Ceramics

Once fired, clay can last for thousands of years, and this survey uses that durability to trace global cultural history across five millennia of ceramic making. Glenn Barkley asks what an amphora from 200 BCE might reveal about the Roman Empire, how a plain cup made in 1945 can speak to its moment, and what an installation of many clay spheres will tell future generations about the act of making. Beyond their practical uses, ceramic objects reflect the innovations and traditions of the societies that produced them, and any single piece can shed light on its era, its makers, the history of its collection, or the wider network of exchange it belonged to.

Titled An Atlas of Forms, the book is arranged chronologically. It begins with an Egyptian ceremonial jar made more than five thousand years ago and moves through twentieth-century figures Lucie Rie and Bernard Leach to contemporary artists and to makers who remain entirely unknown. Along the way, it builds a picture of the cultural stories carried by ceramics across time and place, and it gives credit to the individuals who have shaped the medium.

The book includes 220 color illustrations.