Listening To Clay : Conversations With Contemporary Japanese Ceramic Artists
Alice North, Halsey North, Louise Allison Cort
The first book to tell the stories of some of the most revered living Japanese ceramists of the century, tracing the evolution of modern and contemporary craft and art in Japan, and the artists' considerable influence, which far transcends national borders.
Alice and Halsey North are leading collectors and patrons of contemporary Japanese ceramics. Since 1994, they have worked with curators from the National Museum of Asian Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the MFA Boston to research, document, and contextualize their collection. Their collection was featured in Contemporary Clay: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century at the MFA Boston, in 2005–6, and New York’s Japan Society 2006–7. A primary focus of their collecting and advocacy has been to introduce new audiences to this art form. They have donated ceramics from their collection to numerous museums, notably the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met also houses the database, archives, and library for their collection.
Louise Allison Cort is Curator Emerita of Ceramics, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her research interests are historical and contemporary ceramics in Japan, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Her publications include Shigaraki, Potters’ Valley (1979, reprinted in 2000), Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics: A Close Embrace of the Earth (with Bert Winther-Tamaki, 2003), and Chigusa and the Art of Tea (with Andrew Watsky, 2014). In 2012, she received the Secretary’s Distinguished Scholar Award, Smithsonian Institution, and the Koyama Fujio Memorial Price for research on historical and contemporary Japanese ceramics.