ABSTRACT
The repetition of vessels, grouped works and installations of large numbers of objects has become a familiar sight in contemporary ceramics practice since the late 1990s, and while sculpture offers insights into this, ceramics has its own traditions of the multiple. The British sculptor Tony Cragg was central to sculpture's transition from minimalism to a more expressive style, and during the 1980s he made a number of sculptures assembled from found objects. Sculpture's influence is not due to lack of direction or ideas in ceramics; in the great variety of multi-part ceramic works, ceramicists consciously mine sculpture's approach to color, material, space, height, visual impact and demands on the audience. While using some of the motifs of minimalism, such as purity of appearance, stacks and repeated forms, and of assemblage, where the work has no predetermined configuration, ceramics maintains a distinct character of its own. This amply demonstrates ceramics' ability to be influenced by sculpture without being co-opted into it.
