Art and Design At Alfred; Turners and Burners; The New Ceramics, Book Reviews  1      2      3      4      -      PRINTER VERSION

>> with new ceramic art outside Europe and the United States. It is, of course, perfectly legitimate to focus on a particular area or region in studying developments in a field as long as these parameters are clearly noted and defined. This may seem a small point, but by not acknowledging this narrow focus, the author gives the appearance of cultural chauvinism.

In the opening chapter, for example, Dormer writes: "The emergence of modern studio pottery dates from the 19th century in Europe because, like handcraft in general, it was a way of opposing the tendencies of industrialization." If one takes a wider perspective, the actual emergence of studio pottery as we know it began in the early 17th century in Kyoto, Japan, with people like Nonomura Ninsei. Another premise of Dormer's that is uniquely European is his view of the role of fine art (painting and sculpture) and applied art (pottery and other crafts):

"For it seems that the role which fine art has striven to find for itself is the role of enlarging experience and adding to our understanding and knowledge. Very little visual art may be said to have done this, but more than enough this century has done so to make the argument stand up. Applied art, such as pottery, is concerned with the embellishment of a given culture—in its ornament it can reflect society's values and aesthetic interests by borrowing from the discoveries of fine art, in the latter's role of mapping out the avant-garde."

Again, one of the most significant developments in the history of ceramic art occurred in the Momoyama period (1573-1615), when Japanese potters, influenced by tea masters, began making work that questioned some of the basic premises about beauty and quality in pottery commonly held at the time. This new work had the same role and impact on society then that Dormer has outlined for the avant-garde now. The repercussions of this early work from the Momoyama period, although not well understood in the West, have, nevertheless, profoundly affected the course of contemporary ceramic art.

One suspects that Dormer, who comes to crafts from a journalistic background is attracted to much of the work now being done because it is visually complicated and allows for the kind of intellectual analysis that, he believes, cannot be sustained with the "simple pot". In his chapter "The Painted Pot", Dormer says: "The absence of decoration amounts first of all to an absence of variety and texture." He goes on to explain that we have forgotten that decoration can contain figures, patterns and symbols that mean something: "In a Della Robbia certainly, and to an extent with Frank Fleming, what we have is a liveliness of surface texture with ornament which we can 'read'." What Dormer does not seem to understand is that in many of the "simple pots", especially those made by potters who have been influenced by Oriental philosophies, the surface qualities of the "undecorated pot" are the decoration. The variety of textures and colors as well as the overall handling of these variables all have meaning to the educated audience, and can be "read" as clearly as one reads the figurative narration of Della Robbia.

While Dormer's arguments and observations throughout The New Ceramics are generally one-sided and underdeveloped, they raise questions that "quasi-traditional potters" (as he refers to anyone not on
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