The field of visual arts is pulsating with life. Artists are writing books and galleries are launching them with huge fanfare alongside exhibitions; architects are being celebrated by cultural institutions; the upcoming Kochi-Muziris Biennale is creating a buzz with its crowd-funding drive and India Art Fair too is gearing up for its seventh edition and hoping to raise the bar with Girish Shahane as its artistic director. Amidst all this is rolling the first ever International Ceramic Conclave organised by Delhi Blue Pottery, the institution set up by Sardar Gurcharan Singh in 1952 which gave a new direction to studio pottery in India.
At the conclave beginning this Monday, Delhi Blue Pottery Trust will present the works of 24 eminent ceramists from 12 countries including Belgium, Ireland, Russia, Korea, Spain, the Czech Republic, the U.K., the U.S., Japan, Germany, Singapore, Australia and the Netherlands. It will also feature seminars, workshops, presentations, slideshows and demonstrations by visiting international potters and artists from India.
“From this conclave, we hope to trigger a two-way interaction between several different cultures, namely Japanese, Russian, Korean as also European, with which we are a little more familiar. It is hoped that with the artists all being here, there will be a much greater learning process, when it comes to exchanging information on techniques, problems facing the ceramic art world, new developments in equipment and tools, etc.,” says Anuradha Ravindranath, a trustee at Delhi Blue Pottery Trust.
A pottery enthusiast, Anuradha believes that in the last decade there has been tremendous advancement in the field of ceramics in India, both in terms of artistic expression and interpretation, as also marketability. “As such, ceramic art is at a historic juncture, and it is hoped that this event will give a fillip to the movement,” she adds.
The conclave would showcase sculptural studio pottery and ceramic art produced by known and many not-so-well-known techniques. “Several artists have techniques which are little known here, such as that of Shozo Michikawa from Japan. Martin McWilliam from Germany, Vladimir Groh from the Czech Republic and techniques from various Russian artists among others,” says Anuradha.
The talks scheduled on November 26 and 28 will also touch upon significant issues related to pottery. While some will focus on specialised techniques practised by some of the artists, a few will deal with history, complexities of glazing, painterly aspects, artists’ personal journeys.
(The conclave will begin this Monday at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre. It continues till November 30)
