Casteldurante Pottery – Summer Classes

Italian Ceramics - Bucchero vase by Orazio Bindelli - Photo Credits: www.culturaceramica.itThis year the Ceramic Art Classes in Urbania are particularly good, thanks to the variety of interesting subjects and the potters and artists who will share their experiences with the attendees.

The Summer Programs are organized by the coop Casteldurante Cultura Ceramica, with the help of the Associazione Amici della Ceramica di Urbania.
Focusing on pottery as a form of visual art, the classes will cover a number of topics, from the bucchero technique to raku, from basic pottery making to elaborate drawing techniques.

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Art through Fire – Luca Schiavon in Todi

April 4 – Mid June, 2009
Todi – Italy

Italian Ceramics - Work by Luca Schiavon - Photo Credits: www.exibart.comNo words need to be spent on the beauty of Todi, an old town nested on a steep hill not far from Perugia,  in Umbria. These days, however, there is one more reason to plan a visit to Todi: a fascinating combination of art and good food, meant to provide enjoyment to all the senses.

The main characters of the experiment are a restaurant, hosting the exhibition “Art through Fire”, an art gallery organizing the event and the outstanding ceramic works by Luca Schiavon.

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Wishing hope and peace!

To all of our readers who celebrate Easter,
we wish you a truly wonderful break.Italian Pottery - Ceramics doves by Giacomo Alessi - Sicily

We also wish to send a message of hope and love
to all the people who are mourning their dearest one
and who lost their homes and belongings
in the recent earthquake in Abruzzo.
Our heart is there with them.

Manuela and Tiziana

We went to Della Robbia exhibition!


Tiziana getting in the right mood for the exhibtion...

We made it. It’s always complicated to get organized with husbands and children to go to art events. They are not in the least interested but … Manuela and I have a secret weapon: GOOD FOOD!

We discovered a couple of years ago a nice wine bar in Arezzo, with excellent food, home made local dishes with fresh ingredient from the area. You know, ribollita, white beans, finocchiona, pecorino … Suddenly no one had any objection to a Sunday off and we met in Arezzo, under a cloudy sky, excited to see so many Della Robbia works in a single place. Continue reading

Ceramic Easter Eggs in Nove

April 5-19, 2009
Nove – Italy

Each year the Museum of Ceramics in Nove celebrates Easter with an exhibition of Ceramic Eggs made by Italian pottery artists.
There is no limit to the freedom of the artist in creating their egg-shaped works, and the results are often beyond expectations, as you can see from our short selection of pieces on display last year.

Italian Pottery - Ceramic egg by Mario Toli - Nove (VI) - Photo Credits: http://www.noveterradiceramica.ittalian Pottery - Ceramic eggs by Gianni Tosin - Bassano del Grappa (VI) - Photo Credits: http://www.noveterradiceramica.itItalian Pottery - Ceramic eggs by Giuseppe Facchinello - Nove (VI) - Photo Credits: http://www.noveterradiceramica.itItalian Pottery - Ceramic eggs by Beniamino Pigato - Nove (VI) - Photo Credits: http://www.noveterradiceramica.it
The exhibition will start next Sunday, in the Sala Fabris of the Museum and it’ll be open Sat/Sun and on holidays 10 am – 12.30 pm and 3.30 – 7.00 pm.

The egg is a worldwide symbol of the start of new life, rebirth and new beginnings.

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Nino Caruso donates 60 ceramic sculptures to Torgiano

Italian Ceramics - Sinulite by Nino CarusoOn March 13th a grand opening celebrated the permanent exhibition of 60 works by Nino Caruso, donated by the artist to the city of Torgiano (Umbria).

Caruso is Italy’s most renowned contemporary ceramic artist, internationally acclaimed both for his works and for his studies.

The collection is an ideal overview on his evolution as an artist since the Fifties, when he started to use traditional shapes – steles, columns, vases, oil lamps – as references for modern contemporary ceramic art.

In a very distinctive way, Nino Caruso breaks with Italian ceramic traditions while reflecting in his works a thorough understanding and appreciation of those traditions. Similarly, he embodies the European humanism while freely using forms and techniques from Japan such as haniwa and raku.

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Andrea Della Robbia and his successors

Italian Ceramics - Annunciation (detail) by Andrea della Robbia (ca. 1490), Staatliche Museum, Berlin - Photo credits: www.mostradellarobbia.itIn 1471 Luca della Robbia bequeathed his successful factory to his nephew Simone. He didn’t trust Andrea (1435-1525), whom he believed too concentrated on getting the highest revenue from the family business.

Actually, he was more or less right, if we consider that after his death Andrea massively increased the production of glazed terracotta. However the quality of the pieces did not suffer
much from it. At least in the beginning.

Andrea was a very good artist with a businessman approach to what he considered the family “company”: he increased the number of subjects so as to please both Catholic institutions and laical Customers who favored his glazed terra-cotta, that – if not cheaper than marble – was by far easier to ship and install.

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Luca Della Robbia

Italian Ceramics - Madonna and Child by Luca della Robbia (c. 1475), Widener Collection - Photo credits: National Gallery of Art - USAThe story of the Della Robbia family begins in 1441-2 when Luca della Robbia, a cultivated and bright minded man, developed a new technique that would allow him to blend the magic of painting, sculpting and pottery making into a brand new form of artistry: the Architectural Ceramic Art.

His family was very well known in Florence for their textile business, which is somehow connected with the origin of their name: Della Robbia comes from Rubia (madder), a plant used in ancient times as a vegetable red dye for textile dyeing and for painting.

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Della Robbia: Technical Innovation and Creative Genius

Italian Ceramics - Cappuccini Tondo by Luca della Robbia (1475-80), Bargello Museum, Florence - Photo Credits: www.scultura-italiana.comAccording to Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), the famous biographer of Renaissance painters, sculptors and architects, Luca della Robbia’s technique was so revolutionary that he’d be praised for it for many centuries to come. He explained how it was not such a hard work to make a clay sculpture and the only reason why clay had not been used much so far was that it could not be preserved over time. Luca, after many experiments, managed to invent a special mixture of minerals. This glaze, used to coat the sculptures before the firing in a suitable kiln, would make them almost eternal.

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Ugo La Pietra Art Ceramics in Castellamonte

March 7 – 30, 2009
Castellamonte – Italy

Italian Ceramics - Interno and Esterno (Inside and Outside) by Ugo La Pietra - Photo credits: Arte.go

“Terre e Territori” (Clays and Territories) promises to be an extremely interesting and rich exhibition, gathering more than 200 ceramic works signed by a man (and an artist, a designer, an architect, a great teacher, a journalist, a film director …) who stands out for his contribution to Italian Modern Art.

Since the 60’s he has been exploring the relationship between human beings and their environment and how it affects the evolution of the objects they use, the habits they develop, their perceptions of the space surrounding them, their communication.

Fascinated by visual media, be it new technology or traditional handcraftsmanship, La Pietra has used many of them to carry on his researches on everyday objects, to him useful functional tools, but also symbols of a specific decorative culture.

Pottery making has been part of his artistic evolution since the 80’s, when he started to work on the idea of a positive interaction between industrial design and the rich imagery of Italian ceramic craftsmanship. With very interesting results, indeed.

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