Notes on Henry Glassie

This book does for Bangladesh what Henry Glassie has already brilliantly achieved for Ireland and Turkey. "I write," he says, "to introduce you to the people of Bangladesh through their art, and to use their art to exemplify the study of creativity in its own context as part of a general inquiry into the human condition."

Art and Life in Bangladesh is at once an introduction to the country and its history and a meditation on the importance of art and life and the relationship between art, meaning, and understanding. And far from incidentally, it recognizes the work of a variety of gifted artists -- potters, metal workers, painters, weavers, poets. Glassie introduces us to dozens of artists working in different mediums and shares with us both the thrill of meeting new people and discovering new ways of art as well as his ruminations on their work.

"The relationship between folklore and popular culture is to many people unclear, and it is therefore debatable. On one extreme in the debate are those theorists who think that today's folklore was yesterday's popular culture. On the other extreme are those who believe that there is little direct relationship between the two. The truth, as usual, probably lies somewhere between."

"A profound statement from a distinguished scholar." —Choice

Material culture records human intrusion in the environment. It is the way we imagine a distinction between nature and culture, and then rebuild nature to our own desire, shaping, reshaping, and arranging things during life. We live in material culture, depend upon it, take it for granted, and realize through it our grandest aspirations.

In Material Culture, Henry Glassie calls us to first principles and common things as we work to build a better view of humanity. Through five extended, interlinked essays, he offers challenges, methods, and demonstrations, showing how we can reinvigorate and enrich the study of history, art, and culture through close consideration of the things people make. The people, the tellers of tale, the weavers, potters, and builders of houses, stand at the center of his endeavor. He introduces us to them, and in oneness with them he shows how study can bring us toward understanding of the world's complexity.

The first of this book's essays describes the role of material culture in the construction of a more comprehensive history. The second presents the methods and purposes of material culture study. Then three essays illustrate Glassie's practice. In the first, he tells one man's life to suggest the complications involved in all acts of creation and consumption. In the next, he uses pottery to show how cross-cultural comparison can advance the study of art. In the last lengthy essay he delivers on the promise of the first by showing how vernacular architecture can be used in the creation of a new, more democratic history.

A beautifully illustrated, thoughtful examination of pottery and potters on three continents.

"Coming into being, the work of art, this very pot, creates relations—relations between nature and culture, between the individual and society, between utility and beauty. Governed by desire, the artist's work answers questions of value. Is nature favored, or culture? Are individual needs or social needs more important? Do utilitarian or aesthetic concerns dominate in the transformation of nature?"

—from the Introduction

The Potter's Art discusses and illustrates the work of modern masters of traditional ceramics from Bangladesh, Sweden, Turkey, Japan, and various parts of the United States. It will appeal to anyone interested in pottery, folklore, or folk art.

"This vast work, approaching a thousand pages, with a comparable number of iillustrations, is astonishingly absorbing and easy to read, a rich source of cognitive and affective understanding of a culture at once so far from ours and so intimately close to it, whose insights and principles apply to many artistic traditions in many lands. . . . It is Mr. Glassie's concern with the artist's view of truth, his complete indifference to the elegant pretension of word and thought that to one extent or another has plagued Western historians of art since Vasari, and above all his deep curiosity and willingness to learn and listen from the past and from the present, from the scholar and from the artist, that constitute the miraculous elements of Turkish Traditional Art Today. " -- Walter B. Denny, The New York Times Book Review

"Turkish Traditional Art Today is a proud and triumphant work . . . magnificent . . . " -- The Turkish Times

"This beautifully produced work examines the traditional folk arts of Turkey . . . comprehensive, well-researched, and clearly written . . . " -- Library Journal

" . . . a work of monumental significance." -- Oriental Rug Review

The traditional arts and artists of contemporary Turkey, especially calligraphy, woodworking, pottery, and carpets, by a world-famous scholar. Throughout, Glassie's focus is on the artists and their theories and practices as well as the art they produce. Includes over 1,000 illustrations.

Based on 35 years of fieldwork, Vernacular Architecture synthesizes a career of concern with traditional building. Henry Glassie articulates the key principles of architectural analysis; then, centering his argument in the United States but drawing comparative examples from many locations in Europe and Asia, he shows how architecture can be a prime resource for someone writing a democratic and comprehensive history.