Books October/November 2001
The
Language of Ornament
Porcelain Stories: From China to Europe
California Pottery: From Missions to Modernism
Design 1935-1965: What Modern Was, Selections from the Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection
Blenko: Cool '50s & '60s Glass
The Winterthur Guide to Caring for Your Collection
Beautiful Things: Original Art from the Artists of Guild.com
Crossroads: Art and Religion in American Life
The Colors of Japan/Snow, Wavee: Traditional Patterns in Japanese Design, Pin
The Language of Ornament
by James Trilling, 2001, Thames & Hudson, New York, NY, distributed
by W. W. Norton, New York, NY, 212-354-3763; 224 pages, illustrated. $14.95
paperback.
Ornament—the
decorative patterning of functional objects for the sake of visual pleasure—is
as old as human history, yet for most of the 20th century it was excluded
from the mainstream of Western art-making by the modernist preference
for unadorned form. In this informative survey, the art historian James
Trilling illuminates the intrinsic beauty and historical significance
of ornament by presenting a range of objects from the Paleolithic era
to the present. "It is an art with its own history," he writes,
"comprising all the shapes and patterns that human beings have applied
to their buildings, their utensils, furniture, weapons and portable objects,
their textiles and clothing, and even their bodies since prehistoric times.
Yet unlike architecture, sculpture and painting, ornament has no recognized
place in today's cultural landscape." He suggests that the late 20th-century
craft revival has done little to change this. "Modern craft followed
modern art in downplaying technical mastery," he writes. "Before
the modern movement, ornament, with its familiar, precise, often intricate
forms, was both a test of craftsmanship and a stage for its display...There
is ample skill on display in the craft movement, miraculous skill if we
remember how recently the very idea of craft teetered on the edge of extinction,
but a large portion of that skill seems to be deployed for the purpose
of concealing skill."
Porcelain
Stories: From China to Europe
by Julie Emerson, Jennifer Chen, Mimi Gardner Gates, 2000, Seattle
Art Museum in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle,
206-543-4050; 319 pages, illustrated. $50.
Reminding us that
porcelain was for centuries as treasured as gold, this book tells the
complex history of the thin, white-bodied ceramic ware from its invention
in China around A.D. 600 through its development as a precious trade commodity
in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, where, in the 17th and 18th centuries,
it provoked a collecting mania and the urgent quest to find a way to recreate
it. The story, involving technology, aesthetics, commerce and the cultural
and stylistic interchange between East and West, is told through intertwined
multiple narratives that refer to examples drawn from the porcelain collections
of the Seattle Art Museum.
California
Pottery: From Missions to Modernism
by Bill Stern, 2001, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA, 800-722-6657;
119 pages, photographs by Peter Brenner. $22.95.
As colorful as its
subject, this well-designed book celebrates the distinctive ceramics produced
by California commercial potteries between the 1920s and 1950s. Not surprisingly,
three chapters are devoted to the work that typifies the California spirit—tablewares
in bright solid-color glazes and innovative shapes produced in the 1930s
by such potteries as Bauer, Pacific, Metlox, Vernon Kilns and Gladding,
McBean—and inspired imitators, most famously West Virginia's Fiesta
ware. But Bill Stern, executive director of the Museum of California Design,
Los Angeles, does not neglect the more subdued Mission and Arts and Crafts
pottery and tiles of the teens and 20s, decorated pottery, Rural Revival
wares and the Modernist style of the 40s and 50s, on which studio potters
such as Glen Lukens and Laura Andreson had an influence. A companion exhibition
is at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art through October 14.
Design
1935-1965: What Modern Was, Selections from the Liliane and David M. Stewart
Collection
edited by Martin Eidelberg, 2001 (first published 1991), Musée
des Arts Décoratifs de Montréal, in association with Harry
N. Abrams, New York, NY, 800-345-1359; 424 pages, essay by Paul Johnson,
16 contributors, illustrated. $60.
Coinciding with the
opening in May of the Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion, permanent
home of the mid-20th-century design collection at the Musée des
Arts Décoratifs de Montréal, this reprint, with the addition
of 37 color images, offers an encyclopedic, well-documented survey of
a period that despite the word "modern," can now be seen as
historical. The focus is on international design "giants," whether
early, such as Charles and Ray Eames, Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, or later—Peter
Voulkos, Lenore Tawney, Sheila Hicks, Wendell Castle. The historian Paul
Johnson provides a sociopolitical context for the works.
20th
Century Factory Glass
by Lesley Jackson, 2000, Rizzoli International Publications, New York,
NY, 212-387-3535; 256 pages, illustrated. $85.
As this amply illustrated
survey makes plain, throughout the 20th century glass producers in Europe
and the United States were innovators of design. Lesley Jackson, a specialist
in 20th-century design, discusses over 100 factories, from Sweden's Åfors
to Zeleznobrodske Sklo in the Czech Republic. Illustrated works range
from kitchenware such as Pyrex casseroles produced by Corning or the more
upscale Jena glass teapot designed by Bauhausler Wilhelm Wagenfeld for
Schott in Germany, to limited-edition pieces designed by glass artists
working in factory settings in Scandinavia and Italy. Jackson's introduction
traces the role of glass in establishing such styles as Art Nouveau (Gallé,
Tiffany) and Art Deco (Lalique), its part in the modern movement associated
with the Bauhaus, the rise to supremacy of Scandinavian design in the
1950s, and the postwar explosion of creativity in Italy and Czechoslovakia.
The book includes a compilation of factory marks, bibliography and glossary.
Blenko:
Cool '50s &'60s Glass
by Leslie Piña, 2000, Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA, 610-593-1777;
207 pages, photographs by Leslie and Ramón Piña. $39.95.
Founded in 1922 by
William John Blenko, an immigrant from England, after three failed starts,
the Blenko Glass Company, located in Milton, West Virginia, is the last
surviving factory in the United States making hand-blown domestic and
ornamental glass. With some 600 photographs, this book focuses on the
flamboyant colored vessels—vases, decanters and pitchers—that
Blenko produced in the 1950s and 60s and which have become collectibles
today. A chapter is accorded each of the designers responsible for this
output—Winslow Anderson, Wayne Husted and Joel Philip Myers, who
was to put his training at Blenko to use in his career as a successful
studio glass artist. For period flavor, the complete 1960 catalog is reproduced.
Laura
de Santillana, Works
2001, Silvana Editoriale SpA, Milan, Italy, available from Barry Friedman
Ltd., New York, NY, 212-794-8950; 120 pages, texts by Attilia Dorigato,
Janet Koplos and Tina Oldknow in Italian and English, illustrated. $35.
Murano glass is Laura
de Santillana's heritage. Her grandfather, Paolo Venini, founded the famed
Venini glassworks in the 1920s and her father, Ludovico Diaz de Santillana,
an architect, directed the firm from 1959 to 1986. But she has also studied
in the United States and, since making her glass debut in the mid-70s,
has been part of the international studio glass movement. Her recent sculpture,
the subject of this book, are stele-like objects—blown vessels that
have been compressed until the two walls of glass meet. The works are
presented dramatically, one to a page or spread, with captions relegated
to the back of the book. The book accompanied solo exhibitions of the
artist's work this past spring at the Museo Correr in Venice and the Barry
Friedman gallery in New York City.
American
Furniture 2000
edited by Luke Beckerdite, 2000, Chipstone Foundation, distributed
by University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, 800-421-1561; 258 pages,
7 articles, illustrated. $55 paperback.
Launched in 1993,
American Furniture is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to furniture
made or used in the Americas from the 17th century to the present. This
eighth annual volume includes articles on furniture by the Potthast Brothers
of Baltimore, the Symonds Shops of early Salem and the New Mexican caja
(a decoratively carved chest), among other topics, as well as four book
reviews and a bibliography of recent writing on American furniture.
The
Winterthur Guide to Caring for Your Collection
2000, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Delaware, distributed
by University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, 800-421-1561; 154 pages,
13 contributors, illustrated. $17.95 paperback.
The second volume in the Winterthur Decorative Arts Series, this guide offers practical, scientifically based advice from conservators at the Winterthur Museum on how to protect, preserve and store valuable objects. It should prove useful to both the expert and novice collector. Chapters are devoted to books, manuscripts and ephemera, ceramics and glass, metals, textiles, furniture, works of art on paper, organic materials, and paintings and photographs.
Beautiful
Things: Original Art from the Artists of Guild.com
2000, Guild Publishing, Madison, WI, 877-344-8453; 224 pages, texts
by Toni Sikes, Michael Monroe and Glenn Adamson. $45.
An offshoot of the online gallery Guild.com, this book presents more than 250 works in all media by 218 artists, selected by Michael Monroe, Chris Byrne and Victor Landweber from 10,000 works offered for sale on Guild.com in its first year (1999-2000). The art has been organized into such categories as "concepts of construction," "the sensuous form," "the pleasure of function," "the natural world" and "pattern and geometry."
Crossroads:
Art and Religion in American Life
edited by Alberta Arthurs and Glenn Wallach, 2001, The New Press, New
York, NY, distributed by W. W. Norton, New York, NY, 800-233-4830; 287
pages, preface by Garry Wills, 7 essays, illustrated. $27.50.
Art and religion, dynamic forces in American life, have often interacted but not always harmoniously. This stimulating collection of essays, commissioned by the Center for Arts and Culture, a public policy institute in Washington, DC, with funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, New York City, explores the ways Americans relate to art and religion in their daily lives and looks critically at some public controversies. The topics, addressed by a group of historians, sociologists and art historians, include art in American Protestantism, the mutual perceptions of arts and religious leaders, the role of spirituality in contemporary art and the recent uproar in New York over the "Sensation" exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.
The
Colors of Japan
2000, Kodansha International, distributed by Kodansha America, New
York, NY, 917-322-6200; 102 pages, commentary and photographs by Sadao
Hibi, essays and text by Kunio Fukuda, translated by John Bester. $35.
Snow,
Wavee:
Traditional Patterns in Japanese Design,
Pin
2001, Kodansha America, New York, NY, 917-322-6200; 196 pages, photographs
and captions by Sadao Hibi, text by Motoji Niwa. $65.
Through stunning photographs by Sadao Hibi, who specializes in traditional arts, architecture and gardens, and elegant design, these books present two essential aspects of Japanese culture. Organized under chapters devoted to different colors, the photographs in The Colors of Japan range over a variety of objects—lacquerware, kimonos, combs, scrolls, ceramics, sword mountings, gates, to name a few. An especially striking juxtaposition is a photograph of a rural landscape depicting green-tea plantations forming abstract patterns next to one of a black bowl of green tea. The first part of Snow, Wave, Pine presents 75 major patterns—plants and flowers, animals, natural phenomena, implements and structures, geometry, etc.—as they are used to decorate traditional objects. The second part shows more than a thousand family crests, a remarkable variety of stylized motifs. Motoji Niwa's text delves into the origins of these designs.
Bamboo
in Japan
by Nancy Moore Bess with Bibi Wein, 2001, Kodansha America, New York,
NY, 917-322-6200; 223 pages, illustrated. $49.95.
The nearly encyclopedic approach of this paean to bamboo speaks to an American basketry artist's passionate engagement with a ubiquitous Japanese material, and by extension, with Japanese culture. The result of Nancy Moore Bess's five years of research and study, the book is chock-a-block with pictures and information, though graphically over-designed. It touches on the presence of bamboo in almost every aspect of Japanese daily life: crafts, especially basketry; horticulture and gardens; architecture; personal accessories; toys; performance and ritual.
On
Paper: New Paper Art
by Jane Thomas and Paul Jackson, 2001, Merrell Publishers, London,
England, in association with the Crafts Council, London, distributed by
Rizzoli International Publications, New York, NY, 212- 387-3622; 128 pages,
illustrated, $24.95 paperback.
An installation of cast-paper shoes, an origami wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, manipulated paper mimickin nature and witty paper garments are among the images in this celebration of paper as a material to be manipulated and formed in its own right, not as a support for another medium. More than 100 works by some 40 artists, designers and craftspeople from around the world are grouped under the headings "text and message," "new folding," "cut and constructed," and "nature and spirit." The catalog to a recent exhibition at the Crafts Council, the book includes a glossary, bibliography and list of international resources.
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