'Centers And Edges' Modernist Ceramic Arts In America

CHICAGO, ILL.

:The multifaceted forms of ceramic arts in America spiraled out into society like clay on a potter's wheel as mainstream pottery centers absorbed important contributions by Modernist artists working around the edges. The recently opened exhibit "Centers and Edges: Modern Ceramic Design and Sculpture, 1880-1980," examines the wide variety of styles and influences that propelled the evolution of Modernist ceramic arts in America throughout the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Century.

The exhibition at the Smart Museum of Art is on view through September 18.

The objects on view have been culled primarily from the museum's own collection and arranged according to specific areas of influence. Irrespective of period or maker, the approximately 110 objects on view share an extraordinarily tactile quality.

When late Nineteenth Century English and American potters looked to the past they found much to emulate and they integrated aspects of neo-Gothic, Orientalist and French Rococo Revival styles into their own work.