Terra Incognita: Italy’s Ceramic Revival
Estorick Collection, London
While ceramic artists in Britain in the decades before and following the Second World War sought to deal with, address and even adopt the Anglo-Orientalism as advocated by Bernard Leach, who was also following the footsteps of William Morris, artists in Italy had no such direction. The work of Leach and his followers aimed for the “moral” pot – skilfully thrown and covered with sombre, earthy glazes and muted decoration. Most saw the issue of functionalism as a vital reference point.
By contrast, Italian artists seemed to have little knowledge of or interest in such ideas, but approached clay as a material like any other to produce a variety of objects, using it to fashion them by any techniques that seemed appropriate or even collaborating with manufactures. Objects included asymmetrical, narrow-necked vessels, plaques, sensitively modelled heads or sculptures. With barely a nod to the long tradition of majolica decoration in Italy, the artists produced colourful patternings and designs on objects that were made as works of art in their own right without regard for use or function.
Such work has been little seen in this country, other than artists such as Carlo Zauli and Pompeo Pianezzola, who have shown in international exhibitions, while Lucio Fontana is best known as a painter for his famous “slash” canvases. But Fontana also worked extensively in clay, designing tableware as well as freely modelled sculptures. Here he is represented with several pieces including Concetto Spaziale, a painted, slashed and incised terracotta plaque that has all the energy associated with his work. Other pieces by Fontana include Venere, from 1931, a freely modelled version of Venus just discernable in the modelled surface, and a precisely modelled head of Medusa, in polychrome earthenware. The haunting face retains the clarity of freshly modelled clay.
Many of the artists included in this engaging exhibition worked in a variety of techniques, whether producing sculpture or vessel-based forms. In addition to terracotta and majolica, there are lustre-decorated wares that range in size from a few centimetres to tall pieces more than two metres high. A painted dish by Salvatora Meli, some 50 centimetres in diameter, calls on mythology for the design of a naked woman riding a giant octopus. Filling the space with life, the battle is one of both love and survival.
More abstract in feel are works by Giuseppe Civitelli. A tall vase, vaguely figurative in shape, reflects the influence of Rome’s post-war avant-garde movements Forma 1 and Gruppo Origine. Both movements advocated greater interaction between shape, colour and design as part of an exploration of abstraction, seeking to apply conceptual and aesthetic ideas beyond the painted canvas. Civitelli’s two-tone, loosely rendered geometrical design successfully brings together surface and form to create a convincing sense of movement.
Without regard for the traditional conventions between fine art, craft, design and the decorative arts, this group of artists in Italy approached clay without reserve but with a knowledge of and an ability to call on the diverse history of Italian ceramics to create a new and vibrant language in ceramics.
Emmanuel Cooper
Terra Incognita: Italy’s Ceramic Revival continues until December 20. A useful catalogue details work in the exhibition
