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inferior artifacts sold as seconds

updated sun 21 jul 02

 

Luis Fontanills on sat 20 jul 02


I had written in a post in Nov. 15, 2001 under "The Aesthetic of Pinholes":

"So we can say that 'bad glazes' are characterized by non-uniformity,
textural interest, color variation and interest and general discontinuities.
All these in the right context are a wonderful expression of the nature of
ceramics, a play between control and chaos (at least what may seem like
chaos
to us because it is so complex to control). We need a new term for 'bad
glazes' as a _really_ bad glaze would fall off the ceramic or fail in some
essential way to the ceramic work."
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I repeated the above to bring attention to the fact that only the perception
of good/bad, perfect/flawed exists. It is the artist/maker that must
determine whether a piece has achieved sufficient quality in all its aspects
- its gestalt. If this artist/maker thinks the piece is not worthy of their
efforts then the hammer should fall. Why place artifacts that you consider
inferior in the public eye; this is a disservice to you and the public. That
is of course that caring about the art, and your own artistic integrity
carries more weight than the commercial aspect of it (making a buck). I feel
that this applies to everyone at any stage of their development. Aim high
and
work hard towards the ever shifting higher goal.

Luis Fontanills, Architect
Miami-Dade & Broward Counties, Florida USA