A ceramics museum is a museum wholly or largely devoted to ceramics, usually ceramic art. Its collections may also include glass and enamel, but typically concentrate on pottery, including porcelain. Most national collections are in a more general museum covering all of the arts, or just the decorative arts. However, there are a number of specialized ceramics museums, with some focusing on the ceramics of just one country, region or manufacturer. Others have international collections, which may be centered on ceramics from Europe or East Asia or have a more global emphasis.
Outstanding major ceramics collections in general museums include The Palace Museum, Beijing, with 340,000 pieces, [1] and the National Palace Museum in Taipei city, Taiwan (25,000 pieces); [2] both are mostly derived from the Chinese Imperial collection, and are almost entirely of pieces from China. In London, the Victoria and Albert Museum (over 75,000 pieces, mostly after 1400 CE) and British Museum (mostly before 1400 CE) have very strong international collections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC (12,000, all East Asian [3] ) have perhaps the best of the many fine collections in the large city museums of the United States. The Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, New York, has more than 45,000 glass objects.
Many of the historic ceramics manufacturers have museums at or very near their factories, sometimes owned by the company, sometimes independent institutions. These usually mainly or entirely contain their own wares. Some of these are large and significant. Among the more important ones, with large collections, covered in the articles on the concern, are: Meissen porcelain, [4] Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory, Doccia porcelain, Royal Worcester, [5] Wedgwood (now independent), [6] Royal Crown Derby and Herend Porcelain.
Some specialist ceramics museums are (number of pieces are approximate):
Stoneware is a broad term for pottery fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. End applications include tableware, decorative ware such as vases.
Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, decorative techniques, and "a glorious pot-pourri of styles - Rococo shapes with Oriental motifs, Classical shapes with Medieval designs and Art Nouveau borders were among the many wonderful concoctions". As well as pottery vessels and sculptures, the firm was a leading manufacturer of tiles and other architectural ceramics, producing work for both the Houses of Parliament and United States Capitol.
Regis Brodie is a tenured Professor of Art at the Department of Art and Art History at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY and a potter. Since 1972, he has been serving as the Director of the Summer Six Art Program at Skidmore College. He also wrote a book called The Energy Efficient Potter which was published by Watson-Guptill Publications in 1982. He started the Brodie Company in 1999 in the interest of developing tools which would aid the potter at the potter's wheel.
Talavera pottery is a Mexican and Spanish pottery tradition from Talavera de la Reina, in Spain. In 2019, it was included in UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Sèvres – Cité de la céramique is a French national ceramics museum located at the Place de la Manufacture, Sèvres, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, France. It was created in January 2010, from the merger of the Musée national de Céramique-Sèvres and the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres. The museum is open daily except Tuesday; an admission fee is charged. Access to the museum by public transportation is available from Tramway d'Île-de-France station Musée de Sèvres on Tramway T2, and by Paris Métro station Pont de Sèvres on Line 9.
Jorge Wilmot was one of the most distinguished artisans of Mexico, and has been credited with the introduction of stoneware and other high fire techniques to the country. His work is also known for its more austere, Oriental-inspired designs blended with Mexican motifs. His work has been widely sold and exhibited both in Mexico and abroad and he has trained and influenced generations of ceramicists at the school he established in Tonalá, Jalisco.
The Meiyintang Collection is a privately owned assembly of Chinese ceramics, porcelain and bronzes, which has been hailed as one of the finest private collections of Chinese porcelain in the Western world. Meiyintang 玫茵堂, "Hall among Rosebeds", is the adopted Chinese studio name of the collection.
The Museo Regional de la Cerámica in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico is located on Independencia Street in the center of the city. The museum is one of two main ceramics museums in the city, with the other being the Pantaleon Panduro Museum. It was established in 1954 to preserve and promote indigenous handcrafts of Jalisco, especially the state’s ceramic tradition. The emphasis is still on ceramics but the museum also has a room dedicated to Huichol art and holds events related to various types of indigenous crafts and culture.
Ceramics of Jalisco, Mexico has a history that extends far back in the pre Hispanic period, but modern production is the result of techniques introduced by the Spanish during the colonial period and the introduction of high-fire production in the 1950s and 1960s by Jorge Wilmot and Ken Edwards. Today various types of traditional ceramics such as bruñido, canelo and petatillo are still made, along with high fire types like stoneware, with traditional and nontraditional decorative motifs. The two main ceramics centers are Tlaquepaque and Tonalá, with a wide variety of products such as cookware, plates, bowls, piggy banks and many types of figures.
Sueharu Fukami is a Japanese ceramic artist and sculptor known for his work in pale-blue qinbai porcelain. Fukami's abstracted, sculptural ceramic works depart from the traditional Japanese artisan traditions of his upbringing and instead explore natural phenomena and universal senses like "infinite space" through sharp silhouettes, sweeping curves, architecturally-inspired arches, and delicately-colored glaze. His minimalist approach to porcelains has contributed to defining and expanding the meaning, importance, and popularity of contemporary Japanese ceramics beyond craft art circles, most notably to fine art collectors and museums globally.
The National Museum of Decorative Arts is a decorative arts museum in Madrid, Spain, devoted to the industrial or "minor arts", including furniture, ceramics, glass, and textiles. It is one of the National Museums of Spain and it is attached to the Ministry of Culture.
The National Museum of Ceramics and Decorative Arts "González Martí", is a museum in Valencia, Spain, devoted to ceramics –with special importance to Valencian ceramics–, porcelains and other decorative arts such as textile art, traditional costumes, and furniture. It is one of the National Museums of Spain and it is attached to the Ministry of Culture.
Cristina Merchán was a Venezuelan artist initially trained as a painter, and later became known for her ceramics.
Seka Severin de Tudja was a Venezuelan ceramicist known as Seka.
Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While some ceramics are considered fine art, such as pottery or sculpture, most are considered to be decorative, industrial or applied art objects. Ceramic art can be created by one person or by a group, in a pottery or a ceramic factory with a group designing and manufacturing the artware.
Clare Twomey is a London-based visual artist, curator and researcher, working in performance, serial production, and site-specific installation. Her practice encompasses site-specific installation and performance; she frequently collaborates with institutions, enouraging participation and temporality.
Chris Gustin is an American ceramicist. Gustin models his work on the human form, which is shown through the shape, color, and size of the pieces.
Auguste Delaherche was a French ceramicist, who was a leading figure in French art pottery through the Art Nouveau period. Like other leading French potters of the period, he was intensely interested in ceramic glaze effects of colour and surface texture. He began his career making stoneware, but later also made porcelain in his studio.
Musée national Adrien-Dubouché is a French national museum dedicated to Limoges porcelain and the history of ceramics. Founded in 1845 and located in Limoges (Haute-Vienne), it is part of the Cité de la céramique - Sèvres et Limoges public establishment.
The Museum Giuseppe Gianetti is a ceramics museum located in Saronno, Italy. The Museum includes collections of different types of porcelain, majolica, and ceramics that belonged to the Italian industrialist Giuseppe Gianetti. These showcase more than 200 pieces of Meissen porcelain, which represents the Museum's most substantial collection. Other collections cover Oriental porcelain, Italian and European majolica, and porcelain. The original collections have been expanded to include the Aldo Marcenaro Collection and a collection of contemporary ceramics.