This Might Just Be the Kitschiest Pottery We’ve Ever Seen
Proud peacocks, cooked lobsters, nautilus shells, and decorative dragons: These creatures comprise a small part of the ceramic menagerie you’ll encounter in Majolica Mania, a new show celebrating the flamboyant pottery style, now on view at the Bard Graduate Center in New York.
If you’re unfamiliar with majolica (also spelled as maiolica), you’d be forgiven: The genre, defined by its colorful glazing, intricate surface designs, and molding and thick clay base, originated in 15th-century Spain but reached the height of its popularity (in its simpler form) in Victorian England, before falling out of favor early in the 20th century.
“The mission of this exhibition is to look at areas of material culture that have not been examined recently,” says associate curator Earl Martin, who worked with the Center’s director Susan Weber, Ph.D., to shed new light on majolica’s history and influence.
The exhibition includes exceptional examples of works from 1850 to 1951. The dating is pertinent, as majolica saw its largest wave of popularity in the years following London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. The flames of obsession grew only hotter after Minton, the premier manufacturers of majolica in England, exhibited a seven-foot-tall majolica jardiniere only a few years later.
The molded earthenware was an immediate hit across classes. The construction methods employed to create tureens, plant stands, and vases allowed for more inventive shapes, incorporating elements of the natural world (in response to Darwin’s 1859 release of On the Origin of Species) and, at times, influenced by Asian motifs, as orientalism rose in the West’s estimation. The lead-based glazes used in the majolica factories allowed for brighter, punchier colors to be fired all at once, lowering the cost of production and infusing Victorian interiors with a new, more accessible kind of rollicking fun.
Enthusiasm for the craft swiftly moved across the pond. Of the roughly 350 objects on view, most were produced in England and the United States; Americans loved the style so much that at the height of the majolica craze, 40 percent of English majolica was sold to U.S. distributors.
But beneath the frippery, majolica had a dark side: The female “paintresses” who outfitted the ceramics with striking color combinations suffered lead poisoning at an alarming rate. Men and children were also subjected to the hazardous working conditions at majolica factories on both ends of the Atlantic. “We try to touch on the conditions that were able to produce these startling objects in an almost industrial horror,” shares Martin. To highlight these workers, the exhibition incorporates a formally impressive mural by American ceramist Walter McConnell commemorating the people who made majolica’s production possible.
And there is plenty more to be discovered about this corner of the ceramic world in addition to the earthen wonders on display at the Bard Center. Following a series of talks and lectures in New York, the show will move to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore early next year, followed by a UK display at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent through 2023.
In the meantime, here’s a taste of some of the show’s most intriguing objects:
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