Most Popular Books by Edmund de Waal

An intimate narrative history of porcelain, structured around five journeys through landscapes where porcelain was dreamed about, fired, refined, collected, and coveted. Extraordinary new nonfiction, a gripping blend of history and memoir, by the author of the award-winning and bestselling international sensation, The Hare with the Amber Eyes. In The White Road, bestselling author and artist Edmund de Waal gives us an intimate narrative history of his lifelong obsession with porcelain, or "white gold." A potter who has been working with porcelain for more than forty years, de Waal describes how he set out on five journeys to places where porcelain was dreamed about, refined, collected and coveted-and that would help him understand the clay''s mysterious allure. From his studio in London, he starts by travelling to three "white hills"-sites in China, Germany and England that are key to porcelain''s creation. But his search eventually takes him around the globe and reveals more than a history of cups and figurines; rather, he is forced to confront some of the darkest moments of twentieth-century history. Part memoir, part history, part detective story, The White Road chronicles a global obsession with alchemy, art, wealth, craft, and purity. In a sweeping yet intimate style that recalls The Hare with the Amber Eyes, de Waal gives us a singular understanding of "the spectrum of porcelain" and the mapping of desire.

The definitive illustrated edition of the international bestseller Two hundred and sixty-four Japanese wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great-uncle Iggie''s Tokyo apartment. When he later inherited the netsuke, they unlocked a far more dramatic story than he could ever have imagined. From a burgeoning empire in Odessa to fin de siècle Paris, from occupied Vienna to postwar Tokyo, de Waal traces the netsuke''s journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century. With sumptuous photographs of the netsuke collection and full-color images from de Waal''s family archive, the illustrated edition of The Hare with Amber Eyes transforms a deeply intimate saga into a work of visual art.

A tragic family history told in a collection of imaginary letters to a famed collector, Moise de Camondo Letters to Camondo is a collection of imaginary letters from Edmund de Waal to Moise de Camondo, the banker and art collector who created a spectacular house in Paris, now the Musée Nissim de Camondo, and filled it with the greatest private collection of French eighteenth-century art. The Camondos were a Jewish family from Constantinople, “the Rothschilds of the East,” who made their home in Paris in the 1870s and became philanthropists, art collectors, and fixtures of Belle Époque high society, as well as being targets of antisemitism—much like de Waal''s relations, the Ephrussi family, to whom they were connected. Moise de Camondo created a spectacular house and filled it with art for his son, Nissim; after Nissim was killed in the First World War, the house was bequeathed to the French state. Eventually, the Camondos were murdered by the Nazis. After de Waal, one of the world’s greatest ceramic artists, was invited to make an exhibition in the Camondo house, he began to write letters to Moise de Camondo. These fifty letters are deeply personal reflections on assimilation, melancholy, family, art, the vicissitudes of history, and the value of memory.

The history of ceramic art is ingrained in the history of mankind. Clay is one of the very first materials ''invented'' by man. An essential part of our lives it has been moulded, thrown, glazed, decorated and fired for over 30,000 years in order to preserve and transport food and water. In more recent times clay has been used not just by artisans and potters, but also by artists, designers and architects. The Pot Book is the first publication to document the extraordinary range and variety of ceramic vessels of all periods, in a comprehensive and accessible A to Z format. From a delicate bowl made by an unnamed artisan in China in the third millennium BC, or a jug made in eighteenth-century Dresden, to a plate made by Picasso in 1952, a ''spade form'' made by Hans Coper or the vases of Grayson Perry today, it''s all in included in this beautifully illustrated collection. Each entry is sequenced in alphabetical order by the name of the artist/potter, the school, or style, creating a grand tour through the very finest examples of the art form.

Der international renommierte Künstler und Fotograf Hiroshi Sugimoto hat durch seine ausgiebigen Erkundungen der Möglichkeiten von Fotografie einige der verführerischsten und rätselhaftesten Bildwerke unserer Zeit geschaffen. Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine bietet einen umfassenden Überblick über die Arbeiten der letzten fünf Jahrzehnte. Die Publikation vereint seine wichtigsten fotografischen Serien wie Theaters und Seascapes, bis zu weniger bekannten Werken, die seinen innovativen, konzeptionellen Ansatz beleuchten. Beiträge von internationalen Schriftsteller*innen, Künstler*innen und Wissenschaftler*innen – darunter James Attlee, Allie Biswas, David Chipperfield, Edmund de Waal, Mami Kataoka, Ralph Rugoff, Lara Strongman und Margaret Wertheim – beleuchten seine philosophische und zugleich spielerische Auseinandersetzung mit unserem Verständnis von Zeit und Erinnerung sowie dem paradoxen Charakter der Fotografie zwischen Dokumentation und Erfindung.

Edmund de Waal is one of the leading artists working with ceramics today. He has also specialised in various large-scale installations which show groups of ceramic vessels, often in historic architectural settings. Signs and Wonders will be the largest and most ambitious installation commission, to date, by any single artist in a public or private space, which will be placed at the heart of the recently reopened ceramic galleries in the V+A. This beautifully illustrated book provides a very personal narrative on how the galleries have generated new ways of working. Archival pictures and newly commissioned photography of the installation made up of 425 pieces, are shown alongside examples from the V+A''s world famous ceramics collection,which have in turn inspired Signs and Wonders.

Published to mark the display of library of exile at the British Museum, this beautifully produced new book reflects on the themes raised by de Waal''s thought-provoking work of art. A preface by Booker Prize-nominated author Elif Shafak reflects on the importance of literature and its capacity to transcend language and borders. The introduction from Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, positions the artwork within the wider context of the Museum''s collection, highlighting the dialogue between objects from across time and throughout history and the contemporary. Finally, de Waal concentrates on the work itself, its journey to the British Museum via Venice and Dresden, and its future role in the foundation of the New University Library in Mosul.

Potters long ago left behind the notion that pots must be purely useful or merely pleasant everyday objects.

Bernard Leach was the preeminent artist potter of this century. Early in his career he spent 12 formative years in Japan. Returning to England in 1920, he set up a studio in St. Ives. Leach''s influence on the growth of the studio pottery movement, both in Japan and in the West, has been profound. His making of ceramics and his teaching of some of the foremost artist-potters of the period gives him a central place in the international history of decorative arts.

The qualities that have caused clay to be overlooked as a medium by those writing the history of modern art are precisely those that make it attractive to artists. It is easy to work, fragile, inexpensive, unpredictable and physical, and therefore inherently subversive. A Secret History of Clay reveals the previously undisclosed love affair between artists and this most humble of materials and in doing so re-writes modern art history. Works by some of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, many never reproduced before, will be fully illustrated in colour, tracing the transition of ceramics from a craft pursuit to something altogether more radical. Simon Groom, curator of the exhibition, argues the case for a re-examination of the use of clay in modern art. The distinguished ceramicist and writer Edmund de Waal explores its history, examining little-known works works by groups such as the Fauves, Russian Suprematists, German Expressionists, Italian Futurists, and CoBrA, as well as by artists including Duchamp, Miro, Picasso and Noguchi. The book will also feature extracts from the manifestos and writings of both artists and critics on the use of clay. Starting with Gauguin,

Offers fresh insight into these exquisite masterworks by Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813), the celebrated gilder to the French kings.

Presents the best works of 70 exceptional contemporary artists.

During the great flourishing of modern art in fin-de-siècle Vienna, artists of that city focused on images of individuals. Their portraits depict artists, patrons, families, friends, intellectual allies, and society celebrities from the upwardly mobile middle classes. Viewed as a whole, the images allow us to reconstruct the subjects'' shifting identities as the Austro-Hungarian Empire underwent dramatic political changes, from the 1867 Ausgleich (Compromise) to the end of the First World War. This is viewed as a time when the avant-garde overthrew the academy, yet Facing the Modern tells a more complex story, through thoughtprovoking texts by leading art historians. Their writings examine paintings by innovative artists such as Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele alongside those of their predecessors, blurring the conventionally-held distinctions between 19th-century and early 20th-century art.

The Frick Collection presents a temporary installation of sculptures by acclaimed author and ceramist Edmund de Waal. Site-specific works made of porcelain, steel, gold, marble, and glass will be displayed in the museum''s main galleries alongside works from the permanent collection, from May 30 - November 17, 2019.