Sgrafo vs. Fat Lava

From Raymond Loewy’s austere “Form 2000” teapot set of the mid-1950s to the Sgrafo vases of the 1960s and the improbable “Fat Lava” glacis of the 1970s, postwar German ceramics exhibited a tremendous stylistic diversity, mixing references to Op art, geometric abstraction, the funky, angular designs of Werner Panton and the biomorphism of hippie aesthetics. Both famed and anonymous designers translated the various aspirations of a postwar Germany under reconstruction into exaggerated, semi-futuristic shapes, as well as pursuing cooler, more stripped down effects. Sgrafo vs. Fat Lava explores this fertile tension in German ceramics, with reproductions of relevant works, an essay by the ceramics specialist Horst Markus and an interview with designer Ronan Bouroullec.