THE KENZAN STYLE OF PAINTED POTTERY

The painted ceramics of Ogata Kenzan (1663–1743)  are elegant and harmonious, they match shape to decoration beautifully and they render natural motifs fluently in an almost abstract way.  They are revered in Japan and there is also a passion for them in the West. There is almost a cult of Kenzan.

THE URN: A MOTIF IN VICTORIAN FUNERARY ART

When I was photographing overgrown gravestones in Highgate Cemetery (above), I noticed how common monuments with urns were, many of them draped with cloths. To us, the urn as grave marker suggests ashes; when draped, a shroud; when wreathed, honour and remembrance. It is easy to see how it became a part of Victorian mourning customs and symbolism. But what exactly did it symbolise?

ARTIST PARTNERS: A GRAPHIC DESIGN ALBUM FROM THE 1950s

Editorial illustration by Bruce Roberts

These illustrations come from a lavish album produced by the Artist Partners agency in about 1959. Their designers did some famous work, including Reg Mount's poster for The Ladykillers, Saul Bass's poster for Hitchcock's Vertigo,  Brian Saunders' poster for Oh! What a Lovely War, John Holmes's cover for The Female Eunuch and Patrick Tilley's poster DRINKA PINTA MILKA DAY.

SEASIDE SURREALISM

The European surrealists liked to alarm. A woman walked through the 1936 International Surrealism Exhibition in London wearing a mask of roses, carrying in one hand a model leg filled with roses and in the other a raw pork chop. The Surrealist Manifesto for a Free Revolutionary Art was co-authored by Trotsky.

The sensation stirred up by the 1936 exhibition died down and British surrealism was tamed. It was married to romanticism. Paul Nash called it "seaside surrealism" because he found a "strange fascination, like all things which combine beauty, ugliness and the power to disquiet" in the seaside resort of Swanage.

FIVE DECADES OF HARROW CERAMICS

Last Thursday I went to the private view of "Tradition and Innovation: Five Decades of Harrow Ceramics" at Contemporary Applied Arts in London.  It runs until 9th June.

There was a certain poignancy about the exhibition, because the Harrow Ceramics course is ending this summer.  It is widely regarded as one of the best ceramics courses in the country, and the decision by the University of Westminster to close it because they consider it too expensive was met with howls of outrage when it was announced.

SAMY D - FUNKY CERAMIST WORKING IN TEL AVIV

POSTER DESIGN FROM THE 1970s

I don’t normally show my own work here, but, when I was thinking of ways I might draw on ceramics, I dug out these old posters. I did them when I was working in the PR department of North East London Polytechnic, the predecessor of the University of East London.

We had limited resources. Everything was printed in black on a little offset litho press, but I loved working there because I had freedom to do what I wanted and my boss was uninterested in what I did - as long as nothing went wrong.

NEW WORK ON SHOW: BRUSH STROKES AND ARABESQUE

These are some of the ceramics I am showing at ARTSPACE 21 at the Barn Galleries between the 12th and 27th May.

SEVERINI'S STATIONS OF THE CROSS, CORTONA

Gino Severini was one of the founders of Italian Futurism. Only because of his first-hand knowledge of the latest art in Paris did the Futurists develop anything like a coherent style. After the First World War, Severini was one of the first artists to abandon the aggressive modernism advocated by the Futurists.

JOHN POLLEX'S BRIGHTLY COLOURED CERAMICS AT THE CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS CENTRE

I met John Pollex at the opening of his exhibition of slipware at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre a couple of weeks ago. There is till time to see his show before it closes on 21 April. Contemporary Ceramics opened its airy exhibition space opposite the British Museum last year and Pollex's brightly coloured pots have been displayed there to good effect.