Pioneering Ceramics
16.02.2024 until
08.09.2024
See
Starting on 16 February 2024, the Museum Prinsenhof Delft will present the exhibition Pioneering Ceramics. Ceramics are hot! A growing vanguard of artists and designers choose clay and revitalize the craft by exploring the boundaries of the medium. Pioneering Ceramics places masterpieces from the museum’s collection side by side with the work of contemporary makers. An exciting dialogue and exceptional insights are the result. For while the basic formula for ceramics has remained the same, the world to which makers are responding has changed profoundly. Pioneering Ceramics presents multiple points of view and narratives, and invites visitors to look at the past from a contemporary perspective.
Delftware and the tradition of innovation
The Museum Prinsenhof Delft holds a large collection of Delft earthenware, including the famous Delftware. In the 17th century, the experimental drive of Delftware potters trying to imitate Chinese porcelain led to the development of Delftware. This set off a period of flourishing for ceramics that started in Delft. With the museum’s earthenware collection from the 17th and 18th centuries as a starting point, Pioneering Ceramics opens a dialogue with the creative experiments of today. This brings surprizing similarities and significant differences to the fore. The exhibition clearly shows that innovation is inspired by social change. On the basis of current topics such as sustainability, locality and diversity, the exhibition invites visitors to discover links between then and now.
Flower holders, attributed to De Grieksche A, ca. 1690, tinglazed earthenware. Photo: Albertine Dijkema
On display for the first time
Pioneering Ceramics presents a new acquisition of the Museum Prinsenhof Delft: an impressive pair of pike tureens, lavishly decorated trompe l’oeil tableware from the second half of the 18th century. Another example of decorated tableware is a coffee urn in the shape of a lady, one of the treasures taken out of storage for this exhibition. Besides this, the museum puts the spotlight on ceramics of 20 contemporary artists and designers from the Netherlands. The focus is on recent work by new talent. The selection is diverse, paying special attention to autodidactic makers, makers with a non-Western background and makers representing a different perspective. Max Lipsey has made a table from Royal Delft ceramic waste. Benedetta Pompili shows recent work that she made during her residency at the Rijksacademie Amsterdam. And since Asia is still an important source of inspiration today, work by participants in the Creative Residency Arita in Japan will also be on display, including new work by Simone Post.
Pike tureens, The Porceleyne Schotel, 1764-72, tinglazed earthenware, purchase with the support of Vereniging Rembrandt (thanks in part to its Van Rijn Fonds and Themafonds Keramiek) and the Stichting van Oosten – Oosterholt. Photo: Albertine Dijkema
Flagship pitcher, Simone Post with Kinemon and Yamatatsu, 2023, porcelain
A throwback
Hands-on Ceramics
Alongside Pioneering Ceramics, there is much more to see and do about ceramics at the Museum Prinsenhof Delft this year. Starting in November, the ceramics award exhibition De Kei 2023 will be on. As part of the participation project The Delft Perspective, residents of Delft are making a monumental vase with the artist Yuro Moniz. Several masterpieces on permanent display at the museum will be on view in Pioneering Ceramics. To fill the resulting vacant spaces, talented students at the vocational programme Creatief Vakman Keramiek (SintLucas Boxtel) have made contemporary versions of these objects.
During the opening weekend, 17 and 18 February, and during ceramics workshops, visitors will be invited to roll up their sleeves and experience how new ideas come about by working with your hands.
The exhibition has been made possible in part by the City of Delft, De Laatste Eer, the Mondriaan Fund, the Creative Industries Fund NL, Keramiekstichting Smeele Van der Meulen, Stichting Van Achterbergh-Domhof.
Hommage to my zeal for work, Koos Buster, 2021, stoneware, collection Edward Bardoul
Cruising II, Leo Maher, 2022, earthenware, concrete, steel, plastic, armature
