More Than Décor

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The New York Sun

Most of us probably don’t think that much about ceramic tiles. If we are remodeling our kitchens or baths, for a period of weeks or months, we obsess about patterns, finishes, and colors. Then we move on with our lives.

“Tile Design in Valencia: From the Middle Ages Through the Early 20th Century,” an engrossing exhibit at the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute, has the beauty, variety, and quirkiness to jolt viewers into a prolonged state of tile fixation. Bursting at the seams, the glistening, heady exhibition of more than 100 pieces — two of which are magnificent floor coverings that each take up half of their respective galleries — is reminiscent of walking into a high-end tile store. But very quickly the show makes it apparent that you are in the presence not of home décor but of art. There are tiles, and then there are tiles.

Valencia, Spain, has long been prized as a center for spectacular ceramic production, from bricks, paving, roof, and wall tiles to pots, plates, and pitchers. The province of Castellón alone produces 10% of the world’s tiles today. “Tile Design in Valencia,” which begins with geometrically shaped, abstract, Muslim paving tiles from 1300 and ends with abstract, Art Deco tiles from the 1930s, gives us a thorough and pleasurable journey through the history and evolution of Valencian tile design.

Curated by Juame Coll Conesa, director of the Museo Nacional de Cerámica y Artes Suntuarias “González Martí” de Valencia, the two-floored exhibit is organized chronologically and is divided into five sections: “Mystic Geometry: From the Muslim World through Medieval Christianity,” “For Kings, Prelates, and Knights,” “The Miracle of Color,” “Carpets and Tapestries for Churches and Palaces,” and “Tiles for the Entire World.”

The last section begins with the 19th century, when the technological innovations of the industrial revolution made tiles more affordable. It was also then that Valencian ceramics began to be sold in America, where they influenced our own tile production. The show, which is literally like having a piece, or pieces, of Spain in New York, is also a great accompaniment to the Guggenheim’s current blockbuster focusing on Spanish painting, “El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth, and History.” And it is accompanied by a very fine and informative catalog in Spanish and English.

Decorative in the highest sense of the word, “Tile Design in Valencia” takes us through seven centuries of design, aesthetics, history, influence, and period fashion. Basically, there are two types of tiles in the show: illustrations on one or more tiles, which then, like paintings, become panels; and ornamental designs that are meant to be repeated in patterns. Most of the tiles are square and some are used diagonally, but the show also includes a wall of gorgeous round tiles. Blue and white, influenced by the Mediterranean, are favored colors, and fish, birds, and religious subjects abound. But the delightful, well-rounded show demonstrates that in Valencian tiles just about every kind of subject and motif has been explored.

We are offered Art Nouveau tiles, heraldic tiles, 15th-century guild emblems for crossbowmen and furriers, animals, cherubs, fruit, flowers, volutes, running garlands, and Renaissance coats of arms. There are tiles with still lifes, foliage, kitchen utensils, and funeral plaques. And the show includes tiles with Arabic calligraphy, portraits, and food. You will find tiles depicting the Holy Family, the Flagellation of St. Vincent Mártir, souls in purgatory, and the Third Station of the Cross, as well as bullfights, Emperor Constantine supervising the construction of the Basilica of Laterano, and a man and woman in fancy dress serving turrón and chocolate.

The nine-tile panel titled “Flirtation” (c. 1830) depicts a woman offering a basket of flowers to a man on horseback. Another panel, “Road to the Bakery” (also c. 1830), made of 20 tiles, shows a man in a kitchen carrying a board filled with unbaked loaves of bread on his head. “Heraldic Tile of Ramón de Perellós,” Manises (1420–50), a tile with a peculiar mixture of figure and foliage, is positively Romanesque. “Eave Socarrat (Scorched Tile) With Rabbit,” Paterna (16th century),looks like it came out of Georges Braque’s studio, and “Blue and White Tile With Bird,” Manises (c. 1430), a brilliant, decorative image of a bird surrounded by foliage, and “Socarrat (Scorched Tile) With Vegetable Elements,” Paterna (16th century) both could have been painted by Matisse. Ancient and modern in feel, they are timeless.

The exhibit also offers technical information, as when it demonstrates how stencils are used. It is whimsical when it gives us Francisco Lahuerta Manises’s 24-tile “Panel of Tiles Advertising Agua de Solares” (c. 1930) — of a cocky frog dressed in pantaloons, a red scarf, and a feathered hat, holding a bottle high above his head — and in “Profane Panel” (c.1890), a 16-tile work depicting two men in bathing trunks. One is wearing a pointed hat and is standing on his hands with his feet balancing a ladder. The second man, holding a whip, is teaching a dog to do tricks.

“Ceiling Plaque in Relief of Ramón de Perellós With Helmet and Lady’s Bust” (15th century), a beautiful carved bas relief of a woman with a stern face, surrounded by branches and fruit, is one of the many great pieces in the exhibition. A large knight’s helmet rests under her bust, doubling as her flowing body. And her undulating hair snakes along the top of the frame, weaving its way into the foliage.

Rhythmic pattern, ornamentation, and iconic emblem,”Ceiling Plaque” raises decoration to the level of art. The obstacle in this show is resisting the urge to say, over and over again: “That tile would make a great backsplash.”

Until February 1 (684 Park Ave., between 68th and 69th streets, 212-628-0420).


The New York Sun

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