Current

Vibrant Joie de Vivre. Industrial Ceramics of the Post-War Era, 1950–1980

The Kannenbäckerland region is globally renowned for its salt-glazed, grey-blue ceramics. Yet for around 150 years, it has offered far more than just traditional stoneware. This exhibition turns the spotlight on an era that deserves greater recognition in the Westerwald: the serially produced ceramics of the post-war period.

The economic upswing from 1948 marked a profound transformation. On the one hand, a thriving consumer society emerged, characterised by optimism, a desire for prosperity, and a longing for stability. The colourful ceramics, proudly bearing the label “Made in West Germany,” embodied this new zest for life. On the other hand, this boom was often built on precarious working conditions and environmentally damaging production processes. The exhibition therefore not only showcases the distinctive aesthetics of the era but also engages with the ambiguities of this renewed golden age in Westerwald ceramic history.

The economic miracle of the ceramics industry, however, was not uniquely German but a Western European phenomenon. Denis Bousch and Jörn Garleff have compared the ceramic developments in France and Germany after 1950 in a joint project. Their findings were previously presented at the Musées d’Art et d’Industrie in Saint-Étienne. The Ceramics Museum now focuses particularly on the Westerwald and the people who shaped this era.

The exhibition and the comprehensive, bilingual accompanying catalogue (F / D) bring this extraordinary period into the spotlight at the Ceramics Museum for the first time.