E X H I B I T I O N
Right:
Wendell Castle
M usic Rack,
19 64
oak, rosewood
4.6 x
2.\
x 1.7 ft.
Below:
Lee Krasner
Mosaic Table,
1947
mixed media, includ-
ing glass, keys, coins
ceramic, pebbles,
cement, iron wagon
wheel, steel
1.8 x 3.9 ft. dia.
Present at
The Creation
Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design
Museum of Arts and Design
New York, New York
October 12,2011 -
January 15, 2012
madmuseum.org
R E V I E W B Y
Beverly Sanders
capturing A complex His-
torical narrative through objects
is no easy task. But with “Craft-
ing Modernism,” the Museum
of Arts and Design meets this
challenge with subtlety and brio,
exploring the fertile period of
1945-69, in which the American
studio craft movement had
its beginnings and took on its
future shape.
The show represents the
resumption of M AD’s Cente-
nary Project, an ambitious series
of exhibitions launched in the
1990s to chronicle a century of
making. In this chapter, cura-
tors Jeannine Falino and Jenni-
fer Scanlan present the story
in two parts, each with distinct
character, through nearly 200
objects by 160 artists and design-
ers. The museum itself is also
part of the story, we learn from
the indispensable catalog; MAD
was founded in 1956 by Aileen
Osborn Webb as the Museum
of Contemporary Crafts, a pro-
gram of the American Craft
Council, which she initiated to
promote craft during the war
years. (MAD became indepen-
dent in 1996.)
The first half of the show
addresses the immediate post-
World War II period, 1945
through the 1950s, when the lines
dividing craft, design, and fine
arts intersected; it is installed
in period settings that mingle
Memorial Art Gallery
Rochester, New York
February 26 -
May 20,2012
inag.rochestcr.edu
works in all media, manufac-
tured and unique. One dream-
team grouping features an
Alexander Calder mobile sus-
pended above the iconic Charles
and Ray Eames lounge chair
and ottoman, a mixed-media
mosaic table by the abstract
expressionist Lee Krasner,
a tabletop sculpture and lamp
by Isamu Noguchi, a Lenore
Tawney impressionistic weav-
ing, and ravishing ceramics -
a Henry Takemoto vessel with
calligraphic decoration and a
crater-glazed bowl by Gertrud
and Otto Natzler.
It hardly matters what disci-
pline these objects belong to,
and that is the point. They are
now midcentury classics - you
can still buy the Eames chair or
the Noguchi lamp - and they
coexist harmoniously, offering
originality, color, texture, pared-
down forms, and above all,
the touch of the hand - crafted
modernism, indeed.
Even more cohesive is a
grouping labeled “biomorphism”
- the use of undulating lines and
curved forms typical of surreal-
ist painting. An animated Rich-
ard Pousette-Dart painting and
an Anni Albers pictorial weav-
ing, for example, complement
two jaunty asymmetrical forms
by Leza McVey, a double vase
by Karen Karnes, and an amoeba-
like bowl by Russel Wright.
Right»
Russel W right
for Bauer Pottery
Centerpiece Bowl,
1946
porcelain
4.5 x 14 x 14 in.
Leza M cVey
Ceramic Form
No. S3 and No. 34,
1951; stoneware
16 x
6 x
5 in. (left)
10.1 x 7 x 5 in. (right)
Wharton Esherick
Chest-table,
1969
walnut, metal, paint
2.5 x
2.6
x 1.8 ft.
034 american craft feb/mari2
