In 1967, the Berkeley Art Museum (
@BAMPFA ) staged its groundbreaking exhibition “Funk,”documenting a new attitude in the Bay Area art scene.
Humorous and sometimes quite ugly, the movement was especially significant for ceramics, as artists eagerly sought new directions.
While many of the artists included in the “Funk” exhibition resisted the label, ceramicist Robert Arneson fully embraced it. Through his own humorous, sometimes vulgar, work and his teaching at the University of California, Davis, he took a leading role in popularizing down-and-dirty figuration among a generation of younger makers, among them David Gilhooly, Clayton Bailey, and Richard Shaw. Other Bay Area contemporaries, such as Viola Frey incorporated elements into their own unique styles.
The Funk movement spread beyond California to other parts of the country, influencing the work of other artists including Howard Kottler and Patti Warashina. And contemporary ceramicists of today are reviving Funk aesthetics through fresh narratives and contexts.
See works from some of the most influential artists from the Funk movement in “Craft Front &. Center,”now on view through February 13.
______
Video created by assistant curator Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy (
@angelik.wiki )
Producer: Liam Harrison
#craftfrontcenter
#madmuseum
#ceramics
#funkceramics 
