VITAMIN C CLAY + CERAMIC IN CONTEMPORARY ART IN CONTEMPORARY Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art Roberto Amigo Sarah Douglas Juste Jonutyte Jeremy Millar Stephanie Rosenthal Chief Curator, Museo Nacional de Bellas Editor-in-Chief, Art News, New York Director, Rupert Centre for Arts and Tutor in Art Criticism, Royal College Chief Curator, Hayward Gallery,London The revival of clay as material for contemporary visual artists Artes de Buenos Aires Education, Vilnius, Lithuania of Art, London and a growing interest by curators and collectors in the work Ben Eastham Beatrix Ruf of overlooked ceramic artists, has resulted in a blurring of Max Andrews Co-founder and Editor, The White Review Eungie Joo Jed Morse Director, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Independent curator and writer, and Assistant Editor, Art Agenda, London Independent curator and writer, New York Chief Curator, Nasher Sculpture Centre, boundaries between ‘fine art’ and ‘craft’ and an increase in Barcelona Dallas exhibitions featuring art made of this most traditional material. Bart Rutten Reem Fadda Mami Kataoka Head of Collections, Stedelijk Museum, Laura Barlow Associate Curator, Middle Eastern Art for Chief Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo Hanne Mugaas Amsterdam Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art is the latest Curator, Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern the Abu Dhabi Project of the Solomon R Director and Curator, Kunsthall Stavanger, in Phaidon's best-selling 'Vitamin' series in which art experts Art, Doha, Qatar Guggenheim, New York Norway (curators, critics and collectors) are invited to nominate key Inés Katzenstein Sam Sherman Director, Department of Art, Universidad Independent curator and writer, London artists working in particular medium. Laura Batkis Kate Fowle Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires Gregor Muir Independent curator and writer, Chief Curator, Garage Centre for Director of Collection, International Art, For this edition, 86 art professionals proposed over 400 names, Buenos Aires Contemporary Art, Moscow Tate, London Patrizia Sandretto Rachel Kent Re Rebaudengo from which a shortlist of the 102 most exciting international Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Director, Fondazione Sandretto artists were selected for inclusion. Art, Sydney Marcella Beccaria Dan Fox Sarah Munro Re Rebaudengo, Turin Chief Curator, Castello di Rivoli, Turin Co-Editor, Frieze magazine, New York Director, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Each artist is showcased with a selection of images of their work Art, Gateshead, UK Anne Kielgast Jonathan Shaughnessy along with a specially commissioned text about their practice. Curator, G L Strand, Copenhaguen Tobia Bezzola Priscilla Frank Associate Curator, Contemporary Art, Director, Folkwang Essen, Germany Arts Writer, The Huffington Post, New York Eleanor Nairne National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Curator, Barbican Art Gallery, London The book also features an introductory essay on the wider context Udo Kittelmann of clay in art by Clare Lilley, Director of Programme at Yorkshire Lewis Biggs Adrian George Director, Hamburger Bahnhoff, Amy Sherlock Director, Folkestone Triennial, UK Senior Curator, Government Art Berlin, Germany Sculpture Park and curator of Frieze London Sculpture Park. Valeria Napoleone Reviews Editor, Frieze, London Collection, London Director, Valeria Napoleone Collection, London Iwona Blazwick Marie Laurberg Karen Smith Director, Whitechapel Gallery, London Curator & Head of Research, Louisiana Alison Gingeras Independent curator and writer, China Independent curator and writer, New York Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Steve Nelson Recent Press Quotes and Warsaw Denmark Professor, African and African American Art, Ben Borthwick UCLA and Editor, African Arts, Los Angeles Nancy Spector Artistic Director, Plymouth Arts Centre, UK “Ceramics have been reborn in recent years, placed firmly Artistic Director and Chief Curator, Andrew Goldstein Pablo León de la Barra Solomon R Guggenheim, New York in an art content.” – Francesca Gavin, Artsy, July 2014 Editor-in-Chief, artnet News, New York Curator for the Guggenheim UBS MAP Michal Novotný Elizabeth Buhe Global Art Initiative, Solomon R. Director and Curator, Center for “Ceramic art … has finally come out of the closet, kicking and PhD Candidate NYU Institute of Fine Arts Guggenheim Museum, New York Contemporary Art FUTURA, Prague Anthony Spira Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow, Whitney Simon Groom Director, Milton Keynes Gallery, UK disentangling itself from domestic servitude and minor-arts Museum of American Art, New York Director, National Galleries of Scotland, status – perhaps for good.” – Lilly Wei, ArtNews, January 2015 Edinburgh Rebecca Lewin Sean O'Toole Curator, Serpentine Galleries, London Independent curator and writer, Cape Town Rochelle Steiner Elke Buhr Professor of Critical Studies, University “In the past year or so, the 27,000 year old art form has been Editor-in-Chief, Monopol, Berlin Lisa Havilah of Southern California, Los Angeles making quite the trendy comeback.” – The Huffington Post, Director, Carriageworks, Sydney Jenni Lomax Tricia Paik February 2015 Director, Camden Arts Centre, London Director, MHCAM Mount Holyoke College Tiziana Casapietra Art Museum, South Hadley, MA Roberta Tenconi Founder and Chief Editor, radicate.eu, Kay Heymer Curator, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan “Clay is experiencing something of a boom in the art world.” – Genoa, Italy Head of Modern Art, Museum Kunst Donna Lynas Amy Sherlock, Frieze, May 2016 Palast, Düsseldorf Director, Wysing Art Centre, UK November Paynter Associate Director of Research and Olivier Varenne Programs, salt, Istanbul Mary Ceruti Co-Director of Exhibitions and Collections “The championing of clay as a sculptural medium by a younger Executive Director and Chief Curator, Paul Hobson Christine Macel and International Curator, MONA Museum Sculpture Center, New York Director, Modern Art Oxford, UK Chief Curator, Musée National d'Art generation of artists has brought with it a re-examination of Old and New Art, Tasmania, Australia Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Magnus af Petersens of work that weltered in the shadows over decades when Paris and Artistic Director of the Curator of International Art, Moderna ceramic was out of favour.” – Hettie Judah, The Independent, Colin Siyuan Chinnery Natasha Hoare Biennale ARTE Venezia 2017 Museet, Stockholm Sheena Wagstaff Independent curator and writer, Beijing Curator, Witte de Witte, Rotterdam, September 2016 Chairman of the Department of Modern The Netherlands and Contemporary Art, Metropolitan Carol Yinghua Lu Yasmil Raymond Museum of Art, New York Tatiana Cuevas Guevara Independent curator and writer, Beijing Associate Curator, Painting and Sculpture, Independent curator and writer, Mexico City Jens Hoffmann The Museum of Modern Art, New York Director of Special Exhibitions and Public Jonathan Watkins Programs, Jewish Museum, New York Sarah McCrory Director, IKON, Birmingham, UK Michele d'Aurizio Director, Glasgow International Festival, Nora Razian Managing Editor, Flash Art, Milan Director, Contemporary Art Gallery at Head of Programs and Exhibitions, Sursock Alistair Hudson Goldsmiths College and Co-Founder, Museum, Beirut Sarah Williams Director, mima Middlebrough Institute of Open School East, UK Head of Programme, Jerwood Visual Modern Art, UK Vincenzo de Bellis Arts, London Curator of Visual Arts, Walker Arts Kasia Redzisz Center, Minneapolis Eva McGovern-Basa Senior Curator, Tate Liverpool, UK Dakis Joannou Independent curator and writer, Manilla Lynn Zelevansky Founder, DESTE Foundation for Director, Carnegie Museum of Art, Contemporary Art, Athens Gavin Delahunty Eva Respini Pittsburgh Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, James Meyer Barbara Lee Chief Curator, The Institute of Dallas Museum of Art Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Contemporary Art, Boston Dia Art Foundation, New York Nominators ← Venus of Dolní Vestonice, Introductory Essay 29,000–25,000 BCE Ceramic 11.1 × 4.3 cm / 4 ½ × 1 ¾ in Moravské zemské muzeum, Brno, Czech Republic → Pablo Picasso, Vase: Woman, 1948 White earthenware, painted with slips 47.5 × 16.5 × 11 cm / 18 ¾ × 6 ½ × 4 ¼ in Musée national Picasso, Paris →→ Fausto Melotti, Teatrino (‘Little Theatre’), c.1945 Terracotta 21.5 × 12.5 × 8 cm / 8 ½ × 5 × 3 ¼ in principal sculptural processes since at least d’Azur, forming a number of lovely, simply abstracted elements. Responding to the near In 2009 the art critic Roberta Smith wrote A human compulsion to create art to have engendered fertility or played a spiritual 3,700 BCE when it originated in the Judean formed terracotta figures that resemble latter- destruction by aerial bombings of his Milan in the New York Times that ceramic has ‘one role in communities with shamanistic traditions Desert. Until relatively recently, clay was the day Venuses, and kindling a close relationship studio and its contents in 1943, Melotti began of the richest histories of any medium on the Objects made from clay reveal periods of – it is clear that they took many hours and much generating material in the production of all cast with clay that would last for five years. Working making more crudely formed ceramic sculptures, planet,’ going on to state, ‘It can’t be said ancient human activity for which we otherwise effort to create. The Dolní Vestonice venus and sculpture, although the tactile qualities of clay with the Madoura workshop of Suzanne and firing them in a rented muffle kiln. Ruptured by enough that the art-craft divide is a bogus have few remaining records. While not