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Books
Following
the Threads
String Felt Thread:
The Hierarchy of Art and
Craft in American Art
By Elissa Author
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis, MN
$29.95 paperback
upress.umn.edu
Elissa Auther’s book considers
the fiber art of the 1960s and
’70s by presenting it as an in-
structive parallel to postmini-
malist employment of fiber
materials (see Eva Hesse and
Robert Morris) and feminist
use of the same (e.g., Faith
Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro,
Harmony Hammond and Judy
Chicago). The gist of her argu-
ment is that the status of fiber-
like that of craft in general—is
in every case a feminist issue.
Morris’s felt works, for exam-
ple, were never dismissed as
meaningless or as decorative,
seemingly because his credibil-
ity as a macho artist gave him
the right to work in any material
he wished. This would be an
easy complaint for any disgrun-
tled fiber aficionado to make,
but Auther, as a scholar (she
teaches at the University of
Colorado, Colorado Springs;
this text began as her PhD dis-
sertation), gives it substance:
she shows the similarity of the
critical language used to praise
Morris’s work to that used
negatively for fiber in other
contexts. She also directly com-
pares exhibitions little regarded
by the art world, such as
“Woven Forms” (1963) at the
Museum of Contemporary
Crafts, with landmark shows
similar in materials and forms,
such as “Eccentric Abstraction”
(1966) at Fischbach Gallery
(both in New York City).
Her first chapter maps out
the innovations of fiber art,
including the works of Anni
Albers (I disagree, but won’t
argue here), Lenore Tawney
and Claire Zeisler©, with due
respect for Mildred Constan-
tine’s efforts to bring recogni-
tion to fiber work. The second
chapter addresses Process
Art and postminimalism, and
the third and longest chapter
looks at the intertwined status
of women and craft in the art
world, and how the feminist
critique both employed and
served fiber as a material with
historical, social and political
meanings. Throughout, Auther
identifies the agendas and illogic
of art-world figures, for exam-
ple noting Clement Greenberg’s
disparagement of the decorative
as a necessary distinction to
elevate the abstract painting
he promoted. And she even-
handedly does the same on the
other side, explaining that Con-
stantine and her collaborator,
Jack Lenor Larsen, worked “to
assimilate a certain type of work
in fiber to the fine arts without
addressing how the boundaries
separating art from craft are
constructed rather than natural.”
They bought into the system
because to argue against it
would have destabilized the
status they were claiming for
their artists and implicitly
undermined their own author-
ity as curators, she says. There
is much more of this sort of
provocative observation; I lit-
tered the margins of my copy
with exclamation marks.
This is an academic book,
with the expected references
to cultural critics, philosophers
and scholarly issues, but it is
smoothly written, assured and
clear enough to be accessible
to any serious reader. It is
an admirable model among the
scholarly books about crafts.
I’m only disappointed by the
limits of Auther’s coverage;
she could have gone on to the
Pattern and Decoration move-
ment, and more.—
Janet Koplos
'Janet Koplos is co-author o f
Makers: A History of American
Studio Craft,
published by the
University o f North Carolina Press.
O
©
CO / Denver
Denver Art Museum
Shape & Spirit: Selections
from the Lutz Bamboo Collection
to Sept 19
denverartmuseum.org
Woven baskets and carved fig-
ures capture the cultural charac-
ter of their makers through the
versatility of bamboo.
CT / Guilford
Guilford Art Center
Craft Expo 2010
July 15-17
guilfordartcenter.org
For the 53rd year, visitors can
flock to discover and rediscover
the importance of handmade
objects by the country’s top
craft artists.
DC / Washington
G Textile Museum
The A rt of Living: Textile
Furnishings from the Permanent
Collection
to Jan. 9 ,2on
textilemuseum.org
The technical and artistic skill
of such textiles as
Bhutanese
Throne Cover
illuminates the
cultural and historical breadth
of the museum’s collection.
GA / Atlanta
High Museum
European Design Since 1985:
Shaping the New Century
Junes-Aug. 29
high.org
From furniture to objets d’art,
works by the most influential
artists from Western Europe
trace the evolution of design.
012
amcrican craft
june/july io
www.WorldMags.net & www.Journal-Plaza.net
Books photo © Denver A rt Museum: Claire Zeisler,
U n title d ( Com positions) ,
1967, jute.
