Almost a century ago, Annette McConnell Anderson, a New Orleans society woman, vowed that her three sons would become artists. Turning her back on bourgeois life and abetted by her skeptical husband---a grain merchant---she bought twenty-eight acres of woodland on the Mississippi Sound. Beside a sleepy bayou, in the shade of towering pines and magnolias, she opened an art colony, one of the first of its kind in the South.

Backed by his mother's passion for art, her oldest son Peter Anderson founded Shearwater Pottery. Yearning "to make Shearwater synonymous with perfection," he drew the entire family into his adventure. His brothers, "Mac" and Walter, made strange, wonderful pieces, though Walter Anderson eventually left the pottery studio to search for his own artistic path.

Drawn by the exquisite work of Shearwater Pottery, the authors discover that painting, poetry, and storytelling---much of it by strong, unforgettable women---are still an essential part of the family's daily life. Intimate diaries, letters, and poems lead the reader into a stormy, passionate, sometimes heartbreaking past. Meticulously researched and compassionately written, "Dreaming in Clay on the Coast of Mississippi" gathers one family's eternal legacy of wisdom and beauty, the healing power of art, the consolations of writing and of memory, and the spiritual treasures given us by the natural world.

One of the premier private collections of contemporary craft, the Nancy and David Wolf Collection features outstanding creations by the foremost artists working in craft media today, including Howard Ben Tre, Dale Chihuly, William Morris, Wendell Castle, David Ellsworth, Virginia Dotson, Michael Lucero, Michelle Holzapfel, Theman Statom, Ginny Ruffner, Akio Takamori, and Betty Woodman.
"Outside the Ordinary: Contemporary Art in Glass, Wood, and Ceramics from the Wolf Collection "introduces audiences to sixty-seven masterworks selected from this vast collection, carefully documented and photographed in full color. At the heart of this seminal publication are an in-depth interview with collectors Nancy and David Wolf conducted by Amy Miller Dehan and a scholarly essay by contemporary craft authority and critic Matthew Kangas. Dehan's interview reveals the collectors' impetus and strategies for assembling this important collection, and Kangas's essay addresses the history, growth, and future of the contemporary craft movement -- with a particular focus on glass, wood, and ceramics.
"Outside the Ordinary" focuses on the role, development, and perspective of the private collector within the context of the ever-evolving contemporary craft movement. With more than sixty-seven color plates of artwork from the highly regarded Wolf Collection, it makes a significant and stunning addition to any library.

At the turn of the last century, Art Noveau, characterised by its natural, swirling lines and exuberant use of colour, held sway as the dominate style in architecture and design. The style defined the Edwardian period, with its departure from more formal Victorian styles. The leading tile manufacturers of the day seized on the popularity of the new style and introduced extensive ranges of Art Noveau tiles, many of them mass-produced in Stoke-on-Trent, the centre of the British pottery industry. The author charts the impact of this sensous style on the tile industry in Britain showing how tiles were made and decorated, and describing the innovations introduced by creative designers such as Lewis Day and William Neatby. With photographs of the tiles, individually and in situ in public buildings and homes, the author examines the diverse range of floral, animal and human subject matter found on Art Nouveau tiles that now make them so appealing to collectors and design historians.

'The Mirror is an amusing jewel of a book, a sparkling reflection of the history of the mirror in Europe, and the role of the mirror in European imagination.' - Los Angeles Times

"The cultural history of the mirror is fully explored by Sabine Melchior-Bonnet. The book marries science and art, literature and philosophy." - New York Times

'This erudite meditation ... reveals how significantly the mirror has influenced Western culture...this beautifully illustrated study offers so many intriguing glimpses into the meanings of reflection that it will reward anyone who peers beneath its surface.' - Publishers Weekly

This work includes a complete chemical examination of the causes of the deterioration of glass and discusses the possibilities of damage by conservation techniques that have not been fully tested. It provides the theoretical background and the practical procedures used in conserving different kinds of glass.;Since the 1960s there has been an upsurge of interest in the conservation of glass, and especially of painted (stained) glass, with a change in emphasis from the work being carried out by museum technicians to the use of trained conservators.;This book supplies information on the techniques for conserving painted glass, vessel glass and waterlogged glass.

This richly illustrated book showcases a previously unseen and virtually unknown historical collection of Chinese ceramics, formed in the early twentieth century by George Eumorfopoulos, a pivotal figure in the appreciate of Asian art. Taken together, these artifacts, now located at the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece, build a rare time capsule of Western tastes and preoccupations with the East in the decades prior to World War II. The years between the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 and the establishment of the People s Republic of China in 1949 marked an opening up of China to the rest of the world and coincided with the first archaeological excavations of the country s early cultures. Working at the time in London, a center of imperialist power and global finance, Eumorfopoulos and his colleagues were instrumental in acquiring, assessing, interpreting, and manipulating the unearthed objects. The years of isolation that followed this period allowed aspects of his approach to become canonical, influencing later scholarly research on Chinese material culture.This groundbreaking exploration of approximately one hundred artifacts is not only an important account of Eumorfopoulos s work, but also a story about China and the West and the role antique materials played in their cultural interplay. "

The Austrian ceramic artist Thomas Bohle is an extraordinary figure in the field of ceramic vessels. His double-walled objects, created at the wheel with technical perfection, effortlessly transcend the boundaries between ceramic and free art. Their interior and exterior forms create an accentuated contrast which opens up an exciting dialogue between the vessel and the space. They appear as a consequence of the will for clear form and design, which is underscored by the sensual, haptic quality of the reduced burnt oxblood and celadon glazes. With clear elements and exciting correlations, Thomas Bohle opens up new dimensions for the art of the vessel as a fundamental possibility of abstract sculptural design. Numerous illustrations of individual objects, group photos and details are included, as well as expert essays to uncover the beauty of precise geometry combined with painterly glazes.

Glass is a threshold material, serving as both a divider and an opening, for one can always see what is behind it. This is a unique phenomenon and it is confounding, as well as being alluring and enhancing, making the space breathe. Florian Lechner, born in 1938, has dedicated himself to this unique material. He explores its substance and formal possibilities through architectural works and sculptural objects. He also experiments with it in combination with the media of light, sound and movement. For him it is essential to forge his work single-handedly, because only unrestricted personal creative input and the development of one's own, often innovative ways of working can ensure an authentic result. However, the concepts behind his works and their spiritual roots are always more important to him than the process of their creation. Intellectual significance defines Florian Lechner as an artist. His takes an intellectual and philosophically motivated approach, but the result is always a sensory experience and never dominated by dry theory. Text in English & German.

The present publication is an essential part of the narrative of Wayne Higby's retrospective exhibition - focusing on the concept of the artist scholar - at ASU Art Museum, in Spring 2013. It documents his ceramic work with over 150 images of 50 seminal works and gives context to the story behind the artwork. Wayne Higby's international reputation both as an artist, a scholar and teacher will be explored in the contributions to this book that includes a detailed chronology of Higby's life and career as well as highlights and excerpts from his well known writings on ceramic art. Essays on the American Landscape and American landscape art as the inspiration behind Higby's work as well as his important, influential explorations into contemporary vessel aesthetics are included along with an essay that chronicles his central role in the development of contemporary Chinese ceramic art. Additionally, Higby's recent, dramatic, late career move to large architectural installations is explored in detail. Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Wayne Higby received a B.F.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, in 1966, and an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1968. Since 1973, he has been on the faculty of the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY. Wayne Higby is recognised as one of the most important and influential ceramic artists of the late 20th, early 21st, century. In particular, his work is celebrated for its innovative use of the language of landscape.

Glass is a magical material through which light can shine. Throughout its millennial history, its colourful splendour and malleability have always exerted a particular fascination and a creative attraction. The book offers a profound and lavishly documented panorama of artistic glass design in Europe and the United States since the 1870s. Over many years Renate und Dietrich Götze have assembled one of the world’s most important collections of glass vessels, comprising some 500 exclusive objects. It reflects not only the collectors’ passion for this luminous material and its unlimited opportunities for inspiring the imagination, but also their tremendous expertise. The volume is a compendium of glass art with numerous artist biographies, a directory of the glass foundries, their techniques and symbols – and, above all: a feast for the eyes!

Heidi Kippenberg studied ceramics under Walter Popp, the legendary teacher at the Kassel Art Academy whose avant-garde work opened up new dimensions of form and expression for ceramic vessels. She internalised the aesthetic of Popp's vessels and simultaneously gave them her own distinctive touch. Strongly twisted, thick-walled, sometimes mounted stoneware vessels, further enlivened by thick monochrome glazes and augmented with sign-like contrasting glazed accents, characterise her oeuvre. Later she was inspired by East Asian ceramics and began to build her vessels, assembling them from slabs, giving their surfaces a lively structure, and transforming them into decorative landscapes. An oeuvre spanning more than half a century can be admired! Text in German. Published to accompany an exhibition at Brutto Gusto, Berlin, between 10 September and 30 October 2021.

Glasgemalde aus der fruhen Neuzeit befinden sich im Kanton Schaffhausen kaum mehr an ihren ursprunglichen Bestimmungsorten. Dank den intensiven Bemuhungen von Schaffhauser Burgern und Institutionen konnte uber die letzten 150 Jahre aber ein ansehnlicher Bestand an historischen Glasgemalden fur die dortigen Sammlungen gesichert werden. Diese in der vorliegenden Publikation erstmals vollstandig erfassten, durchweg farbig abgebildeten 194 Werke vermitteln ein anschauliches Bild vom Reichtum der einstmals in oeffentlichen und privaten Schaffhauser Gebauden vorhandenen Glasmalereien. Zugleich kommt ihnen ein hoher kulturgeschichtlicher Wert zu, indem sie aufschlussreiche Einblicke in die vielfaltigen Beziehungen der Burger untereinander und zu ihren politischen Organen gewahren. Die dem Katalog vorangehende Studie behandelt die Entwicklung der Glasmalerei zwischen 1500 und 1800 in Schaffhausen und Stein am Rhein aus verschiedenen Perspektiven. Eroertert werden zunachst die Grunde fur den nach der Reformation erfolgten Aufstieg Schaffhausens zu einem fuhrenden Zentrum Schweizer Glasmalkunst, dessen Erzeugnisse sich auch in Suddeutschland einer grossen Beliebtheit erfreuten. Nach dem Eingehen auf die Trager dieser Nachfrage wird unter Beizug des reichhaltigen, hier erstmals auszugsweise veroeffentlichten Quellenmaterials die Organisation des Schaffhauser Glasmaler- und Glaserhandwerks durchleuchtet und seine enge Verflechtung mit den Malern aufgezeigt. Daran schliessen sich die Kurzbiografien der wahrend der fruhen Neuzeit uber hundert in Schaffhausen tatigen Glasmaler, Glaser und Scheibenentwerfer, zu denen neben unbekannten, bislang noch nie namentlich erfassten Meistern Kunstlerpersoenlichkeiten wie Tobias Stimmer oder Daniel Lindtmayer der Jungere gehoeren. Ganz anders liegen die Verhaltnisse in der bis zur franzoesischen Revolution unter Zurcher Oberhoheit stehenden Stadt Stein am Rhein. Wie die Studie aufzeigt, beherrschten dort fremde Meister das Feld der Glasmalerei, und zwar vor allem solche aus Zurich und Winterthur. Obwohl Stein am Rhein im Gegensatz zu Schaffhausen nie ein bedeutender Produktionsort fur Glasmalerei war, kann sich diese Stadt mit dem 1542/43 in sein Rathaus gestifteten Scheibenzyklus aber ruhmen, Huterin eines der glanzvollsten Zeugnisse Altschweizer Glasmalkunst zu sein.