Making It Modern: European Ceramics from the Martin Eidelberg Collection

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, budding discourse on what it meant to be “modern” prompted artists to develop work that felt both relevant and responsive to contemporary life. This richly illustrated edition of the Bulletin explores the visual, conceptual, and technical experimentations of European ceramicists as they attempted to define a global language of modernism in stark contrast to earlier appeals to historical styles. Authors Sarah E. Lawrence and Jeffrey Munger illuminate the broad range of technical and creative influences—including Asian ceramic traditions, European design movements, and nature—that inform the more than fifty works included in this volume, part of a remarkable gift by collector Martin Eidelberg. Professor Eidelberg contributes an essay on the proliferation of natural imagery in the aesthetics of the period. A fascinating and focused exploration of design history, Making it Modern offers a closer look at dozens of astonishingly creative ceramics and reflects on how the aspiration to create works that link the past to a vibrant future has continued resonance today.