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a k e r s a n d
S h a k e r s
E a g le E y e
“We believe very strongly that
these works belong in a fine arts
museum where they can be seen,
integrated with other works of
fine art and sculpture,” Melvin
and Leatricc Eagle say of their
recent gift of 160 masterworks of
modern and contemporary craft
to the Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston. With strength in West
Coast ceramics (think names
like Arneson, Frey, Mason,
Voulkos), but also encompassing
fiber art, furniture, jewelry, metal-
work and glass, it’s a collection
“notable for its high level of qual-
ity, progressive aesthetic and
focus on the leading practition-
ers in the field,” says museum
director Peter Marzio.
The Potomac,
m d ,
couple
began collecting as newlyweds in
i960, when they bought a piece
by the Ohio ceramist Jane Par-
shall at the Cleveland Museum
of Art’s May Show. Later, look-
ing for something to do outside
of homemaking and mother-
hood, Leatrice Eagle took up
ceramics herself. She got deeply
involved in the field, met and
befriended some of America’s
finest potters (Robert Turner,
Toshiko Takaezu, Don Reitz),
organized clay art seminars and
launched a successful ceramic
Right: Arturo Alonzo
Sandoval’s
Pattern
Fusion No.
dis a bold
new addition to the
Columbus Museum of
Art’s textile collection.
supply business. She and her
husband began to seriously col-
lect and advocate for craft,
which led to her 2003-06 tenure
as chair of the Board of Trustees
of the American Craft Council.
Today she’s a busy art appraiser,
while he’s a consultant to the
federal government on health-
related communications.
Under Marzio and decorative
arts curator Cindi Strauss, the
Houston museum is committed
to cultivating world-class holdings
of studio craft (and has scored two
other major coups, the avant-garde
jewelry collection of Helen Wil-
liams Drutt and the ceramics col-
lection of Garth Clark and Mark
Del Vecchio).
For the Eagles, it’s a case of
right place, right time. “We’ve had
the pleasure of living widi the col-
lection for years. It’s time for the
artists to be appreciated by die
large audience of museum-goers.”
Carpenter on Carpenter
Toward the end ofhis nearly five-
decade career, die iconic (and apdy
named) furniture maker Ait Carpen-
ter set out to articulate in a memoir
his experience of working in wood.
He was eloquent, but writing didn’t
come easily. Still, he persevered.
“He spent years fiddling
around with it,” recalls his son,
Arthur Espenet Carpenter III,
known as Tripp. “He had one of
the first Macs, with fioppies, did
one-fingered typing. In the end,
he was fed up.”
Four years after Carpenter’s
death at age 86, Tripp has pub-
lished his father’s writings in a
deeply inspirational book,
Arthur
Espenet Catpenter: Education of a
IVoodsmith
(zhibit.org/espenet
furniture. $55). “Basically it’s
his philosophy and evolution of
becoming a woodworker.
“Dad lived very close to na-
ture. He believed in bringing na-
ture into your environment,” says
Tripp, who grew up in the spec-
tacular round house once featured
in
Life
magazine that Carpenter
built in the rustic coastal town of
Bolinas, ca. At 55, Tripp now
crafts some ofhis father’s de-
signs, plus his own lathe-turned
vessels, in the same woodshop
where he played as a child.
The book includes a fore-
word by scholar and
A m e r i c a n
c r a f t
essayist Glenn Adamson,
who writes of Art Carpenter,
“I held him in greater respect than
any craftsman I’ve ever met.”
What does Tripp think was
his father’s essential message?
“Keep going, no matter what.
If you have the enthusiasm and
passion, keep going.”
Columbus gets
a Sandoval
The Columbus Museum of Art,
renowned for its vast trove of 19th-
century American coverlets, has
made a boldly contemporary addi-
tion to its textile collection:
Pattern
Fusion No. 6,
a multi-colored quilt
of auto-industry Mylar and library
microfilm made in 2005 by Arturo
Alonzo Sandoval.
Turning everyday stuff into art
may be fashionable now, but San-
doval, a professor at the University
of Kentucky, has been exploring
Left: Thanks to Tripp
Carpenter, his father’s
memoir has finally
seen print. The book
features the inventive
rockers, desks and music
stands for which the
elder Carpenter was
celebrated.
the concept for more than 30 years.
His early quilts were minimalist,
with a limited palette that empha-
sized pattern and materiality.
Then his mentor, famed textile
designer Jack Lenor Larsen, sug-
gested he take the idea further by
using mundane, unexpected mate-
rials, such as Lurex and laundry
tags. This he did in a critically ac-
claimed late ’70s scries, Cityscapes,
one of which ended up in New
Y ork’s Museum of Modern Art.
His recent works, such as the Ohio
museum’s piece, continue that
direction in a new range of color.
N ew , Notew orthy
Wintering in Florida? Check out
The Chihuly Collection in St.
Petersburg, a io,ooo-square-foot
building designed by architect
Alberto Alfonso to showcase the
art of superstar glass maestro
Dale Chihuly.
. . The New York
International Gift Fair is offer-
ing a new “Maker-to-Market”
scholarship for emerging artisans
in memory of craft marketing
expert Carol Sedestrom Ross,
who died last June.
.. The influ-
ential jeweler and teacher J. Fred
Woell, whose work is known for
sharp political and social com-
mentary, is the newest inductee
into the National Metalsmiths
Hall of Fame, maintained by the
Florida Society of Goldsmiths.
..
As a tribute to its director emeri-
tus, the Bellevue
( w a )
Art Mu-
seum announced the new annual
Michael W. Monroe Emerging
Artist Award—$10,000 and a
chance for a solo show at the
museum—to be given to an up-
and-comer in craft.
-JOYCE LOVELACE
016 american craft dec/jan n
Book cover photo Tripp Carpenter
