Abstract :
The irony, one of the most powerful concepts of the 20^th century and the contemporary art, comes into the discussion as a criticism of the artist s interpretation of the outside world. This attitude aims to take attention to the contradictory points in discourse or action by hiding the truth and saying the opposite. For many years, the irony that has taken place in philosophy and literature as a rhetoric-based concept has become a method and attitude in the artistic sense by infiltrating the arts field at the beginning of the past century. In particular, this critical ironic language, starting with Marcel Duchamp s work, can be said to be a triggering factor in the destruction of aesthetic concern and in the change of the ontological structure of art. Today, it is possible to see examples of ironic approach in many art disciplines from painting to sculpture and ceramics, and from performance to video. In the second half of the 20^th century, the emergence of a critical language in the art of ceramics where formalist tendencies have been dominant appeared. This critical ironic language has been developed by the artists in the pop and funk movement since the late 1960s. The pioneering figure Robert Arneson has combined sarcasm and irony with Birgit Jurgenssen’s understanding of irony and surrealism in his works. Today, the critically ironic language of the artists who use the facilities of ceramic materials such as Ai Weiwei, Keiko Fukazawa, Frenk Flemening, Penny Byrne continues to be an attitude that strengthens the content of the work.
