The publication of “Fired with Passion: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics” is that rare event when important, beautiful art is first introduced. Although Japanese wood-block prints, flower arrangements, some films, cartoons, fashion and industrial design are well-known, its remarkable achievements in post-1945 ceramic sculpture are virtually unknown outside Japan. The privilege of participating in making this great art better known in the West has been undertaken by the co-authors who bring wide multi-cultural art backgrounds as experienced connoisseurs: a major collector and the leading dealer. They have selected over 230 images from noted Western collections and premier Japanese museums. All are strikingly photographed in full color, and represent some of the greatest masterpieces of Japanese ceramic art.
This ground-breaking, lavish, over-sized volume has been written in a style directed toward enhancing aesthetic appreciation by a close, non-academic analysis of the exciting works. The authors discuss, in plain English, with no artspeak jargon, specifically what they believe is Artistically meritorious in each piece.Contemporary Japanese ceramists, well aware that they are the heirs of the world’s oldest ceramic tradition of some 15,000 years, are unrivaled. To better understand today’s artists, a survey of the history of Japanese ceramic art is included, which offers a glimpse of its wealth of formal invention, exuberance and sheer decorative pleasures. The ceramics illustrated in this book promise to be a revelation to the general art-loving public, Asian art aficionados, and practicing potters.
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