20th Century Ceramics (World of Art)

by de Waal, Edmund

• ISBN13: 9780500203712
• ISBN10: 0500203717
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-24
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Summary

At the turn of the twentieth century, ceramics#xE2;#xAC;#x1D;as in other media in both the decorative and fine arts#xE2;#xAC;#x1D;underwent revolutionary change. The potter emerged from the anonymity of the workshop and made more individualistic statements in clay than ever before. Ceramics have kept pace with, or even led, new movements in art, from art nouveau, art deco, the Bauhaus, and futurism, through abstract expressionism, pop and performance, to land art and installation art. Stylistic and technical influences are considered here in context, from orientalism and color theory to modernism, postmodernism, and the profuse diversity of approaches that characterizes the end of the century. The scope is wide, taking in developments in Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, the United States, and Japan. The work of exceptional individuals is appraised, including Taxile Doat, Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper, Bernard Leach, Isamu Noguchi, Hans Coper, Lucie Rie, Joan Mir#xC3;#xB3;, Pablo Picasso, Peter Voulkos, and Adrian Saxe. The relation of ceramics to other disciplines is given close attention: sculptors, such as Antony Gormley and Tony Cragg, and even architects, including Frank Gehry, have made ceramics central to their practice. This comprehensive survey provides invaluable background and commentary on leading practitioners, critics, theorists, and pioneers, illuminating the development of an art form that seized and inspired the imagination of artists and the public alike in the twentieth century.

Table of Contents

Introduction	6	(14)
Chapter 1 1900-20
The Theatre of Technique: Doat and Robineau	20	(5)
Orientalist styles: Chaplet to Bindesbøll	25	(5)
Art Nouveau	30	(7)
Gauguin and Expressionism	37	(3)
Ceramics and painting	40	(6)
Native styles: reinventing the vernacular	46	(5)
Ceramics and interiors: Vienna and Prague	51	(7)
Chapter 2 1920-45
After the Russian Revolution: 'the parade of objects'	58	(7)
Scandinavia	65	(2)
The Bauhaus	67	(9)
Italian Futurism	76	(3)
Art Deco	79	(3)
Women and ceramics; figures and figuration	82	(6)
Romantic Nationalism: Bernard Leach and Japan	88	(10)
Britain in the 1930's	98	(5)
Germany and the USA in the 1930's	103	(6)
Chapter 3 1945-65
Japan: radical beginnings	109	(6)
Isamu Noguchi	115	(6)
Postwar Europe: Salto, Coper, Duckworth	121	(11)
'High unseriousness': painters and clay	132	(1)
Pablo Picasso	133	(4)
Joan Miró	137	(3)
CoBrA	140	(2)
Lucio Fontana	142	(3)
Reactions to Picasso in the 1950's	145	(3)
Studio pottery after 1945	148	(6)
Postwar America	154	(2)
Peter Voulkos and Otis	156	(8)
Chapter 4 1965-2000
Pop and Funk ceramics	164	(9)
Critical commentaries, new contexts	173	(2)
'A Field of Possibilities': Politics, Performance and Environment	175	(8)
Installation	183	(10)
Still life	193	(7)
Postmodernism	200	(5)
Nationalism	205	(7)
Conclusion	212	(4)
Select Bibliography	216	(3)
List of Illustrations	219	(3)
Index	222