Ceramics and the Museum - by Laura Breen (Paperback)

About the Book

Laura Breen's insightful study examines the relationship between art-oriented ceramic practice and museum practice, addressing profound shifts in making and display since 1970.

Book Synopsis

Ceramics and the Museum interrogates the relationship between art-oriented ceramic practice and museum practice in Britain since 1970.

Laura Breen examines the identity of ceramics as an art form, drawing on examples of work by artist-makers such as Edmund de Waal and Grayson Perry; addresses the impact of policy making on ceramic practice; traces the shift from object to project in ceramic practice and in the evolution of ceramic sculpture; explores how museums facilitated multisensory engagement with ceramic material and process, and analyses the exhibition as a text in itself.

Proposing the notion that 'gestures of showing, ' such as exhibitions and installation art, can be read as statements, she examines what they tell us about the identity of ceramics at particular moments in time. Highlighting the ways in which these gestures have constructed ceramics as a category of artistic practice, Breen argues that they reveal gaps between narrative and practice, which in turn can be used to deconstruct the art.

Review Quotes

Breen's insightful, meticulously researched and much-needed examination of the dense interplay between exhibitionary strategies and clay practices is a significant and provocative contribution to current museological and ceramic discourses and practices. Six thematic and revealing chapters tackle the tensions facing curators and makers who defend ceramics as a ghettoized field or champion its pluralism.
Susan Surette, Art History Researcher at Concordia University, Canada

It has been exciting, over the past decade, to see ceramics assuming a long-awaited central place in contemporary art. While very much to be welcomed, this process has been marked by a certain amnesia, a lack of awareness about the specific character of clay. Laura Breen's book is a timely remedy. She offers a sophisticated and deeply informed view, approaching display as its own discursive form. "Ceramics and the Museum" is essential reading not just for those interested in this one discipline, but anyone interested in how museums approach medium-specific art and design.
Glenn Adamson, Senior Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art and Editor of the Journal of Modern Craft, USA

About the Author

Laura Breen is Impact and Engagement Manager at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She has a PhD from the University of Westminster, gained as part of the AHRC-funded project 'Ceramics in the Expanded Field'.