About the Author

Edmund de Waal (b.1964) is one of the world s leading ceramic artists and a renowned historian of the medium. His work has been widely exhibited at galleries and museums in the UK and Europe, and he will present exhibitions in 2013 at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. He has written widely on art and ceramics, including books on Bernard Leach and 20th-century ceramics, and The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010) won the Costa Biography Award, New Writer of the Year at the Galaxy Book Awards, and the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. In 2011 he was awarded an OBE for services to art. Emma Crichton-Miller, a journalist specializing in applied arts and crafts, contributes an in-depth biographical survey and critical analysis of de Waal and his work. She writes for the Financial Times, The Times and the Royal Academy Magazine, among other publications. Also includes contributions by novelists Colm Toibin, Peter Carey and AS Byatt, and critical essays by Guggenheim curator Alexandra Munroe and architect Deborah Saunt.

Reviews

"This stunning monograph, the first collecting the work of artist and writer de Waal... Functions like a poem, measuring off de Waal's work from the world it lives in, and finding in that partitioning the boundless potential of a simple pot."—Publishers Weekly"This April sees the publication of a deluxe monograph on de Waal's work by Phaidon Press, which, in place of the usual impenetrable art speak, includes eloquent contributions by such writerly types as AS Byatt, Colm Toibin, and Peter Carey."—Departures"Emma Crichton-Miller contributes a graceful, sympathetic biographical introduction, the clearest account of de Waal's career so far. The book is... in full accord with de Waal's own aesthetic: a beautiful piece of work in its own right, to be cherished."—David Sexton, Evening Standard"In words, and through Toby Glanville’s fine photographic essay, Edmund de Waal presents an image of the artist as a uniquely gifted wunderkind."—TLS - Tanya Harrod"This book evokes serenity." —Tomas Maier, Esquire