Jar (with typography decoration)

sketchfab

Noted for his impeccable penmanship as seen in his handwritten ‘clay diaries’, Dr Iskandar is often effusive about the beauty of the written word. He is the only potter in Singapore who has explored the use of typography in modern ceramic art so extensively and significantly. Dr Iskandar’s use of typography on his vessels from the 1960s has evolved beyond decorative effects to include impromptu verses and ideas. His works have carried Jawi and Khat scripts, Roman alphabets as well as pre-Islamic symbols from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. These are applied with brushes and may be cursive, highly stylised or improvisational. Additional type-faces come from his seals that imprint Japanese, Arabic and Chinese characters. This stoneware vessel has a bell-jar form, with a cylindrical neck and two vestigial handles. The heaviest of the 31 works by Iskandar in the NIE (as at 2017), this vessel weighs a hefty 11.5 kg.