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Books

M akers' Voices

Choosing Craft:

The Artist’s Viewpoint

Edited by Vicki Halper and

Diane Douglas

The University of North

Carolina Press

Chapel Hill, NC

$35

uncpress.unc.edu

This anthology, assembled from

makers’ letters, conference re-

ports, articles in periodicals,

lecture notes and oral histories,

focuses on artists’ experiences

and opinions as a primary re-

source for craft scholarship.

Editors Vicki Halper and Diane

Douglas, both with museum

backgrounds, create a picture

of craft as cultural labor, empha-

sizing lifestyle and economics

rather than aesthetics.

The period covered, post-

World War

to the present,

witnessed the evolution of the

studio craft movement in the

United States. The material is

organized not as a linear history

but within dominant themes.

The editors identify four semi-

nal activities that ground a pro-

fessional life in craft; they de-

velop this premise in sections

labeled Choosing Craft, Getting

an Education, Making a Living

and Confronting Craft, each

with titled chapters and relevant

entries. A biographical narra-

tive introduces each entry, cre-

ating a frame for the artist’s

words. (One could fault the

accuracy here and there, like

the statement [page 39] that

Robert Ebendorf “founded the

Society of North American

Goldsmiths (SNAG) in 1969,”

when in fact he was one of the

nine artists who figured in this

initiative.) Each entry ends

with a citation of its source.

Numerous references were con-

sulted, but the star trove is the

Smithsonian Institution’s Ar-

chives of American Art.

More than 100 makers are

quoted, 24 in multiple entries.

While the editors justify these

repeats, greater breadth might

have been achieved by eschew-

ing them in favor of additional

voices. For the most part, the

makers are leading names in the

craft field. Notably, many are

peer-elected members o f the

American Craft Council Col-

lege of Fellows, begun in 1975.

Among the voices in the first

chapter, “Integrating Art and

Life,” is that of Marguerite

Wildenhain, the Bauhaus pot-

ter who emigrated from Europe

during World War

II,

settling

in California, where she gave

workshops over many years at

her place, Pond Farm. She ad-

monishes, “The pot is absolute-

ly the image of the man who

makes it, and if that man is noth-

ing, to put it bluntly, the pot

thrown with all the skill and

all the technique in the world

will also be nothing” (1959).

In another chapter, “Re-

sponding to Materials," furni-

ture maker George Nakashima

declares, “Each tree, every part

of each tree, has only one per-

fect use. The long, taut grains of

the true cypress, so well adapt-

ed to the making of elegant thin

grilles, the joyous dance of the

figuring in certain species, the

richness of graining where two

large branches reach out—these

can all be released and fulfilled

in a worthy object for man’s

use” (1981).

“Training with Masters”

quotes a gracious 1995 letter

from glass artist Richard Mar-

quis to Anna Venini. “It’s been

over 25 years since I worked at

Venini & Co. The experience

looms large in my development

as an artist and as a person. At

the time I received the Fulbright

grant to Italy I was considered

one of the most skilled glass-

blowers in the fledgling studio

glass movement. It was a pitiful

state of affairs. I was about as

skilled as any ten year old on

Murano. I did the best I could

and had I known back then that

so much attention would be

given my work now I would

have paid more attention and

worked harder.”

“Learning in Communities”

provides we-were-there stories

about the emergence of schools

and organizations so key to

craft’s expansion. Among the 11

entries are a letter by Dale Chi-

huly and Lewis (Buster) Simp-

son to participants in the sum-

mer 1972 workshop at the

fledgling Pilchuck Glass School;

excerpts from a paper by Mar-

gret Craver on the Handy &

Harmon workshops she devel-

oped (1947-53) f°r aspiring

metalsmiths; furniture maker

Judy Kensley McKie’s reminis-

cences of the New Hamburger

Cabinet Works collective to

which she belonged in the

1960s; and Gyongy Laky’s de-

scription of the Fiberworks

Center for the Textile Arts in

Berkeley,

c a ,

which she found-

ed in 1973.

Other chapters cover the

choices—and tensions—artists

have faced in making a living.

The voices of Charles Harder

(1945), Edith Heath (1957), Jack

Lenor Larsen (1971), Ed Ross-

Morse (1992) and Jun Kaneko

(2000)—are but a few of those

included on that theme. The

final chapters tackle the persis-

tent push/pull of tradition/in-

novation and examine craft’s

relationship to the larger world.

The last words quoted (from

an interview in

Modem Painters,

February 2008) are those of

four American artists working

in textiles and multimedia

sculpture. Ranging in age from

32 to 41, they add currency to

this book’s valuable and enjoy-

able conversations on craft.

— LOIS MORAN

Lois Moran was editor in chief

o f American Craft, 19H0-200J.

018 american craft dcc/jan io

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