The flames

An inexhaustible source of inspiration and expression for craftsmen, artists and designers, ceramics – from the Greek keramos, meaning "clay" – is one of humanity's earliest cultural manifestations, used since prehistoric times to make idols, constructions and food containers.

The exhibition presents ceramics by modern and contemporary artists and ceramicists, among them Jean Carriès, Georg Ohr, Paul Gauguin, Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach, Marcel Duchamp, Meret Oppenheim, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Raoul Dufy, Lucio Fontana, Beatrice Wood, Ken Price, Ron Nagle, Cindy Sherman, Judy Chicago, Jean Girel, Simone Leigh, Dewar & Gicquel, Theaster Gates, Mai Thu Perret, Takuro Kuwata, Natsuko Uchino; historical works by Bernard Palissy, Marie Talbot, Dave the Potter and reknown ceramic manufactories; anonymous pieces such as prehistoric Venus figures, ancient Greek vases, and vernacular pottery; and non-European items including Nok pottery, Mochica jars, Tang figures, Iranian reticuled piece and Japanese raku wares.

The exhibition's transhistorical approach focuses on ceramics as inherently related to art and, more broadly, to humankind. Long underestimated among the arts, the medium can be both functional and sculptural, and as such compels us to rethink existing categories and traditional hierarchies. In its mingling of art, craft and design, The Flames explores not only ceramics' relationship to the decorative, the culinary and the performative, but also its scope of application in the fields of medicine, aeronautics and ecology.

Three themes structure this exhibition: techniques (clays and firing, shapes, decoration); uses (functional, sculptural, ritual); and messages (trompe-l'oeil, anti-classical, political). Also considered are pieces that deviate from the rules, reinvent codes and challenge procedures, even if the recipes infused with alchemy have hardly changed throughout history.