Ceramics Galleries at V&A – Exhibition Overview
History of Ceramic Manufacture From 2500 BC to the Present Day
Sep 17, 2009
London's V&A Museum is currently undergoing major re-development. The project, known as Futureplan, includes the opening of several new galleries. The latest exhibition space to open is Phase 1 of the Ceramics Galleries. (Phase 2 will open in 2010.)
The first phase features 3000 items including Chinese ewers dating from ca. 2500 BC, The Artist at his Easel by Pablo Picasso, Blue Form (2003) by Dutch ceramist Wouter Dam and Signs and Wonders by British artist Edmund de Vaal.
Layout of the Exhibition
The exhibition is divided into seven galleries:
Factory Ceramics
The opening gallery features mass-produced, functional objects from European factories from 1900 to the present day. Exhibits are divided into four chronological sections, one for each quarter of the century.
Contemporary Ceramics
This gallery includes items from around the world reflecting innovations in techniques and design during the 21st Century.
One has to look up at the newly revealed glass dome high above the gallery to see Edmund de Vaal's site-specific installation Signs and Wonders. It sits on a red lacquer shelf, 14 metres in diameter, running the circumference of the ceiling dome. De Waal's 425 monochrome pieces are inspired by the museum's vast collection of 18th-century European porcelain, Chinese ceramics and modern Viennese pieces.
The Contemporary gallery is devoted to regularly changing displays showing 21st-century ceramics from around the world, mostly by independent artists.
Studio Ceramics
Items on view highlight the work of individual 20th-century potters including Bernard Leach, Michael Cardew, Lucie Rie, Edmund de Waal, Hans Cooper and Vanessa Bell who was associated with the Omega Workshops. The display reflects a revival in individual craftsmanship as opposed to mass-production.
Making Ceramics
The principals of how to make ceramics are introduced on a central display area. Specific materials, methods, and working environments are shown in peripheral displays. A working studio offers a changing programme of workshop classes, demonstrations. Visitors are invited to make, decorate and fire their own pottery.
The museum's Artist in Residence is Stephen Dixon, who will hold the post until February 2010. Also on display is a partial reconstruction of the studio of Dame Lucie Rie, one of the finest potters of the 20th Century.
Architectural Ceramics
This gallery features wall tiles and decorative bricks from around the world. Delftware is displayed alongside Turkish, Iraqi, Spanish and Portuguese architectural ceramics. Also on display are two large-scale 15th-century ceramic heating stoves from Germany.
World Ceramics
Materials, techniques, and styles are constantly changing and this section explores major developments in world design, manufacture and usage.
The display features pottery dating back 5000 years from the ancient world, as well as ceramics from East Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The layout of this gallery is chronological with a central time-line featuring some of the most important items from the V&A's collection.
Many of the displays juxtapose items from different parts of the world showing how ceramics have changed as a result of interaction between different cultures and trade.
Temporary Displays – Objects of Luxury French PorcelainThe final gallery features temporary displays, the first of which is Objects of Luxury French Porcelain. The exhibition explores changing styles such as the flamboyant Rococo of the mid-18th Century and the more restrained neo-classical designs inspired by Greek and Roman antiquity, popular after 1770.
Porcelain began to arrive in Europe from China in the 1500s. It was so desirable that it was known as 'white gold' and continual attempts were made to discover how it was manufactured.
When soft-paste porcelain was developed in the 1670s French porcelain became highly prized. Finely decorated tea services could cost several hundred livres, many times the annual salary of a labourer.
Masterpieces of World Ceramics – Catalogue
This is a permanent exhibition, supported by a 144-page publication, Masterpieces of World Ceramics. Full details of the catalogue and exhibition can be obtained from the V&A Museum. The Ceramics Galleries are discussed in greater detail in Victoria & Albert Museum Ceramics Galleries.
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