Lest the title and content of Melina Maack's article "Contemporary Vietnamese Ceramics" (September 2000) mislead CM's readers into believing that the extent of contemporary Vietnamese pottery is limited only to small, medium and large traditional water jugs, garden balls and other strictly utilitarian vessels, I wanted to assure them that contemporary ceramic production in Vietnam is considerably broader than the article implies (in type, size, forming techniques, decorating and firing).While I am not a potter, I have given particular attention to pottery during several trips to Vietnam over the last nine years. There are a small number of potters working in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and probably in central Vietnam, who enter competitions, exhibit and sell their work in local galleries, alongside prints, paintings and sculpture. At times, limited resources and makeshift equipment have a strong influence on the aesthetics of smaller, more "artistic" vessels that are produced.
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