Tmagazine By PILAR VILADAS
Blue-and-white ceramics seem to be a source of endless fascination, from early Asian and Islamic examples to contemporary remixes of traditional forms and social and cultural commentary. “New Blue and White,” an exhibition that opens on Feb. 20 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, demonstrates the ways in which today’s artists and designers, working in a variety of media, are making blue-and-white modern.
The works on display range from the abstract, like Harumi Nakashima’s undulating, dot-glazed sculpture, or Min Jeong Song’s groups of glass objects, to the more representational, including a dress and a pair of shoes by the fashion label Rodarte. And there are plenty of conceptual pieces, like Steven Lee’s “Vase With Landscape and Butterflies,” which is at once exquisite and “damaged”; Robert Dawson’s “Spin,” a series of plates in which the traditional Blue Willow pattern is spun into a blur; or “Blow Away,” a vase by Front Design that appears to be bending with the wind. The exhibition continues through July 14.
A version of this article appeared in print on 02/24/2013, on page ST3 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Arena | Pattern Recognition: New Blue and White.
