20th Century Ceramics.

Edmund de Waal. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson (800-233 4830), 2003. Illus., softcover, 224 pp., $14.95.

The usual high standards of this publisher's World of Art series is maintained in this comprehensive charting of the development of ceramics throughout the world over the past century. Via an excellent balance of stunning color photographs and erudite text, the author reports on the interrelationships between ceramics, the art movements of the twentieth century, and the socio-cultural contexts in which these ceramics were made and why they were made. Four chapters divide the century chronologically into twenty to forty year groupings where the important art movements and the more significant ceramicists are reviewed in considerable depth.

Space doesn't allow for adequate discussion of the book's 178 illustrations, nor can the hundreds of major and lesser-known potters highlighted be given fair mention. The author effectively covers the century of dramatic change from the turn of the century Arts and Crafts Movement to the spontaneity in clay forming of Peter Voulkos, Paul Soldner, Robert Arneson, and Richard Long. In addition to the role of individual potters, and kiln collaboratives, the participation and influence of major artists who worked in clay such as Picasso, Gauguin, Miro, Matisse, Tony Cragg, Andy Goldsworthy, Cindy Sherman, and Roy Lichtenstein are noted. The styles and contributions to the field by such major ceramicists as Bernard Leach, Ruth Duckworth, Maria Martinez, Hamada, and Noguchi, among many others, are discussed in depth. Strongly recommended for all who teach, collect, or work in clay.