When Art becomes Pottery

June 20 – August 22, 2010
Perugia – Italy

A collective exhibition faces the old dilemma: Arts or Crafts? The answer offered to its visitors is: both.

Functional pottery made in Deruta is manipulated by the artists to create Art works, with eyes and minds wide open to new techniques.

The artists who are displaying their works are: Luca Aglietti, Valentina Campagni, Serena Cavallini, Michela Crisostomi, Stefano Fanara, Mauro Martin, Tiziano Micci, Laura Pozzi Rinaldi, Marco Prati, Stefano Selmi, Maurizio Sicchiero, Matgherita Taticchi, Milena Teneggi, RZ.
Centro Strozzi per l’Arte Contemporanea
Strada Della Parlesca
Perugia
Phone: 0039 075604377
Email: centrodartetorrestrozzi@virgilio.it

The Pottery Route. Renaissance majolica from Marche and Umbria.

June 16, 2010 – January 30, 2011
Gubbio – Italy

Photo credits: www.maggioeugubino.com

The Pottery Route evokes the geographic and artistic connection among Deruta, Gubbio, Castel Durante (now Urbania), Urbino and Pesaro, which were important pottery making hubs during the Renaissance. And so most of them are now.

At the time the route was actually very busy. Artists and merchants traveled from one village to the other to trade their talent or their goods.
Gubbio enjoyed a strategic position on the trail because it belonged to the Duke of Urbino, who owned most of the Marche and was known to encourage and protect Arts, but it was located near Perugia and Deruta, which had their own peculiar artistic style

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Cantagalli, the Scottish dimension

by Sheila Forbes

On 31 August 1880 Margaret Tod and Ulisse Cantagalli were married in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary’s, Edinburgh, with Ulisse’s brother Romeo, and Margaret’s brother Robert, as witnesses. His Grace, John Menzies Strain, Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, officiated, thereby establishing a permanent bond between the two fine cities of Edinburgh and Florence (SCA).

The Tods of Edinburgh
Margaret’s father was Robert Tod, Mill owner, a partner in Alexander & Robert Tod Ltd., Leith Flour Mills (NAS D76/1056), and a Leith Harbour and Dock Commissioner (NAS SC70/4/298).

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Deruta – The Magic of Ceramic Art 2009

June 26 – July 12, 2009
Sept 12 – 20, 2009
Deruta – Italy

Italian Ceramics - Deruta: The Magic of Ceramic Art 2009 - Photo Credits: http://www.comune.deruta.pg.itThe second edition of Deruta Ceramic Festival is about to start. The program is attractive, not only for Italian pottery lovers, but for anyone who enjoys live shows and art in general.

The events will take place on Fridays through Sundays. Here is a selection:

ONGOING EVENTS: every Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Anyone willing to create his own ceramic masterpiece can join Deruta potters at the Open Ceramic Lab. From wheel throwing to freehand painting, visitors will experience the making of pottery and bring home their own solid ceramic pieces. The Lab is downtown in Piazza dei Consoli and is open from 11 am to 8 pm

Stands displaying Deruta artists’ works will be open all day in the main street of the old district

Exhibition of the 36 Italian Ceramic Towns Association (AICC) at Grazia’s Old Factory

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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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Lucerna Circus – A Ceramic Oil Lamp Exhibition

February 7-17, 2009
Perugia – Italy

Frezzini&Zaganelli - Circo Lucerna e Romeo il clown - 2008Each year the Lungarotti Foundation harnesses the creative forces of important Italian artists to offer a new, creative vision of the oil lamp and its flickering light that accompanied the life of people for many centuries. Oil lamps have been used in Italy until the end of World War 1. They were usually made of clay and burned olive oil, that neither smells nor smokes.

This year the project was assigned to Stelio Zaganelli e Cristina Frezzini, two young designers from Umbria, assisted in the making of their works by the School of Ceramic Art Romano Ranieri in  Deruta.
In a brilliantly creative association of ideas, they have jumped from the magic of the olive tree and oil – almost sacred in Italy – to the magic of the Circus.

Inspired by the atmosphere of poetry surrounding the 19th century Circus, so close to human virtues and vices, their large ceramic oil lamps/sculptures represent the key characters of the Lucerna Circus:

Sissi, the slender and elegant dancer, always in the limelight, desperate for a loving soul to share her destiny with;

Filo, the slim funambulist, continuously challenging his records but depending on drugs to keep his pace steady;

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New Clays – Languages of the Young Italian Art Pottery

Dec. 19, 2008 – Jan. 30, 2009
Baronissi – Italy

An extraordinary exhibition Italian Ceramics - New Clays Exhibition in Baronissi (Salerno)has just been opened at the FRAC Baronissi – Regional Fund of Contemporary Art – that will feature the works of a new generation of artists who’ve chosen clay to express their Art.

Born in the Seventies and the Eighties, they represent what’s new in the technical and visual language of Italian ceramics. A unique initiative, indeed, since it builds on the differing Italian traditions – Deruta, Savona, Padova, Vietri, Faenza, Lucca, Urbino and Salerno among the others  – and techniques, which include a number of experiments with contemporary images and materials.

In his introduction to the event the director of the FRAC Baronissi says that the exhibition features a carefully selected sample of the languages and the practices used in modern Italian ceramic art. These languages preserve the lively cells of the valuable Italian heritage while participating in the contemporary art experiences and blending clay with other materials and creative processes. Italian pottery is therefore a language among other languages, all of them having in common imagination, creativity and a contemporary spirit.

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Traditions and Contaminations: Pottery Workshop in Urbania

January
Palazzo Ducale, Urbania

“Traditions and contaminations”Italian Ceramics - Urbania: Traditions and Contaminations is a multi sensory event that will combine the Art of Pottery Making, Food and Music in Urbania.

Better known among Italian pottery lovers as Casteldurante, the town was one of the most important production areas of the “istoriato” ceramics during the Renaissance, together with Gubbio, Pesaro and Urbino. The majolicas made in Casteldurante in the 16th century still are among the most treasured preys to pottery collectors’ and museums’.

The event challenges the technical and aesthetic tradition of the local potters and mix and matches it with creative stimuli originating from Japanese pottery techniques, food tasting and good music.

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An Italian Ceramic Artist: Alfredo Santarelli

Oct. 25, 2008 – February 28, 2009
Gualdo Tadino, Italy

Alfredo SantarelliItalian ceramics - Porta del Morto (The deceased's door) by Alfredo Santarelli - Photo credits: www.gualdo.tadino.it is one of the most important Italian Ceramic Artists of the 20th century. His talent in drawing and his mastery in the tin glazing technique (lusterware) won him a large number of golden medals in International and Italian ceramic exhibitions. His excellent portraits and classic subjects are prized collectors’ items but he also interpreted Islamic, Liberty and Art Deco designs and shapes with great originality.

The curators of the exhibition, Prof. Enzo Storelli and Prof. Mario Becchetti, have selected for this very special event the best works made by Santarelli, ranging from his “historical” pottery to the modern 20th century pieces.

Santarelli was very much intrigued by the Visual Arts of the Past. The pieces he owes his fame to were inspired by Egyptian, Etruscan, Classic, Gothic, Hispano-Moresque, Renaissance, Neoclassic and Pre-Raphaelite models. They stand out in the modern Ceramic Art for their remarkably elegant execution and creativity, their philological exactitude and the sumptuous iridescence of their ruby and golden lustre.

In the second half of the 20’s his art evolved in line with the contemporary trends. His Art Deco and Liberty pieces are a tribute to Santarelli’s talented versatility.

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Deruta Municipality steps in to fights fakes

Deruta - Coat of arms

Deruta Mayor has recently launched a program to stop the spread of counterfeit ceramics, inexpensive industrial products mostly made in China or Eastern Europe and marked “Made in Deruta” or even “Handmade in Deruta”.

Let us take a step back for a moment and look at the bigger picture.

Deruta pottery is facing the worst economic downturn since the 19th century, due to a major slow down in orders from the US. Ceramics are Deruta key asset.  Nowhere else in Italy there is such a concentration of pottery makers and so talented ones, too. A crisis in the pottery production cannot but involve the whole town.

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