Thinking Through Craft

by Glenn Adamson

Overview

Co-published in Association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This book is a timely and engaging introduction to the way that artists working in all media think about craft. Workmanship is key to today's visual arts, when high 'production values' are becoming increasingly commonplace. Yet craft's centrality to contemporary art has received little serious attention from critics and historians.

Dispensing with clichéd arguments that craft is art, Adamson persuasively makes a case for defining craft in a more nuanced fashion. The interesting thing about craft, he argues, is that it is perceived to be 'inferior' to art. The book consists of an overview of various aspects of this second-class identity - supplementarity, sensuality, skill, the pastoral, and the amateur. It also provides historical case studies analysing craft's role in a variety of disciplines, including architecture, design, contemporary art, and the crafts themselves. Thinking Through Craft will be essential reading for anyone interested in craft or the broader visual arts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350092631
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/07/2019
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Glenn Adamson's books include Fewer, Better Things, The Invention of Craft, and The Craft Reader. His writings have also been published in museum catalogues and in Art in America, Antiques, frieze, and other periodicals. He was previously director of the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, and has held appointments as Senior Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art, and as Head of Research at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He lives in the Hudson Valley, New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Supplemental
"Homage to Brancusi"
Wearable Sculptures: Modern Jewelry and the Problem of Autonomy
Reframing the Pattern and Decoration Movement
Props

Chapter 2: Sensual
Ceramic Presence: Peter Voulkos
The Essence of Clay: Yagi Kazuo
The Materialization of the Art Object, 1966-72
Breath

Chapter 3. Skilled
Learning by Doing: Teaching Modern Craft
Thinking in Situations: Josef Albers
Learning Architecture: Charles Jencks and Kenneth Frampton

Chapter 4: Pastoral
Regions Apart
Two Versions of Pastoral
North, South, East, West

Chapter 5: Amateur
"The World's Most Fascinating Hobby": Robert Arneson
Feminism and the Politics of Amateurism
Abject Craft: Mike Kelley and Tracey Emin

Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

At a time when technical skill has been widely dismissed or outsourced in the production of art, Glenn Adamson crucially adds an entire spectrum of hand-crafted objects to the creative history of the post-war era. And at a time when theoretical frameworks have stagnated, these objects, in his hands, bring with them a fresh and sophisticated set of interpretive perspectives.” —Thomas Crow, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

“Adamson asks provocative questions about the marginalization of craft within the discourse of modernism. Best of all, he writes with a lucidity, energy and engagement that takes the reader with him all the way.” —Pennina Barnett, Goldsmiths College, University of London

“A highly original contribution, Thinking through Craft is both thoughtful and exacting about crafted objects and the lessons provided by the artists' time, labor and material inventiveness.” —Modern Painters

“'A pathbreaking book"” —Elissa Auther, University of Colorado

“Throughout Thinking Through Craft, Adamson offers such provocative readings of both fine art and craft history that are likely to instigate radical new ways of thinking about each.” —Maria Elena Buszek, for Surface Design

“This book is ... full of thoughtful and pertinent analysis and achieves an impressive theoretical take on the role of studio craft within the history of modern art.” —The Journal of William Morris Studies

“A thoughtful, exciting and well-written book that touches on so many interesting ideas concerning craft.” —Museum Anthropology Review

“[R]ecommended to both art and design theorists and anyone else anxious to engage in theorizing about craft.” —Andrea Peach, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK

From the Publisher