South African ceramics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is the focus of a public lecture to be given by Dr Ronnie Watt at Iziko South African Museum on 15 February at 13:00
The subject is specifically A Contextual History of South African ceramics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The history of South African ceramics of the 20th and 21st centuries tends to be presented in a compartmentalised manner in that it focuses on the leading exponents within ceramics genres. The result is a fragmented (and sometimes biased) view of the role players, circumstances, influences and incentives that have come to define South African ceramics.
The lecture introduces important role players in the development of South African ceramics and specifically those who have yet to be given due credit either because they were relegated to the status of crafters or were overshadowed by more mainstream personalities. It also positions and evaluates the roles of the formal and informal 20th century educational and training agencies that, within the constraints of imposed political dogma, produced ceramists who successfully challenged staid Western aesthetics. Particular attention is given to how the black “traditional potters” exercised agency in negotiating a contemporary (as opposed to an ethnographic) presence in which they referenced the forms, meanings and values of “traditional pottery” to meet the expectations of the collector’s market.
Watt argues that ceramists’ quest to claim an identity (or an “indigeneity”) in the turbulent political era of the later 20th century has parallels with the intent and outcomes of African Modernism. African Modernism, which arose in postcolonial countries, sought to challenge Western binaries of art, craft, identity and presence and typically made use of hybridity to that end. The same presence of hybridity is evident in 20th century South African ceramics, which must be read as an engagement with a multi-cultural society within which the ceramists sought to position themselves.
Dr. Ronnie Watt is a collector and specialist researcher of South African studio pottery and studio ceramic art. He is a graduate and postgraduate of the UNISA and a member of the International Academy of Ceramics. In his PhD thesis he addressed the contextual history of South African ceramics of the 20th and 21st centuries in which he positioned cultural and socio-political influences in the development of oeuvres and genres. He is currently resident in Canada from where he continues his research into South African ceramics.
WHAT: A Contextual History of South African ceramics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries – Dr Ronnie Watt
WHERE: T H Barry Lecture Hall, Iziko South African Museum, 25 Queen Victoria Road, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: Wednesday, 15 February 2023 13:00 – 14:00
BOOKINGS: Book INFO: Esther Esmyol E eesmyol@iziko.org.za
The WHAT, WHY & WHERE of the
arts scene in around Cape Town
see the 2023 art craft + museums_map
and listen in to the Sanlam
Arts Round Up Fridays @16.10
on Fine Music Radio FMR 101.3fm
The FMR App makes it even easier to tune into the Sanlam Arts Round Up on Fridays! i-Phone HERE | Android HERE
