■►1949
Silversmith Margret Craver, with metal-
refining company Handy & Harman,
plans the first of three invitational work-
shops, revitalizing studio silversmithing
after two wars’ metal rationing had stunted
its growth. Artists include Earl Pardon,
Ruth Pennington, and Frederick Miller.
The general’s sister,
ACC founder Aileen
Osborn Webb, is an
early champion of the
program.
1943
The American Craftsmen’s Cooperative Council
incorporates and establishes the American Craftsmen’s
Educational Council. Led by a determined Mrs.
Webb, the Council sponsors many public programs,
seminars, and competitions.
■►1942
Rosie the Riveter
rules, as women
pick up power tools
and head to wartime
assembly lines, get-
ting a taste of non-
traditional making.
■►1941
Aileen Osborn Webb’s Handcraft Cooperative
League of America prints the first issue
of a yet-to-be-named publication. The mimeo-
graphed sheet is circulated to stockholders
of the League’s America House retail outlet.
The HCLA invites suggestions for a
name, and in 1942
Craft Horizons
is born.
1941
Under Brigadier General
Frederick H. Osborn, the
U.S. Army begins recreational
activities that will evolve into the
Army Arts and Crafts program,
boosting morale and inspiring
creativity in soldiers to this day.
■
►
1 9 4 6
The American edition of
Bernard Leach’s
A Potter's
Book
is published. The first
ceramics text aimed at
working studio potters,
it goes through five editions
in the next six years.
■►1947
Eva Zeisel brings an organic
approach to modernism in
her line of Town and Country
dinnerware designed for Red
Wing Pottery (MN). The line
remains popular long after origi
nal production ends in 1956.
■►1949
Lloyd Reynolds begins teaching calligraphy
at Reed College in Portland, OR, sparking a
lettering arts revival. Among those influenced:
Steve Jobs, who attended a class taught by
Reynolds’ handpicked successor in the early ’70s
and became convinced of the need for beautiful,
readable fonts for the first Macintosh computers.
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j
i
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y
■►
■►
*943
A young architect named George
Nakashima is released from the U.S.
internment camp where he learned
traditional Japanese carpentry. He
goes on to make remarkable furniture
that’s famous for using slab wood in
a natural state.
■
►
1 9 4 6
Charles and Ray Eames’
bent plywood furniture
is shown in Charles’ first
solo show at the Museum
of Modern Art, blurring
the lines between designer
and craftsman.
*►*949
■►
Anni Albers has a solo
exhibition at the Museum
of Modern Art, the first
show devoted to textiles
at the museum.
◄■1942
In the first U.S. hot-glass
creation outside a factory,
Harvey Littleton makes his
first sculpture, a nude female
torso, while working a sum-
mer job at the Corning
Glass Works in NY state.
*943
Piet Mondrian com-
pletes
Broadway Boogie
Woogie,
the culmination
of his pared-down aes-
thetic, foreshadowing
a minimalist approach
to art.
0 3 2
a m e r i c a n c r a f t
a u g / s e p 11
■►*947
Eero Saarinen designs the
Gateway/lrch
(completed
in 1965 in St. Louis), a last-
ing icon of modernism.
■
►
1 9 4 8
Artist Jean Dubuffet starts
to collect
Fart brut
(“raw art”)
by self-taught artists. In 1972,
critic Roger Cardinal coins the
term outsider art, and works
by artists like Howard Finster
(right) gain prominence.
