The first book to connect the history of Funk Art to contemporary
ceramic practice.
Funk You Too! arrives at a moment when clay has unprecedented currency
in the art world as a sculptural medium. It is the first book to connect
the history of Funk Art to contemporary ceramic practice through an
exploration of the enduring role of humor in clay image-making. The
founding generation of Funk artists used forms of subversion to deflate
the power of the aesthetic hierarchy that dismissed ceramics as hobby
art. Today, in the hands of a younger, more diverse cohort, the
irreverent approach is a powerful tool of critique and personal
expression and the "spoonful of sugar" to help discuss sociopolitical
concerns of our time.
Showcasing over fifty works from a 2023 exhibition at the Museum of Arts
and Design in New York City, this catalog addresses the historical
context for the emergence of ceramic sculpture in 1960s Funk Art and
applies a critical lens to work by its contemporary successors. The
exhibition's curator, Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, conceptually frames the
exhibition's emphasis on humor as a tool for tackling personal and
political themes. Garth Johnson contributes an essay on the impulse for
humor in American ceramics that lead to Funk ceramics. The catalog also
features biographies of the artists, color images, and a select
bibliography.
