Artists and curators have embraced ceramics, but collectors need a little more convincing.
Are ceramics, long relegated to the realm of craft, finally getting their due? Clay and porcelain works by artists including Josh Smith, Mai-Thu Perret, Rachel Kneebone and Thomas Schütte are in abundance at Art Basel this year, and sales were brisk yesterday on the first of the fair’s two VIP days. The medium “is perfectly unfashionable to be fashionable again”, says Tom Dingle of Thomas Dane gallery (2.1/M15). Handmade and richly textured, works in clay contrast with the oversized, slick paintings and chrome sculptures that predictably clamour for attention on many galleries’ stands.