Contemporary British Studio Pottery by Ashley Thorpe

Contemporary British Studio Pottery by Ashley Thorpe

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 book takes on the debate around what makes ceramics an art form and how it has developedThe ‘vessel’, it seems, is a contentious word in ceramics. The book has noted, debates surrounding the validity of the term reveal ‘tensions about the relative value of the pot, the vessel and the object, and the status between the useful and the useless in the art world. The debate as to whether ceramics should be regarded as ‘art’ or ‘craft’ . A very thoughtful read.

-- Paul Bailey, Emerging Potters Magazine Oct-Dec 23 * Emerging Potters Magazine Oct-Dec 23 *

Ashley Thorpe is a collector of ceramics, a writer, performer and an academic. He has seriously collected contemporary British studio ceramics for almost twenty years and has extensive knowledge of the field. His first book Contemporary British Ceramics: Beneath the Surface was published by The Crowood Press in 2021. Its publication was marked by an exhibition of the same name, which was held at Eton College. In 2019, the prestigious international journal Ceramics: Art + Perception awarded him their inaugural writing prize for an essay on the work of Tessa Eastman. In 2022, he was invited to become a Trustee for the Maak Foundation, an organisation established to support and promote British studio ceramics. He currently teaches Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he gained his PhD.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780719842429
ISBN 10	0719842425
Title	Contemporary British Studio Pottery
Author	Ashley Thorpe
Series	Ceramics
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	The Crowood Press Ltd
Year published	2023-08-15
Number of pages	240
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.