Contemporary Basketry: New Directions from Innovative Artists Worldwide

With this concise and beautiful format, makers, fiber art collectors, and casual viewers take a world tour of spectacular examples of contemporary basketry.

Guided by two experts, you’ll experience more than 180 works by 60 of today’s artists. Here is the best contemporary work from around the world, grouped into unusual thought-provoking topics (such as “The Body,” “Eccentric Color or Materials,” and “Allusion”) to help readers reach their own conclusions about each basket.

Inspired by her widely followed blog Contemporary Basketry, the selection is carefully honed by authority Carol Eckert to represent the spectrum of contemporary work.

There are three parts:

• The photos do most of the speaking here;

• the 60 artists tell us about their priorities; and

• serving as a centerpiece, a guide by renowned critic Janet Koplos offers a one-of-a-kind exploration of what defines a basket, so we can understand how that term applies to this amazing range of work.

A gorgeous book for basketry lovers, aficionados of other fiber and textile arts, and museum and art world audiences.

Carol Eckert has served as president of the National Basketry Organization and is the founder of the widely followed blog Contemporary Basketry. She is a contributor to many publications, including Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America (Schiffer). CarolEckert.com | @caroleckertart | contemporarybasketry.blogspot.com 

Janet Koplos is a former senior editor at Art in America magazine. A renowned journalist, she is the winner of a National Endowment for the Arts critic’s grant and has taught at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, the University of the Arts, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Her previous books include Contemporary Japanese Sculpture and What Makes a Potter (Schiffer).