For the past fifty years, Robert A. Ellison Jr. has quietly and intuitively built one of the most significant assemblages of nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century ceramics, all the while observing…

For the past fifty years, Robert A. Ellison Jr. has quietly and intuitively built one of the most significant assemblages of nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century ceramics, all the while observing and investigating the creative possibilities and ambitions of the humblest of materials: clay. Shapes From Out of Nowhere, published on the occasion of an exhibition highlighting a recent transformative gift of 125 works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, beautifully presents this deeply personal pursuit and is a fitting coda to his commitment to sharing these works with the public. This extraordinary donation, the accompanying exhibition, and this illuminating book document the vision and passion of this singular collector and his focus on the exploration of shape and form in clay throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.