh=FCtten broken up
by local potters who were mad at what they perceived as a threat to their
livelihood... There were even examples of smear campaigns demonising the
products and warnings of ill-health befalling users!
Again when glass innovators like Tiffany and Gall=E9 introduced "new"
techniques (such as iridescent glass) or applied adapted old techniques
like leaded glass to other forms at huge cost in time, money,
experimentation, etc. many potters felt much the same way as their
colleagues all over Europe had done at the introduction of small-time
"industrial" glass making over a hundred years earlier.
But the big difference was that contemporary ceramic makers rose to the
challenge and went out to "reconquer" their "lost market". They did things
like experiment with new/old techniques, they adopted the "new" shapes and
forms of Art Nouveau and modified them to suite their media, they
rediscovered lustres, copper flashing, etc. and started making highly
coloured majolica quite different to what had gone before... In short they
"modernised" in time with and to suite developing public tastes, the
interiors, the new architecture, furnishing, decoration, etc. etc.
I have never heard of this Sicardi chap before, but it seems to me that
taken in the context of his time and what was going on in his contemporary
environment he and others like him were reacting and doing something about
it. They did not sit on their bottoms whining, making faces and blowing
raspberries at the glass makers!
And let's face it... Glass has been stagnating for a very long time. The
glass on offer up to a few years ago was similar to what our grandparents
bought. No one should disparage the exciting new direction that glass
artists have taken their medium. Individual artists/makers may be behind
studio ceramics, but they have more than caught up.
So what is exciting about their work? 1. COLOUR after decades of clear
crystal and straight lines (the big Scandinavian influence of the 20th C),
suddenly there is a plethora of shocking, vivid colours. 2. FORM not only
the beauty and liveliness possible in blown as opposed to factory moulded
glass, but also the dramatic increase in unfunctional "Art" as opposed to
functional domestic ware (yes, similar to the development in ceramics) 3.
DECORATION even cut glass is getting away from formalised, repetitive
patterns with commemorative subjects, and etching is being used in such
innovative ways that even I enjoy at lot of glass being produced today. 4.
NEWNESS FACTOR people have never seen anything like it before... It is all
so totally "different" that it is quite intriguing and because there are
still relatively few makers, it is still able to command 5. HIGH PRICE now
I don't care where in the world you are, but combine unique, new colours,
forms and rarity factor and what do you get? 6. MARKETING SIZZLE a top end
market opens at your feet, with people lining up to to buy at any cost. It
proves they are the in crowd, wealthy too. Quite a winning combination.
How on earth can the mountain of little white, cream, brown or even blue
pots compete? In the UK, the "in" ceramics are minimalist wheel thrown
white/cream but look like they were made in a factory. The alternative are
sloppy white/cream forms that are so obviously "made of mud" and sort of
like "my grandchild could make better than that" they do not intrigue or
throw people into raptures. Are they going to compete with sleek, glossy,
colourful, new, transparent, never been seen before glass? Naaa...
Will the makers moan at the glass artists/makers... Yes.
Will they change? I truly hope so, because otherwise there are going to be
a lot more starving ceramic artists/makers than usual around over the next
10 years if they don't. And judging from what history teaches us, there
will be a new generation of potters taking on the challenge...
Just for the record, I do not believe "ceramic education" is what will pull
in the crowds... They know what they like when they see it, the trick is to
present them with something new that they will like "instinctively". I am
no oracle, but that is certainly not going to be little brown pots with
subtle glaze that only fellow potters or ceramic connosieurs go into
raptures about...
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser
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