Synopses & Reviews
The captivating ceramic art from Oaxaca is prized around the world by folk art enthusiasists and collectors who have also embraced Oaxaca's exquisite wood carving. This volume celebrates the artistry and culture of the six leading ceramists all of whom are women, four of whom are sisters.
Though their work is informed by a shared sense of culture, place, and identity as women, each artist has her own unique style, source of inspiration, and approach to her craft. Daily life and flights of fancy, spiritual devotion and earthly concerns all find expression in these finely crafted and beautifully colored ceramic marvels, including street scenes nativities, Virgins and Zapotec creatures, vases, plates, candleholders, and figures of Frida Kahlo.
Featuring an informative and engaging text and a gallery of more than 100 full-color photographs, including portraits of the artists, Oaxacan Ceramics is an irresistable celebration of this rich and vivid art and the lives of the women who create it.
Synopsis
Prized by collectors worldwide, Oaxacan crafts are among the most popular forms of folk art today. This celebration of Mexican ceramics combines a gallery of more than one hundred stunning photographs with an insightful text that illuminates the artistry and the artists all of whom are women. The fanciful, brightly colored works spring from the rich imaginations of rural women drawing on enduring religion, mythology, and themes from their everyday lives. Oaxacan Ceramics tells the remarkable story of six of the most renowned artisans who live and work in villages near the city of Oaxaca. Their exuberant, whimsical creations range from the fantastic to the religious, including mermaids, angels, Zapotec creatures, figures of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, vases, candle holders, and decorative plates all finely crafted and distinctly colored. Oaxacan Ceramics paints an extraordinary portrait of a vibrant culture and its art.
About the Author
Lois Wasserspring teaches at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she is director of Latin American Studies.
Vicki Ragan is a photographer whose works are in the permanent collections ol the Brooklyn Museum of Fine Art in New York, the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and Polaroid Corporation's International Art Collection in Amsterdam. The aut