POSTMODERN CERAMICS/MARK DEL VECCHIO

摘要

After Peter Dormer's New Ceramics, which broke fresh ground in the breadth of the survey and the author's intelligent commentary, comes Postmodern Ceramics, an international survey featuring the work of 130 'masters of contemporary ceramics'. Significantly, Mark Del Vecchio never actually provides a definition of 'postmodern', a wise move perhaps given the complexities involved. If we take it to mean a rejection of the modernist ethic of simplicity, functionalism and 'truth to materials' in favour of a riotous, eclectic blend of historical, social, sexual and figurative references, then this more than justifies the title.Under such chapter headings as The Postmodern Look, Post Minimalism and Organic Abstraction, the book steers a way through this complex field, with Del Vecchio ordering material in revealing comparative ways. In The Real/Super-Real, leather jackets by Marilyn Levine stand alongside Richard Shaw's books and Luis Miguel Suro's giant Asprina tablets. The chapter Sculpture: The Figure presents Michael Lucero's painted American Indian-like figure by Hans van Bentem's Warrior Angels standing nearly seven feet high. All explore the figure to look at 'the human condition'.