Postmodern Ceramics

Since 1980, ceramic art has come alive as never before. Brightly patterned, humorous, and sometimes irreverent, ceramics appeal to a wider audience than at any other time.Mark Del Vecchio provides a stunning international overview of the richness and diversity of ceramic art during the past twenty years. He surveys the achievements of over 130 masters of contemporary ceramics from more than twenty-five countries, among them Ralph Baccera, Adrian Saxe, Betty Woodman, Akio Takamori, and Andrew Lord, analyzing their varied approaches by presenting the work in twelve themes: the postmodern look; post-minimalism; pattern and decoration; the multiple vessel; organic abstraction; the real/super-real; history, culture, and time; the image and the vessel; the vessel as image; figural sculpture; abstract sculpture; and post-industrialism. In his introduction, the noted ceramic historian Garth Clark shows how this great burst of creative energy and innovation provided an escape route from the antagonistic and demoralizing relationship that had existed between ceramics and modernism.Complete with illustrated biographies of each of the artists and a detailed bibliography, the book not only brims with colorful ceramics but also provides the depth of information necessary for it to become a standard reference work for professionals and amateurs, makers and collectors.