White is a color, though many think it is not. It represents the combination of all colors in the visible spectrum, making it an achromatic color (meaning it lacks hue). Black, too is a color though it’s often described as the absence of color or the absorption of all colors. In a sense, black is an achromatic color, alongside white and gray, meaning it lacks hue or saturation.
Black and white together therefore embodies all colors and none. It is a strange concept, yet one that has been used in art and design for much of human history. For example, black and white pottery has appeared in Eastern art for thousands of years. The bold contrasts of just two colors allow ancient potters to draw attention to the beauty of the strokes and the form of the objects. These monochrome wares are often very striking in their simplicity and boldness. The chromatic minimalism of such pottery also explains their enduring appeal. Some pieces look contemporary and the best ones can add a touch of elegance and glamour to a modern home.
As a ceramics collector, I have a fair number of black and white ceramic pieces that sit proudly alongside other more colorful works though I wish I have more! In this post, I’ve gathered images of black and white ceramics and their close cousins such as pottery with dark brown or dark grey glaze. Some of the pieces are my own; others belong to museums and private collections. They hail from different cultures and span a history of more than ten thousand years. The oldest example is a pot discovered in a cave site in Jiangxi province, China where the world’s earliest known pottery was found to date back 20,000 years. Other works are early Greek pottery that began to be made around 700 BC in Corinth, pottery made by various indigenous peoples of the Americas, as well as vintage and contemporary examples from the mid-20th century to the present day. I hope that this selection of black and white pottery will be a feast for your eyes despite their relative lack of hues.
Selected Examples of Black and White Pottery
20,000 years ago, mammoths still roamed parts of the Earth. The world was a much colder place than it is now. Humans were hunter and gatherers, struggling to adapt to the harsh environment. They were also developing new technologies as part of that adaptation, including the making of pots to cook and store and preserve food. Evidence that they did came from a discovery of pre-historic pots in Xianrendong cave in China’s Jiangxi province, where pottery dating to about 20,000 years old were found. These are currently the oldest pots ever discovered. Have another look at the example shown above. What I find striking about this pot is how modern it looks. With its bold black designs on a white surface, this pot may even be passed off as a avant-garde piece in a modern art gallery!
This painted jar with abstract animal motifs belongs to the Majiayao culture of China, and dates to between 3300 BC and 2050 BC. The Majiayao culture was a group of communities who lived primarily in the upper reaches of the Yellow River in the eastern Gansu and northern Sichuan provinces. The culture represents the first time that the Yellow River was widely occupied by agricultural communities who became known worldwide for their handsome painted pottery.
Featured is a black-on-white clay pitcher made by the Anasazi people, around 980 to 1150 AD. Anasazi is a term used to refer to the Ancestral Puebloans, a prehistoric Native American culture that lived in the American Southwest between about 200 and 1300 AD.
This is a magnificent pot made by the ancients who lived in the Upper Rio Grande region of New Mexico, a region that was the ancestral home to a diverse population including the Nuevo Mexicanos, who are of Spanish and Mexican descent.
This amphora with ear handles could be mistaken as a neolithic pot from South America. It is actually an early example of black and white Greek pottery that dates to the mid 8th century BC. The ancient Greeks value such vessels for their beauty of form and decoration and as a “canvas” for pictorial art. Functionally, such vessels were used to store wine, while smaller pots were used to contain perfumes and oils.
Shown here is a Japanese Kohiki tea bowl (chawan) modelled after Korean ware of the 15th to 16th centuries. Compared to the harsh white of porcelain, Kohiki vessels have a soft, warm and organic white. The Japanese term kohiki means ‘powdery’, alluding to this soft white finish. This tea bowl dates to the 16th century and was once owned by the samurai Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It features a Miyoshi decoration by way of glaze staining that runs across the surface of the bowl.
We leave the distant past to review more modern black and white ceramics.
This is a Shino sake cup (guinomi) made in the Momoyama style of the 16th century by the modern master potter, Kato Ryotaro (b. 1974). This cup is brushed with iron-oxide glaze on a white Shino glazed surface that has the characteristic “pin holes” of Shino glaze.
The Japanese tea bowl remains to be a popular medium for artistic expression even today. Here we see a modern tea bowl by master potter, Ryotaro Kato, eighth generation of the “Kobeigama” Kiln family based in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan.
Raku ware is one of the most cherished types of tea ware in Japan though the form and design of Raku ware has changed with the times. Featured is a modern tea bowl by the 15th generation of the famed Raku family. The abstract patterning of this tea bowl is inspired by Western abstract art, notably that of Russian avant-garde artist, Kasmir Malevich (1879-1935).
Here we have a contemporary tea bowl with painted abstract motifs in black on a whitish background. The artist is the American ceramicist, Robert Fornell.
This is a cut-rim vessel made by the late British ceramicist, John Ward (1938-2023). It is made from stoneware with matt black and white glazes in alternating bands that accentuate the lines of the v-cut rim. John Ward is one of the best-known British potters of the 20th century. His work focuses on the pared down vessel form, most particularly the bowl as a touchstone for exploration.
Best known for his large-scale sculptures, Jun Kaneko (b. 1942) makes glazed ceramic works that resemble inflated, three-dimensional canvases. Shown here is some of his smaller works, an oval plate with an abstract face-like design. Kaneko’s works is part of the broader movement of Japanese avant-garde ceramicists who have crossed over from strictly traditional forms to expressive new styles.
Featured is a tapered pot inspired by the shape of ancient Jomon pottery by the contemporary artist, Kansai Noguchi. Jomon pottery is a type of earthenware that was produced during the Jōmon period (roughly 10,500 to 300 B.C.) in Japan. Born in Fukuoka in 1982, Kansai Noguchi studied music in the US but pivoted to ceramics after seeing the works of the Japanese-American visual artist, Isamu Noguchi.
Though a young artist, the ceramic works of Iguchi Daisuke (b. 1975) are noted for their modern and elegant forms and their soft exterior surfaces. Using a unique process, he applies after an initial low-temperature bisque firing a classic ash glaze made from dried rice husks and re-fires at full temperature. When cooled, he sands the surface of each vessel with a special wire brush to bring about a slightly texture surface that has a somewhat tarnished appearance. Then, using thin masking tape, he creates geometric patterning with the use of silver slip glaze, re-fires again at a lower temperature, and polishes the surface after the last round of firing to bring out the desired effect. Seen here is a work that encapsulates his painstaking method, and which has won him many accolades by both collectors and international museums.
And here, we have a contemporary Acoma pottery bowl, New Mexico in black and white, yet another proof that monochrome wares have a timeless beauty.
