{"title":"Books by Paul Greenhalgh","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781474239707","title":"Ceramic, Art and Civilisation","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Full of surprises [and] evocative.\" \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Passionately written.\" \u003ci\u003eApollo \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An extraordinary accomplishment.\" \u003ci\u003eEdmund de Waal\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Monumental.\" \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An epic reshaping of ceramic art.\" \u003ci\u003eCrafts\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An important book.\" \u003ci\u003eThe Arts Society Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his major new history, Paul Greenhalgh tells the story of ceramics as a story of human civilisation, from the Ancient Greeks to the present day. As a core craft technology, pottery has underpinned domesticity, business, religion, recreation, architecture, and art for millennia. Indeed, the history of ceramics parallels the development of human society.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis fascinating and very human history traces the story of ceramic art and industry from the Ancient Greeks to the Romans and the medieval world; Islamic ceramic cultures and their influence on the Italian Renaissance; Chinese and European porcelain production; modernity and Art Nouveau; the rise of the studio potter, Art Deco, International Style and Mid-Century Modern, and finally, the contemporary explosion of ceramic making and the postmodern potter. Interwoven in this journey through time and place is the story of the pots themselves, the \u003ci\u003eculture\u003c\/i\u003e of the ceramics, and their character and meaning. Ceramics have had a presence in virtually every country and historical period, and have worked as a commodity servicing every social class. They are omnipresent: a ubiquitous art. Ceramic culture is a clear, unique, definable thing, and has an internal logic that holds it together through millennia. Hence ceramics is the most peculiar and extraordinary of all the arts. At once cheap, expensive, elite, plebeian, high-tech, low-tech, exotic, eccentric, comic, tragic, spiritual, and secular, it has revealed itself to be as fluid as the mud it is made from.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCeramics are the very stuff of how civilized life was, and is, led. This then is the story of human society's most surprising core causes and effects.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301383516533,"sku":"9781474239707","price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781474239707_f4454daa-db57-4f90-9e22-45d9eded2161.jpg?v=1786020663"},{"product_id":"9781916133617","title":"The Nature of Dreams","description":"Published to accompany a major new exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre, this book examines the spectacular and controversial vision of art practice that raged across the Western world from the end of the 19th century: Art Nouveau.The role of nature is a key focus of the exhibition. The common theme of translating plants into patterns will be explored as a defining feature of the modern style. Art and objects will represent Art Nouveau from different countries, where it appeared characterised as flowing, tensile line, and dramatic movement, or by organic imagery combined with an informal geometry.    Artists and designers include René Lalique, Edgar Degas, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, William Morris; Alphonse Mucha and Gabriel Dante Rossetti.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313187467637,"sku":"9781916133617","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781916133617_11d710ac-26b4-4c74-8313-e154c8471fa9.jpg?v=1786035204"},{"product_id":"9781911736189","title":"Art Nouveau","description":"Leading expert Paul Greenhalgh presents a groundbreaking visual and scholarly journey through Art Nouveau – spanning 26 countries and enriched with stunning new photography.   The Art Nouveau style dramatically impacted architecture, transforming attitudes to late-19th and early-20th century building practices, and making possible the rise of the various Modern Movements in architecture and design. Formed by the social and political environments of this turbulent period in European history, Art Nouveau was a complex, multifaceted phenomenon from its inception, changing shape continually through time and from country to country.   This book unravels the various threads that constituted the style, offering fresh philosophical and aesthetic perspectives and providing a definition of what Art Nouveau actually was, and what it meant to its architects and designers. For the first time in a single volume, it shows the extraordinary spread of the style including in countries not usually recognised as being part of the story, with twenty-six countries represented through superb new photography. The author and photographer had privileged access to many famous buildings, as well as lesser-known architectural masterpieces. Uniquely, this book also considers the later heritage of Art Nouveau, and its long-term effects on subsequent architecture.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56420198580597,"sku":"9781911736189","price":39.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781911736189_d8e39027-5ec5-43e7-bc9f-344ff2aff6fb.jpg?v=1786030538"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-paul-greenhalgh.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}