ARTH 264 - Aspects of the History of Ceramics

• W - 09:00-11:30
• EV-1.615
• INSTRUCTOR: Susan Surette

During the last three thousand years, ceramic tiles have performed the function of containing, cladding and dressing buildings. However, in the twentieth century this rich history was largely eclipsed by modernist architecture’s rejection of ornament. Happily, it lingered on at the periphery of Western and non-Western practices and discourse just long enough to become a force in late modern and postmodern expressions, testified to by the wide variety of artistic approaches to ceramic tiles within the art, craft and architectural communities. Turning to examples of tile forms, their glazed and relief decorative surfaces, sculptural variations, and applications to buildings from the first millennium BCE to the present, this course explores how such contemporary Western expressions have revisited historical precedents while improvising and innovating. Specific historical tile productions to be covered include Islamic, Medieval, Hispano-Moresque, Arts and Craft and Art Nouveau and Art Deco. These objects will be considered within their original and present architectural spaces along with their modes of production and situated within social, cultural and even political contexts. This interdisciplinary course looks to art and craft histories, anthropology and material culture and explores issues pertaining to Ornament and Decoration, Orientalism, Heritage and the Applied Arts.