Italian Art Ceramics 1900-1950

The volume, devoted to the Italian ceramics produced between the modernist era and the emergence of non-presentational art, and thus between the beginning of the 20th century and the Second World War, looks exclusively at pieces created by the artists, architects and designers who over the course of fifty years reshaped the Italian ceramics industry, rescuing it on the one hand from the trite repetition of 'period' models, and on the other reviving a centuries old tradition of forms, models and decorations.
The volume contains a catalogue of around 500 emblematic pieces, including vases, sculptures and decorative objects (designed, among others, by Chini, Andlovitz, Ponti, Dolcetti, Martini, Tullio d'Albisola, Gariboldi, Biancini, Cambellotti, Melis, Fancello, Nonni and Melandri), accompanied by an extensive set of biographies and bibliographies of the artists and factories and a summary of the marks employed over those years.
It also presents a range of illustrations, some hitherto unpublished or little-known pieces belonging to important private collections and museums.

Valerio Terraroli is lecturer in the History of Contemporary Art and the History of Modern Decorative Arts at Turin University.