Reed Smith Gallery
The field of ceramics is laden with numerous traditions oftechnique, material, style, and form specific to a given culture and or specifictime period. Few traditions moved beyond borders or lasted through time tobecome significant to multiple cultures. The tradition of Blue & White is one that has; a white clay bodyserving as ground for blue decoration applied by hand, stenciling, or screentransfer. Islamic tin-glazed tile of the 9th century, pinyin or blue flowers drawn on 14th centuryChinese porcelain pots, the narrative hand-painted Delft pots of the 16thcentury Dutch, to the English and American traditions of Willowware, theprocess of cobalt blue decoration on fine, translucent, and white porcelain isa deeply rooted tradition, crossing cultures and spanning great lengths oftime.
Contemporary makers whouse blue and white are certainly aware of its history. Depending upon when in time and wherein our world, Blue & White work was revered, disdained, collected, tossedaside, incredibly expensive or ridiculously cheap, for only the most elitesocial class, to being as tourist ware. Some makers in this exhibition exploit that history referencing veryspecific cultures and time periods. Others wish to build on its rich tradition, and use it purely foraesthetic reasons. Each ofthese makers honor the rich history of blue and white ware, each uniquelyharvesting it to create works relevant to contemporary ceramics and reflectiveof our modern world.
The artists included in this exhibition are: Anat Shiftan (New Paltz, NY), GiselleHicks (Philadelphia, PA), Charles Krafft (Seattle, WA), Robert Dawson (England), Paul Scott (England) and Kurt Weiser (Phoenix, AZ).
"
