If I may believe the selection of the weekly dutch art program “Avro’s kunstuur“, most of the art has the human being as subject.
Whether it is video art of Priscila Fernandes or the photos of Vivianne Sassen; man is central. And if it is not the human itself, then it is its effect on the planet, as manifested in the architecture or the landscape.
Does this bother me? Of course not, everyone is free to have his own muse. But where most artists use these goddesses as a reflection of humanity as inspiration, I think for the ceramist only one of the nine muse “Urania” (the muse of astronomy, forerunner of all science), is a source for his or her work.
Not for nothing ceramics is known as the most scientific of the arts.
In ceramics is, after all, the control of the material of the utmost importance, and science has a great influence on the development of this art form.
Clay is the source
It is not surprising that many ceramic artists are inspired by the material itself or the landscape from which it is extracted and not by the people who trample it. Thus, the work of Shoji Hamada (1894-1978) is close to nature, if it is not in the form, it is in the decorative brushstrokes on the work.
Brother Daniel from Taize (France) creates his work not only with local raw materials (rocks, ash and river clay), his vases make after firing also (almost) part of it again. This connection with the material I miss mostly in the “art program art.”
Humanity; large, striking and shocking are the modern themes, according to the whims of the (Western) society. These are not timeless melodies, but the “hard rock grunge” of art. Absolutely necessary to shake up society, but if you listen too long, your eardrums will rupture ……
Or still man …
Archaeological research has shown that approximately 30,000 (!) years ago, in some parts of the world, our Stone Age ancestors had already discovered how clay figurines could be fired into open fire, and even in simple kilns.
As the oldest found clay figurine the “Venus of Dolní Věstonice” (excavated in the Czech Republic, near Brno, dated at about 29,000 years).
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| Venus of Dolní Věstonice, (photo wikepedia; Petr Novák) |
What inspired them in the middle of the “struggle to survive” to make these small figures? Hunting, fertility and the will to survive in the overwhelming nature should have been the main motives, according to Victor Bryant (www.ceramicstudies.com).
Although they lived under the yoke of nature, they found time to make beautiful female figures, perhaps it is still in our genes to put man in the art central …
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