Kneaded Knowledge. The Language of Ceramics
On a trip to visit a friend in Prague I stopped off at a few exhibitions, one of which was on ceramics and its history at the National Gallery.
'Together with the artists Ai Weiwei and Edmund de Waal, the National Gallery in Prague, focuses on a material long attributed to the realm of handicraft: ceramics. Unjustly so, as this material is founded upon millennia of knowledge and a history of art that was constantly recontextualised by contemporaries.'
This exhibition showed some of the earliest ceramics / works of art.
The modern age in Europe was characterised by an insatiable desire for Chinese porcelain, that would fetch top prices. Long regarded the world over as high art, this traditional medium had a tough time in the modern age, with ceramic art being put in second place as handicraft.
Today, we are increasingly being confronted with this material as the focus falls on recent Asian art and as artistic practice continues to open up.
This exhibition takes a special look at the changes of a technologically conditioned medium that has challenged our ideas for long periods, from olden times to the modern age.
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