20th Century Ceramics (World of Art)

'Many of the surveys to date have discussed factories or potters or artists as if they were completely disassociated from the times in which they were living, and as if they were completely unaware of their contemporaries. Rather than producing a survey in which only a shooting gallery of iconic pots or famous artists are presented I have tried to reveal the contexts in which these ceramics were made and why they were made.'


Anyone concerned with art and creativity in the modern era, including schools, art colleges and collectors, will be grateful for this introduction to one of the most popular and challenging art forms of our time. The profusely illustrated book charts the development of ceramics in the modern age, from Art Nouveau, Art Deco, the Bauhaus and Futurism, through Abstract Expressionism, Pop and Performance, to Land Art and Installation Art.

There are clear introductions to pioneering techniques, glazes and approaches, in context and in practice, from Orientalism and colour theory to Modernism, Postmodernism and the profuse diversity of the end of the twentieth century.

A practising potter and writer of international note, Edmund de Waal examines the increasing cross-fertilization between ceramics and other disciplnes, such as painting, sculpture and architecture, and provides detailed and compelling analysis of individual pieces in context.