The Ceramic Narrative is an exploration of past and present ceramic iconography concerned with the depiction of narratives, or with images meant to be thought-provoking, beyond the merely decorative. The book is beautifully illustrated with an extensive variety of work from history and the present day, showing how many contemporary artists continue this tradition with modern interpretations. Examining ancient Greece, the ceramic imagery of the Maya culture, the ceramics of China, Persia, and Japan, European tin-glaze traditions, and the narrative imagery appearing on later European porcelains, Matthias Ostermann attempts wherever possible not only to present ceramic narratives in their cultural and historical contexts but also to refer to some of the older myths and sources that may have served as inspiration. Applied arts writer David Whiting contributes an essay on the development of ceramic narratives in the twentieth century, while illustrations present the work of more than 75 contemporary international ceramic artists who explore narrative in distinctive and different ways. These include the exploration of mythologies and existing stories; personal visions, private stories and memory; the human figure, relationships and identity; political and social commentary; and finally, the ceramic object itself, seen as message and metaphor. This book will serve as a beginning for further study of this fascinating and little-explored subject and as a celebration of the work of all ceramic artists whose passion is the ceramic narrative.

The human figure has been represented in clay throughout history and continues to evolve today. Artists are working with the figure in new ways, playing with materials and forms, and making use of new technologies to produce challenging and unconventional work, from the intact whole figure to the fragmented, hybrid and abstract.Ceramics and the Human Figure profiles an international range of ceramic artists, all practicing within the fields of installation and sculpture. Divided by broad themes, each chapter explores a variety of different expressive works. The book explores the role of figurative ceramics through history and in contemporary contexts. It also reveals the methods of six key artists, using how-to images to illustrate their techniques.For artists, collectors, and anyone interested in these themes, Ceramics and the Human Figure is an exciting survey of the state of the figure in clay today.

"The vessels in the pages that follow open to us a world flickering with the light of a people's collective character and shared philosophy. These vessels have bodies of clay, but they float before us in the zero gravity of wisdom and belief."-- Edwin L. Wade Canvas of Clay tells the story of Hopi ceramics from the 14th century to recent times, offering a particularly close look at the art and life of the master potter Nampeyo (1860-1942). It analyzes the specific dynamics of nearly 100 jars and bowls, all richly illustrated, weaving in many insights into Hopi history, aesthetics, and symbolism. Included are original schematic drawings that will help readers understand how pottery decoration is built from ingeniously combined design elements. This book is a glorious testament to a brilliant art form and its practitioners, presented with passion, knowledge, and respect.

In his major new history, Paul Greenhalgh tells the story of ceramics as a story of human civilisation, from the Ancient Greeks to the present day. As a core craft technology, pottery has underpinned domesticity, business, religion, recreation, architecture, and art for millennia. Indeed, the history of ceramics parallels the development of human society. This fascinating and very human history traces the story of ceramic art and industry from the Ancient Greeks to the Romans and the medieval world; Islamic ceramic cultures and their influence on the Italian Renaissance; Chinese and European porcelain production; modernity and Art Nouveau; the rise of the studio potter, Art Deco, International Style and Mid-Century Modern, and finally, the contemporary explosion of ceramic making and the postmodern potter. Interwoven in this journey through time and place is the story of the pots themselves, the culture of the ceramics, and their character and meaning. Ceramics have had a presence in virtually every country and historical period, and have worked as a commodity servicing every social class. They are omnipresent: a ubiquitous art. Ceramic culture is a clear, unique, definable thing, and has an internal logic that holds it together through millennia. Hence ceramics is the most peculiar and extraordinary of all the arts. At once cheap, expensive, elite, plebeian, high-tech, low-tech, exotic, eccentric, comic, tragic, spiritual, and secular, it has revealed itself to be as fluid as the mud it is made from. Ceramics are the very stuff of how civilized life was, and is, led. This then is the story of human society's most surprising core causes and effects.

Most people would be surprised at how ceramics are used, from creating cellular phones, radio, television, and lasers to its role in medicine for cancer treatments and restoring hearing. The Magic of Ceramics introduces the nontechnical reader to the many exciting applications of ceramics, describing how ceramic material functions, while teaching key scientific concepts like atomic structure, color, and the electromagnetic spectrum. With many illustrations from corporations on the ways in which ceramics make advanced products possible, the Second Edition also addresses the newest areas in ceramics, such as nanotechnology.

Masters: Earthenware reveals the tremendous imagination, innovation, and technical facility that today’s artists bring to the oldest ceramic medium. Curated by Matthias Ostermann, a celebrated ceramist in his own right, this stunning volume gives each featured artist a mini-retrospective of approximately eight pages that showcase 12–14 of his or her best works. Illuminating comments from the creators accompany the images, outlining their development and artistic philosophy.

Artist biography illustrated with selected works in ceramics and painting by the artist.

"Eden Revisited is the first full-scale monograph presenting a survey of one of America's most ingenious ceramic artists, Kurt Weiser. Shaped from his influential childhood experiences during the baby boom years, the artist demonstrated an early disposition for the visual arts, encouraged by his parents and teachers. While attending the Kansas City Art Institute, he became a protege of Ken Ferguson, a highly acclaimed ceramist and educator who quickly recognized Weiser's abilities and determination." "Illustrated with signature works, Eden Revisited presents an artist's journey that mirrors the evolution of American studio ceramics since 1975. Exhibition curator Peter Held reviews the artist's unique upbringing and discusses Weiser's early development. Ulysses Grant Dietz, curator of Decorative Arts at the Newark Museum, provides a stimulating overview of china painting and how Kurt Weiser utilizes this technique to advance his artistic vision. Award-winning writer Edward Lebow provides a thoughtful and witty analysis of key works from throughout Weiser's career, delving into a rich pool of sources and inspirations. Also included is a comprehensive chronology as well as extensive exhibition and bibliographic listings."--BOOK JACKET.

In A Potter's Workbook, renowned studio potter and teacher Clary Illian presents a textbook for the hand and the mind. Her aim is to provide a way to see, to make, and to think about the forms of wheel-thrown vessels; her information and inspiration explain both the mechanics of throwing and finishing pots made simply on the wheel and the principles of truth and beauty arising from that traditional method. Each chapter begins with a series of exercises that introduce the principles of good form and good forming for pitchers, bowls, cylinders, lids, handles, and every other conceivable functional shape. Focusing on utilitarian pottery created on the wheel, Illian explores sound, lively, and economically produced pottery forms that combine an invitation to mindful appreciation with ease of use. Charles Metzger's striking photographs, taken under ideal studio conditions, perfectly complement her vigorous text.