A&D 442

Ceramics III

Instructor: Sigrid Zahner

Syllabus

"The Turkish word for art is sanat. The artisans contrast it with emek. Their distinction between sanat and emek is analogous to our division of art from craft, but the criteria differ. We try to separate art from craft by medium, assuming some deep, even universal validity in the conventional hierachy of the late West, as though a textile or ceramic work, no matter how fine, can only be craft, while a painting or sculpture, no matter how dreadful, remains art. Or we try to divide by function, assuming artifacts to be single in purpose, which they never are, and that useful and beautiful objects belong, like working and leisured people, in separate classes. Either way we undermine artifactual complexity, stifle our own art with false order, and thwart crosscultural study.

The Turkish artisan assumes art is functional, always in some measure useful. It is used by its creator to gain profit, and it will be used beneficially by it s consumer, And art is not bound to this medium or that. It is a potentiality within all media, from the humble craft of the basketmaker to the lofty craft of the calligrapher. Medium is a biographical accident. Some make axes, some make carpets. What matters is how the individual handles the medium dealt by life.

Sanat divides from emek, not on the basis of medium or function, but in accord with the commitment of the worker.

 Emek is what you do to make a living. Sanat is also created to make a living - nothing wrong with that - but it is distinct in that it contains something more. That something more is dedication by the worker to the work itself, the gift into materials of the artist's being.

The artist's gift suffuses an object with spirit. To the Turkish artisan, art cannot issue from a mechanical performance. It must contain signs of spirited volition. And yet art is identified with skill, with a trained and disciplined mastery. These qualities do not seem to fit easily together - spirit and master, expression and skill, freedom and restraint - but both evince artistic commitment. What I tepidly call commitment, the Turkish artist calls aşk.

Aşk is love, devotion, passion: the passion of lovers separated and pining for each other, the passion of the soul yearning for union with God. When artists love, when they commit the wholeness of their being to their work, when passion drives their actions, their product, whatever the medium of function, will display the lift of their spirit, the discipline of their hands. Art is the object that contains love."

Glassie, Henry. Turkish traditional art today. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.