Coverings Will Showcase Display of Ancient Ceramic
Alexandria, VA, March 25--Coverings will collaborate with the Tile Heritage Foundation to showcase a display of historic ceramic tiles at Coverings 2005.
The show will take place from May 3-6, 2005, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
"The Tile Heritage display will add an historical element to the beautiful, contemporary tiles we traditionally see at Coverings," says Tamara Christian, Coverings' show director and president, National Trade Productions. "Tile has been used for building and surfacing by the greatest architects for thousands of years. Viewing these relics of the past alongside the new technology innovations will be an enriching experience for our attendees."
The display will showcase tiles from Spain, Italy and the United States. The Spanish collection will include tiles dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Influenced by the Moorish Conquest of Spain in the eighth century, these tiles are glazed in a variety of colors and geometric patterns, and reflect the traditional Islamic practice of assembling small pieces of ceramic, hand-cut into meaningful shapes, to create a single pattern.
The Italian collection will feature tiles from the 19th and 20th centuries manufactured in the areas of Vietri, Caltagirone and Sassuolo. The tiles were created using the maiolica technique developed by 15th century artisans and the resulting white-surfaced tiles were painted in bright colors and often designed in sets of four or in a continuous pattern, an Italian tile trend that quickly became a trademark.
Emerging in the mid 1870s, the U.S. tile industry was heavily influenced by European ceramic traditions, reflected in popular portrait tiles colored with translucent glazes over a white clay body. By 1910, however, American tiles took on a different character, influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement. Referred to as "faience," these tiles were machine-made but designed to look handcrafted. The American collection will showcase tiles that delineate this stylistic evolution.
All of the tiles, along with enlarged photographs of historically significant installations from which they were taken, will be showcased in a 60-foot, two-sided display consisting of three distinct but connected sections representing each country. The display will be situated in the South lobby of the convention center.
"We are extremely excited to be collaborating with Coverings 2005 for this exhibit," says Joseph Taylor, president and co-founder of the Tile Heritage Foundation. "Like all artifacts from the past, not only do ancient tiles reflect and preserve our ancestry, they also help deepen our understanding of the tile industry today. I think this display will be an invaluable addition to the show."
Founded in 1987, the Tile Heritage Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of ceramic surfaces in the United States. Along with educating the general public about the rich and varied history of tile, the organization protects and publicizes rare and unusual ceramic surfaces, both ancient and contemporary. For more information, please visit www.tileheritage.org
