by Prof. Jochen Brandt
The motivation for my teachings lies in my own positive teaching experiences. Furthermore I am worried that a sophisticated artistic ceramics education is being offered in less and less colleges and universities in Germany, as if the material and the ceramic techniques had become anachronistic.
I have objections to this and would like to put my view of artistic ceramics education against this. As the course of studies is called Fine Arts, first I want to go into the term �art� from which the impulses, the methods and didactics of the studies can be derived and explained. The question �What is art?� cannot be answered comprehensively and with consent from everybody. Therefore I pursue the topic first by its etymology, the history of the meaning of words. The term �ars�has been translated from Latin with �art� in the early middle ages. Its meaning has always been �knowledge�.
Not until the end of renaissance art was separated in its meaning from �science�. What kind of knowledge was represented by the artist and how does his knowledge today differ from the knowledge of a natural scientist or a craftsman?
First and foremost, artistic knowledge is composed of three areas:
1.: The acquired skills, meaning the technical and practically trained knowledge increased and improved over the years.
2.: The knowledge about the essential characteristics of his material, meaning the medium with which the artist forms his expression. Examples for this are the expression of timbres and the theory of harmonics in music, as well as the effects of various types of stone, wood and metal in sculpting.
3.: The third area now distinguishes art from science and craftsmanship. It is important for the understanding I aim for, that magic and sorcery have already been called �ars� � �the arts�among experts from Plinius� times to date . Like art, magic deals with the core of our being, its sense and deeper meaning. In doing so it uses sorcery. Art by its own means gives form and concept to this existential and human question � �the inexpressible�. It always touches our deepest feelings in a strange way and mirrors the world view and the idea of man of its era.
Art therefore is an expression of the human who has become aware of himself. All spiritual, religious, existentialistic and further society-related questions are transformed by art. The pursuit of those questions and their transformation has found its expression in the history of art in an increasingly uncommitted, subjective and free manner. In this, art distinguishes itself from science and craftsmanship.
Although this explanation by no means describes the term art comprehensively, already the question comes up here if ceramics can be counted as art at all. Doesn�t it first and foremost serve for usage? Doesn�t the pursuit of existential questions demand the destruction of every target or even usage-oriented form?
Regarding pottery
If one contemplates the ancient history of pottery and its meaning for civilisation, it becomes quickly apparent which immense contribution to culture ceramics has made. This aspect alone would be sufficient to teach pottery at the institute, especially because here the facilities and necessary time are available.
As the freedom of an artist is not to be found in the boundlessness of his themes and means, but in the free masterly movement within self-chosen boundaries, pottery really is an artistic field of activity. Among countless ceramics there are samples of each era which mesmerize the expert observer deeply. Their power and expression is not just explainable by the terms form, function, colour and decor. Here, a subtle message is palpable which arises from the material itself as well as from the complete implicitness of the formed body. This gentle message has arisen from the hands from which the form has flown, so to speak. That is the essential of these ceramics. Here, a human completely merges with his doing and the work itself completely with its work process. Like a singer internalises his song or an actor his role, here the self is utterly withdrawn to let the essential (inexpressible) flow into the work.
This �getting oneself into it� and winking out can sometimes happen incidentally with artisan productions.
But it also can be pursued consciously as an artistic way. This was discovered for the first time in Asia. In 16th century Japan, Rikyu selected jars and objects for the tea ceremony according to these criteria and thus created an extraordinary ideal. In Europe, this attitude was discovered and used as an artistic way for painting as recently as the 20th century. Famous examples thereof are the automatic writing of the Dadaists and the informal paintings of Wols and Pollock.
Pottery as an art form distinguishes itself from craftsmanship and design by this decisive attitude.
Pottery as an art form distinguishes itself from the so-called artisan craftworks by not sacrificing its integrity through insincere artistic attitudes or market complaisance.
Pottery differs from free sculpture in the same way music differs from poetry. They are two different forms of expression. Pottery develops its appeal and statement between the poles of its specific boundaries.
Regarding plastic art
Ceramic sculptures have been created at all times. Artists mostly preferred other, often more precious, materials from their particular cultural background and for technical reasons. With the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, artists decisively opposed this attitude. They used non-precious materials right up to waste products of civilisation. This provocative and playful break with 19th century academic sculpting provided art with completely new facets of expression. Material was no longer secondary, but valorised to being an instrument.
It is noticeable that ceramics have hardly contributed to this development in the 20th century and still only do contribute little to this day. The often heard rationale, ceramic as a material being tainted with too many prejudices, therefore getting no entrance to the level of visual arts, certainly can be regarded as a half-truth and may not be deduced from the development given above.
The predicament of the last decades obviously was based on the fact that ceramists almost exclusively worked for circles interested in ceramics. We have to recognise critically that many, even award-winning ceramic sculptures were immaterial to Fine Arts because they have long existed. Ceramic statuary art has to be measured by contemporary sculpting and statuary art and persist exactly there.
It will persist if the decision to work with ceramic means is a relaxed one. It has to be based in the artistic concept and become distinctively visible in the result. What other reason is there to still work with clay today? What other legitimisation is there to teach at this institute?
An artistic aesthetic material research is necessary to turn students of ceramics into adepts. It cannot just be replaced by technical knowledge. It is neither the search for ceramic effects nor the search for the often abused material justice. It is a subjective, individual education which takes place by itself during the search, discovery and recognition of ceramic materials, their effects, possibilities and boundaries. The discovery and individual utilisation of this keyboard has to be an inherent part of the course. The location of the IKKG offers special opportunities for this. The many points of contact to industry, trade and research can be used productively. What treasure is available here to the students of arts! By participating in the knowledge of engineers and craftsmen they are able to try out and discover the artistic expression of countless materials. They do not need to reinvent them.
Quote Gropius: The artwork is always a product of technique, too. It has to function in a spiritual sense, like the product of an engineer, an airplane for example whose adamant purpose it is to fly. In that sense the artist can see him as a role model and receive valuable suggestions for his own work from the immersion in his creative process.
The aesthetic material knowledge as mentioned, drawing, sculpting and building design belong to the first two areas stated above, they are the aesthetic and creative knowledge which serves as a reliable means to make a spiritual idea physical and alive.
But on their own, they do not make an artist of the student. Creativity, talent and imagination are inherent in the human being itself, they can be promoted as well as stifled. Therefore it is important that the acquisition of the basics leaves enough time for creativity to develop.
It seems that we are trapped today in a new way despite minor physical burden, driven by socially lived haste and high performance ambitions with maximal diversion at the same time. The time I call for is no vacuum, it serves concentration and development, it is indispensable and should be untouchable.
The education I envisage should not start with posed and prefabricated tasks in the beginning. Instead, small groups and individual creative fields of work should be marked out. Thereof purposeful compulsory tasks can be worked out which will be subsequently defining the middle phase of the course. Open discussions and reflections accompany this period of time. In the final stage, the master�s thesis shall be self-chosen, worked out and defended. This method demands self-responsibility which I very much trust the students to have and an elastic student � teacher relation which allows listening and learning from each other which I consider to be the most productive relationship of all.
In the beginning, history of arts shall carefully flow into this development. Its abundance and effect must not question the own creative power.
Art emerges from contemporary life (and much less from the studies of ancient Greek sculptures).
But history of arts is vital in the latter part of the course to be able to adequately reflect one�s own work. Especially contemporary art to which we want to contribute and for which the institute is wide open, plays an important role.
By its very nature, Höhr-Grenzhausen is unable to compete with the big art schools such as Düsseldorf, Cologne or Hamburg. There are just no comparable capacities. But the exemplary programme of international guest lecturers at the IKKG is a valuable and decisive instrument to lessen this deficit, especially since we are able to sign renowned artists from all segments and bind them to the institute temporarily within this framework.
The school is a place of study and a necessary and untouchable area of freedom for the students to experiment or sometimes even to artistically try out eccentric ideas. For this purpose students have to work and intensely discuss everything.
Questions need to be asked: What is art, avant-garde, what is contemporary?
The topicality and the spiritual quality of a piece of work always mirror the quality of the artistic issue.
Sometimes one may accuse an artist working with ceramics to cling too much to his material, especially if the material no longer transports the chosen theme. It could therefore happen that a working student diverges from the things reasonably expressible by means of ceramics. It is certainly wrong to encourage or even pressure him to a ceramic implementation. After an extensive dialogue about the artistic conception of his project and at the right time he should transfer to another facility. Here the professor is in the position of a mentor which is characterised by contacts to colleagues at other colleges and universities.
To be at hand as a mentor for the students during and after the course, to challenge and promote them, to support the needs of the students and the institute in various committees, those are the things I want to work for simultaneously.
Certainly teaching, representation and administrative work which come along with this job require a lot of time. Nevertheless I consider it very important to work artistically myself. The own struggles and works keep the understanding for the next generations immediately alive and allow an irreplaceable access to the students.
Of course over the years I have been able to develop my own handwriting. However, it is not my approach to teaching and not my intention to directly shape the works of the students through my personal approach to design. I do not approach you with a firm belief how ceramics or art in general has to look.
I learn myself and discover as a teacher.
Thank you for your interest.
Quote from the greek poet Seferis - in W. Gropius works volume 3, S. 211
I want nothing more than to speak simply, to be granted that grace.
Because we�ve loaded even our song with so much music that it�s slowly sinking
and we�ve decorated our art so much that its features have been eaten away by gold
and it�s time to say our few words because tomorrow our soul sets sail.
