Mexican Textiles and Ceramics

The Mexican sense of design and colour is dazzling. Five centuries after the Spanish conquest, Mexico is home to more than fifty Native peoples. Many wear distinctive clothing styles, and use textile skills inherited from the ancient civilisations of the Aztec and the Maya. After 1521, indigenous techniques and styles merged with those of Europe. A similar fusion has occurred in the field of pottery. The V&A's recent exhibition, 'Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up', focused on Kahlo's passion for the popular arts and visual traditions of Mexico.

This course will celebrate the achievements of textile and ceramic artists from the past and present. We will explore the Mexican collections at the V&A, and see them in context. Splendid weavings, rich embroideries and shimmering beadwork remain central to Mexican culture. Mexican ceramics are equally varied. Some ceramic artists hand-shape and burnish pottery; others have adopted the shimmering glazes that spread long ago from Islam via Spain to Mexico.