This book investigates how British contemporary artists who work with clay have managed, in the space of a single generation, to take ceramics from niche-interest craft to the pristine territories of the contemporary art gallery. This development has been accompanied (and perhaps propelled) by the kind of critical discussion usually reserved for the 'higher' discipline of sculpture. Ceramics is now encountering and colliding with sculpture, both formally and intellectually. Laura Gray examines what this means for the old hierarchies between art and craft, the identity of the potter, and the character of a discipline tied to a specific material but wanting to participate in critical discussions that extend far beyond clay.

This book investigates how British contemporary artists who work with clay have managed, in the space of a single generation, to take ceramics from niche-interest craft to the pristine territories of the contemporary art gallery. This development has been accompanied (and perhaps propelled) by the kind of critical discussion usually reserved for the 'higher' discipline of sculpture. Ceramics is now encountering and colliding with sculpture, both formally and intellectually. Laura Gray examines what this means for the old hierarchies between art and craft, the identity of the potter, and the character of a discipline tied to a specific material but wanting to participate in critical discussions that extend far beyond clay.

Ceramics is one of the most vibrant and engaging fields of contemporary British art. This lavishly illustrated book reviews the work of twenty-two artists and celebrates their contribution to its rich landscape. Written from a collector's point of view, it explores what contemporary ceramic objects can mean, what emotions they evoke and how artists draw upon different facets of the art and crafts worlds in their work. A vital visual and critical resource, Contemporary British Ceramics showcases British ceramics as a compelling interdisciplinary practice, attuned to the contemporary world. Featuring more than 280 images, it encourages readers to look beneath the surface, to discover the vibrant contribution that British ceramics makes to the broad field of contemporary art.

Sculpture and the decorative meet in all manner of objects, art practices, and contexts. Yet they are largely kept apart in academia, art criticism, exhibitions and museums. By foregrounding the overlaps between sculpture and the decorative, this volume of essays by artists, curators and art historians offers a model for a more integrated form of art history writing. Through distinct case studies, from a seventeenth-century Danish altarpiece to contemporary British ceramics, the book charts the ways in which concepts associated with sculpture and the decorative have been employed and negotiated by practitioners, critics, audiences and historians. Exploring why and how these categories are constructed and contested reveals the various agendas that the shifting relationships between sculpture and the decorative expose and serve to support. Bringing to centre stage makers, objects and spaces that have been marginalized by the enforcement of boundaries within art and design discourse, these essays challenge the classed, raced and gendered categories that have structured the histories and languages of art and its making. Sculpture and the Decorative is essential reading for anyone interested in the history and practice of sculpture and the decorative arts and the methodologies of art history.

Pots have existed across the world and in different cultures for thousands of years. This volume explores how contemporary makers use the ancient language of the pot to convey contemporary ideas, from the sculptural and painterly to the ecological and satirical. This beautifully produced book is a visually rich and critically in-depth focus on the work of twenty-four potters. A companion volume to Contemporary British Ceramics: Beneath the Surface, it reveals how pots can be extraordinarily powerful forms of expression.

This detailed and comprehensive survey charts the entire history of British studio ceramics from the emergence of modern ceramics from the Victorian factories around 1900 to the wide variety of extraordinary work being produced today. All the best-known potters such as Leach, Hamada, Cardew, Rie, and Coper are examined in depth in terms of their different areas of interest and influence. An extensive appendix gives information on 200 leading makers with their identifying marks and cross-references with a list of museums where their work can be seen. Lavishly illustrated throughout with some 250 color photographs, this is a book for the collector needing in-depth information or for those who just want an introduction to this important and beautiful work.

The essays in this book look at the development of British Ceramics and their collection by American collectors. The historic 'special relationship' between Great Britain and the United States spans decades and is deeply valued on both sides of the 'pond.' Emerging from the alliances forged in the world wars in the first half of 20th century, both British and American societies have benefited from the infusion of each other's cultural contributions. Ceramics and ceramic collecting has been no different in this regard. The British ceramic art displayed in this book is largely loaned from the private collections of California connoisseurs. These treasured artifacts testify to the regard and appreciation that American collectors hold for British ceramics. This catalog accompanies the 2013 exhibition by the same name at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, CA.