"In American Ceramics: 1876 to the present, the noted ceramics authority Garth Clark gives us the most richly illustrated, up-to-the minute, and comprehensive publication on the history and triumph of our most tactile art. With a text that elegantly marries cultural history to critical analysis, Clark reveals, decade by decade, how American ceramics emerged from an incipient art-pottery movement in the late nineteenth century to its position of international preeminence in the last thirty-five years. Clark's cogent narrative and aesthetic insights are illuminated by more than one hundred color and 140 black-and-white reproductions, which enable us to see afresh the full range of imagery and forms--pottery, sculpture, events, and environments--that American artists have created with clay during the past one hundred eleven years. We are informed of the divers achievements of more than two hundred artists, from the pioneering potters Mary Louise McLaughlin, Maria Longworth Nichols, and, later, Adelaide Alsop Robineau, and the maverick George Ohr to such contemporary figures as Peter Voulkos, Robert Arneson, Kenneth Price, Jim Melchert, Betty Woodman, Viola Frey, Beatrice Wood, and Adrian Saxe. This encyclopedic work concludes with an extensive chronology of ceramic milestone, a list of significant exhibitions, and more than 170 biographical essays illustrated with photographs of the artists. The bibliography is the most comprehensive ever compiled on American ceramics and includes 1,200 entries indexed by both subject and artist." -- Publisher's description

A landmark survey of the formative years of American studio ceramics and the constellation of people, institutions, and events that propelled it from craft to fine art

Here is the first comprehensive survey of modern craft in the United States. Makers follows the development of studio craft--objects in fiber, clay, glass, wood, and metal--from its roots in nineteenth-century reform movements to the rich diversity of expression at the end of the twentieth century. More than four hundred illustrations complement this chronological exploration of the American craft tradition. Keeping as their main focus the objects and the makers, Janet Koplos and Bruce Metcalf offer a detailed analysis of seminal works and discussions of education, institutional support, and the philosophical underpinnings of craft. In a vivid and accessible narrative, they highlight the value of physical skill, examine craft as a force for moral reform, and consider the role of craft as an aesthetic alternative. Exploring craft's relationship to fine arts and design, Koplos and Metcalf foster a critical understanding of the field and help explain craft's place in contemporary culture. Makers will be an indispensable volume for craftspeople, curators, collectors, critics, historians, students, and anyone who is interested in American craft.

Overzicht van de ontwikkeling van Amerikaanse studio keramiek in de twintigste eeuw.