Author: Tiziana Manzetti

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Your Christmas Travel Guide to Italian Pottery Events: Ceramic Nativity Scenes in Grottaglie

Dec. 11, 2010 – Jan. 9, 2011
Otranto – Italy

Italian Pottery - Ceramic Nativity scene - Photo credits: www.puglialive.netGrottaglie has been a hot spot for pottery making in Italy since the Middle Ages thanks to its distinctive style and its varied shapes.

The production of Nativity scenes made of painted terracotta started in the 19th century. The figurines were very small: shepherds, angels, the three Kings, Mary, Joseph and Jesus being the key miniature characters of a tiny yet detailed landscape.

At the end of the 19th century the Nativity scenes made in Grottaglie were so popular that many pottery makers specialized in this peculiar art, making celebrated masterpieces. The most famous artists were Petraroli, Manigrasso, Micera, Esposito, Peluso.

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Your Christmas Travel Guide to Italian Pottery Events: Tuscan Pottery and Textiles

Nov. 20, 2010 – Feb. 28, 2011
Prato – Italy

Italian Ceramics - Tuscan Pottery and Textiles - Photo credits: www.museodeltessuto.itA dialogue between Tuscan arts during the Renaissance. This is the subtitle of this unusual exhibition, stemming from the joint efforts of the Textile Museum in Prato and the Museum of Ceramics in Montelupo Fiorentino.

From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance these two arts represented a major source of income for the area between Florence and Prato, in Western Tuscany, the outstanding quality of their artifacts, their creative excellence and exquisite taste being the key reasons for their popularity.

Interestingly, the pottery made in Montelupo from the 14th to the 16th century shows a certain resemblance to the patterns of silk textile designed in the same period of time. This is indeed the main theme of the exhibition, that compares the two arts from the point of view of designs and common cultural models and highlights their similarities.

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Maurizio Tittarelli Rubboli – Meet the artist

Last Friday isItalian Ceramics - Meeting the artist Maurizio Tittarelli Rubboli a day to remember. Manuela and I met Maurizio Tittarelli Rubboli in Gualdo Tadino, his home town. He had invited us to see his old kilns or “muffole”, dating back to 1884 and 1920.

Gualdo is a small village, nested on the first spurs of the Appennini, not too far from Perugia. We parked near the Rocca Flea, a massive fortified castle from the 13th century. Maurizio was waiting to show us the old Fabbrica Rubboli, just a few steps downhill.

The place does need to be restored! It’s a long stone building, now completely decaying, that is supposed to become the future Rubboli Museum. How far into the future, no one knows, unfortunately. Actually, Maurizio is fighting tooth and nail to protect the heritage of his illustrious ancestors and that of the pottery from Gualdo Tadino and kick off the project of the Museum … but this is another story.

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Brajo Fuso – A Certain Idea of Ceramics

Nov. 13, 2010 – Jan. 9, 2011
Torgiano, Italy

Italian Ceramics - A Certain idea of Ceramics - Brajo Fuso (1899-1980)Thirty years after his death, Umbria celebrates Brajo Fuso with two exhibitions.

The first one aims to sketch for the visitors the portrait of this eclectic Italian artist thru his paintings, sculptures and jewels. The other exhibition focuses on his ceramic works and, thanks to the curatorial effort of Giulio Busti and Franco Cocchi, it promises to cast some new light on Brajo’s creative path.

Brajo Fuso (1899-1980) is considered one of the most representative Italian artists of the 20th century. In 1943, in the middle of a successful medical doctor career, he started experimenting with color paints and wood, strings and clay, and any material that aroused his creativity.

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Ancient Ceramic Artifact Found near Montelupo

lastramontelupowebArchaeologists working in the area of Montelupo Fiorentino report a new find. It’s a remarkable ceramic plaque, a full relief featuring the head of a veiled woman, believed to date back about 2500 years.

The artifact is made of terracotta. The woman is wearing earrings and a necklace. Her hair is pinned on her head. She is surrounded by acanthus leaves.

The plaque was probably part of the fronton of a temple or of its sloping roofs. The archaeologists found it on the bottom of a 7.5 mt deep water pit, on a layer of gravel and accurately covered with stones. The setting of the plaque has prompted the assumption that the woman, possibly a Goddess, was laid there to protect the water of the pit.

The quality of the artifacts and its exceptional preservation make it a valuable addition to the Museum of Archaeology in Montelupo. One more reason, if necessary, to visit this beautiful spot of Tuscany, worldwide famous for its handmade Tuscan pottery.

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Michela Minotti – Beyond. Ceramic Sculptures.

November 6 – 14, 2010
Tuscania, Italy

Italian Ceramics - Artworks by Michela MinottiI read about this exhibition on the Internet and I decided to go, regardless of my knowing nothing about the artist. A ceramic art exhibition near Viterbo, the place where I currently live, is a seldom occurrence. Plus, Tuscania is a charming destination.

I drove there with a sense of excitement because I had absolutely no idea of what I was about to see. I cherish the lack of expectations. It’s a blessed state of mind.

The exhibition was in a beautiful spot: a handsomely shaped, ancient warehouse, encased into the city walls. I watched a short video, featuring the artist, Michela Minotti, using the Raku technique to fire her pieces. Then I had a close look at her pieces. Finally I met her.

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Giuliana Cusino – Fairies

Until November, 2010
Avigliana – Italy

Italian Ceramics - Storie della mela - "Perché la mela proibita?" - 2010 - cm 50x70 - Photo credits: Giuliana CusinoGiuliana Cusino’s works have been often described as ceramic drawings, both for the technique she uses – she makes almost bi-dimensional raku figures and applies them on wooden panels – and for her naïve style.

A new talent in Italian ceramics, the artist has been working for a long time as a writer and illustrator of children’s books, a job and a passion that has strongly enhanced her gift for impactful and natural communication, only apparently unsophisticated.

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Women’s Hours

Sept. 29, 2010 – April 3, 2011
Naples – Italy

Painter from Licurgo- Wedding scene - 350 b.C. - Photo credits: www.palazzomontanari.comHow did women live 2500 years ago in the Mediterranean regions? An answer to this question is provided by a splendid exhibition, now open in Naples. It features thirty vases made between the 5th and the 3rd century b.C. and found in Ruvo di Puglia, an area in the South of Italy that at the time was part of the Great Greece.

Using the typical red figure technique, the pottery makers painted on their vases scenes from women’s daily life.

Queens in their own house, they spent there most of their time. They are depicted while busy in their homely chores, weaving colorful fabrics for their clothes, nursing their children, leaving their bedrooms to meet their husbands in the thalamos, the common bedroom. Outside their house, wedding celebrations and death rituals were women’s most important public activities. Continue reading →

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Ceramic Art Galleries at the Museum

Until November 4, 2010
Faenza – Italy

Italian Ceramics - Lovers by Leoncillo Leonardi - glazed terracotta - 1954 - Photo credits: www.dorotheum.comThe International Museum of Ceramics (MIC) in Faenza is hosting an original art event. Eight Art Galleries have been invited to display their collections of modern ceramic works in the new 20th century building.

The list of the artists is impressive: James Brown, Walter Cascio, Giacinto Cerone, Giosetta Fioroni, Mirella Guasti, Luca Lanzi, Leoncillo, Luigi Mainolfi, Renato Meneghetti, Aldo Mondino, Antonello Santè P., Germano Sartelli, Nanni Valentini, Antonio Violetta, Sergio Zanni.

Some of the artists are already represented in the permanent collections of the Museum, while others are featured for the first time.

MIC is the largest and most representative museum of Ceramics in Italy. Its mission is to establish Ceramics as a primary form of Art and one of its key strategies is an active support for contemporary International and Italian Ceramic Art, especially since the expansion of the original buildings.  Continue reading →