Scorched Earth: 100
Years of Southern African Potteries by Wendy Gers will
be launched at the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg on August 4.
Scorched Earth will be
the first comprehensive history of fine art potteries in southern Africa with a
focus on pioneer ceramic studios and workshops. This encyclopaedic
revisionist history of an often overlooked sector of the South African art and
design world explores the work of 30 potteries that produced high-quality
ceramic wares from 1900 to 1980.
The book promises to be the definitive history of southern
African ceramics, giving voice to many artists whose work is little-known in
the wider art world. It contains over 300 photographs, a comprehensive list of
studios, workshops and potters, makers’ marks, and a wide-ranging essay on the
history of this art form in southern Africa.
Gers is a former curator at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and now lectures at l’Ecole
Supérieure d’Art et de Design de Valenciennes in France. She curated the
prestigious Taiwan Ceramics Biennale 2014. She is a research associate at the
University of Johannesburg and an associate advisor at The Design Cradle, Cape
Town. She has written museum catalogues and published articles in journals including
Art South Africa, Ceramic Review, Image and Text, La revue de la céramique et
du verre and African Arts.
Scorched Earth is
published by Jacana in hardcover - ISBN: 978-1-4314-2126-
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