Avant Garde is defined as follows, 1. a group active in the invention and application of new techniques in a given field, especially the arts. 2. relating to or being part of an innovative group.
and 3. belonging to the avant garde.
I don't believe ceramics was negated by the art history industry. Ceramics, unlike other mediums, was associated with the purpose of use, and not decoration, status, or innovation. That was its history, but with the passage of time, that view is changing.
Ceramics is part of the Avant Garde. Some examples are, Marcel Duchamp, "Fountain",1917, porcelain, Isamu Noguchi, "War", 1952, Fausto Melotti, "Theater", 1950, painted terracotta, Joan Miro, "Monument", and "Goddess" , 1956, earthenware, Lucio Fontana, "Harlequin", 1948, polychrome ceramic, Fausto Melotti, "Circles", 1956, glazed ceramic, nylon, and brass, and Pablo Picasso, "Fish on a Sheet of Newspaper", white earthenware with clay attached, impressed with newsprint, painted with oxides, glazed, incised, and glazed.
With not as many artists using the ceramic medium for anything other than use, and its newness from the few willing to introduce it as a medium for statement, it has taken time for its transition from "use" to "fine art" to take place.
I visited a gallery over break that displayed the works of Rembrandt, Durer, and Chagall. Not too
far from them were contemporary ceramic pieces. Ceramics has become more prominent, edgy, innovative, and mainstream. Such a placement would have never occurred years ago.
Ceramics is and has been a part of history. It has transitioned to a medium now recognized for its aesthetic and artistic expression because of a few willing to take the leap to introduce it in a new and refreshing light.
Given that Paul Greenhalgh's paper was written 21 years ago, I find his views outdated.
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