Tag Archive "purtle-family-business"

Book Reviews: ‘Josiah McElheny; A Prism’ and ‘The Hockemeyer Collection; 20th Century Italian Ceramic Art’

People trained in clay, glass and fiber often wonder why their work is marginalized within the art world and relegated to craft. I suspect it’s because much of the work puts an emphasis on technical virtuosity (a subject that never arises in discussing contemporary art which, these days, is likely to favor the quick and dirty solution) and does not engage issues of interest to the wider art world. Here are two books, one on an artist who works in glass, the other on ceramics, which should interest readers across disciplines.

Make Room for Books

Installation view of Volume Attempts; the space of books at Tyler Gallery The premise of the extraordinary exhibition, Volume Attempts: The Space of Books at Tyler School of Art’s Temple Gallery in Old City (through October 25, 2008) is that books are more than passive containers for ideas. Rather they are malleable objects with which we have intimate relationships, usually conducted in private and involving our touch as well as our gaze. It’s the only book exhibition I’ve ever seen that acknowledges that books must be held and perused page-by-page in order to be appreciated. If you love books, don’t ... More » »