For decades the Iron Curtain divided Germany into East and West. No wonder then that developments in design - here art ceramics are concerned - diverged. Ceramics exhibitions mounted before and after the Wall fell have hitherto focused on West German work virtually to the exclusion of the extremely productive and diverse GDR ceramic scene. A forthcoming exhibition at the Grassi Museum in Leipzig, accompanied by the publication Vessel/Sculpture and focusing on works by distinguished East German ceramicists such as Walter Gebauer, Karl Jüttner, the Körtings, Gertraud Möhwald and Karl Fulle, provides new insights into East German art ceramics. However, pieces by West German ceramicists including Richard Bampi, Karl and Ursula Scheid, Lotte Reimers and Beate Kuhn, which were acquired by the Grassi Museum collection after the Turnaround, will also be shown. Drawing comparisons between West and East German works provides a fascinating and instructive overview of developments and trends in the two Germanys. Moreover, a broad-ranging selection of work by ceramicists now active in both the new and the old Federal German states is supplemented by contemporary pieces from all over the world. The publication is devoted to one-off pieces and limited editions from the past six decades now in the Grassi Museum collection in Leipzig.

Typologically, the exhibits fall into the categories of vessel, free-standing sculpture and relief. Reproductions in large formats of approx. four hundred selected objects are accompanied by biographies of as many artists and their signatures.