Homer, Ceramics, and Marketplace Anxieties

In the reading the author, Garth Clark, traces the development of the market for individual ceramic artists in the last 100 years in the U.S. and Britain. The article says that the modern ceramics market originates in the trade of Chinese Porcelain in the West in the 16th century. The porcelain that was being traded was primarily for the super wealthy and functioned more as currency and signifiers of wealth rather than fine art to be appreciated. Credit for establishing a larger ceramics market goes to Josiah Wedgwood who opened an "elegant London gallery where London's beau monde could socialize, browse and shop." By the end of the 18th century the basis of the modern ceramics market was created.

More recently, the Arts and Crafts movement took ceramics from solely an object of industry to an individual art and craft. Individual artists were able to make a living by selling pots but most had a secondary mode of income, whether its was teaching or working for a kiln company. The practicality of teaching ceramics became more reasonable as more ceramics programs were popping up around the country. Bernard Leach had an important role, both negative and positive, for the ceramics market. While he personally advocated for affordable pots for the masses, he regularly sold his pots for high prices in Japan.

Out of the 50s and 60s came abstract expressionist like Peter Voulkos and Paul Soldner who were able to sell work at a much higher price than ceramic art previously. This signaled a new age of ceramic art that, although still operating on the margins of the art world, it was at least within it and not without. Since the 80s the ceramic market has proved to be stable albeit limited.

This article is very interesting because I feel like talking about money and the commercial side of things is looked down upon and shunned by the ceramics field. Ceramicists often have a idealist picture of what it means to be a potter, drawing from the morals taught by Leach that pottery is supposed to be a humble and inexpensive art form. This idea negatively affects many potters who struggle to make a living selling their work at unreasonably low prices. All artists, including ceramicists and potters, need to identify how to make money with their art if they expect make a living doing it. As students it is important to learn the "hows" of selling their work, not just the "how" of making it.