Pitchers of American Life
Art Within Reach
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publishing:19th Feb '26
£75.00
This title is due to be published on 19th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
A visually rich book that weaves together personal memoir and the social and material role of drinking vessels throughout American history
Through an exploration of the tactile pleasures of drinking vessels, Pitchers of American Life traces the role of these objects as representative art and collective tools—episodes of American history that resonate today in our everyday lives and yearnings for sociability and communion.
Generously illustrated, and richly woven with personal memoir, discussion ranges from vessels within ancient cultures and religious and family rituals to the growth of mass production and contemporary consumer culture. Shales blends the social histories of art/artifacts with memories of working on a museum installation crew, as an educator, and as a shopper; in each chapter he interprets a single object as a revealing time capsule.
A thoughtful book that looks with care at the overlooked. * Magdalene Odundo, OBE, artist and Emerita Professor, University for the Creative Arts, UK *
Authoritative historical scholarship leavened by Shales’s connoisseurial passions and humor. * Juliet Kinchin, former Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA *
Shales shows how humble wares can mean more than the most rare and exquisite, yet untouchable, of gallery exhibits. Art historians and museum curators, take note! * Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen, UK *
No mean feat. You will never look at a Kool-Aid pitcher in the same way again. * Gerald W.R. Ward, Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture Emeritus, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA *
An epic achievement for fictile scholarship. * Garth Clark, founder of Garth Clark Gallery and editor of C-File *
ISBN: 9781350386716
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
288 pages