La Cerámica de Miguel Ruiz Jiménez

In the past Granada was the cradle of an absolute and all-encompassing art. It was an architectural and artistic unit that, in its ambitious attempt to re-create heavenly places and transcendental dwellings included all the arts and crafts of the period.

Granada inherited quite an extensive heritage: Greek-Roman, Oriental, and indigenous; and was able to bestow upon this patrimony an intimate and abstract countenance, in the construction of interior environments and geometrical fugues of unique beauty.

That ambitious, mystical, and aesthetic flight was abruptly interrupted by the narrow-mindedness and intolerance of the new military and technical class who were protected by a religious fervour unable to accept any other dogmas.

Since the seventeenth century, Granada's history has experienced a golden decline, completely lacking any leading cultural or aesthetic roles and has vegetated and vegetates in a morbid complacency of enchanted ruins and touristic voyeurism.

In this panorama of depression and poverty, the old and fertile craftsmanship of the kingdom progressively transformed itself into a despicable imitation, an amorphous relic of a dormant city.

And it is in this environment where the silent work of a "Granadino", a native of Granada begins, determined to salvage those ancient glories of craftsmanship from oblivion.

For the past few years, Mr Miguel Ruíz Jiménez has undertaken the prodigious task of delving into this aesthetic heritage of diffuse frontiers. For this purpose, he has chosen the most representative sample of that technical and aesthetic glory which brought fame to "Nazrid Granada": Golden Pottery, in English normally called lusterware.

He has progressed in silence, firing after firing, drawing after drawing, risking at times more than just a simple firing. His surroundings have become an enchanted workplace as if emerging timeless from the hands of a potter who had unveiled the mysteries of the transformation of clay into precious artefacts.

An ambiguous idea creates a collection capable of filling a legendary palace and, little by little, Golden Pottery emerges once more as an elegant magnificence salvaged from oblivion.



		THE REVIVAL OF GOLDEN POTTERY In the past Granada was the cradle of an absolute and all-encompassing art. It was an architectural and artistic unit that, in its ambitious attempt to re-create heavenly places and transcendental dwellings included all the arts and crafts of the period. Granada inherited quite an extensive heritage: Greek-Roman, Oriental, and indigenous; and was able to bestow upon this patrimony an intimate and abstract countenance, in the construction of interior environments and geometrical fugues of unique beauty. That ambitious, mystical, and aesthetic flight was abruptly interrupted by the narrow-mindedness and intolerance of the new military and technical class who were protected by a religious fervour unable to accept any other dogmas. Since the seventeenth century, Granada's history has experienced a golden decline, completely lacking any leading cultural or aesthetic roles and has vegetated and vegetates in a morbid complacency of enchanted ruins and touristic voyeurism. In this panorama of depression and poverty, the old and fertile craftsmanship of the kingdom progressively transformed itself into a despicable imitation, an amorphous relic of a dormant city. And it is in this environment where the silent work of a "Granadino", a native of Granada begins, determined to salvage those ancient glories of craftsmanship from oblivion. For the past few years, Mr Miguel Ruíz Jiménez has undertaken the prodigious task of delving into this aesthetic heritage of diffuse frontiers. For this purpose, he has chosen the most representative sample of that technical and aesthetic glory which brought fame to "Nazrid Granada": Golden Pottery, in English normally called lusterware. He has progressed in silence, firing after firing, drawing after drawing, risking at times more than just a simple firing. His surroundings have become an enchanted workplace as if emerging timeless from the hands of a potter who had unveiled the mysteries of the transformation of clay into precious artefacts. An ambiguous idea creates a collection capable of filling a legendary palace and, little by little, Golden Pottery emerges once more as an elegant magnificence salvaged from oblivion.