Makers
Makers

Author: Janet Koplos

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2010-07-31

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13: 0807895830

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Here is the first comprehensive survey of modern craft in the United States. Makers follows the development of studio craft--objects in fiber, clay, glass, wood, and metal--from its roots in nineteenth-century reform movements to the rich diversity of expression at the end of the twentieth century. More than four hundred illustrations complement this chronological exploration of the American craft tradition. Keeping as their main focus the objects and the makers, Janet Koplos and Bruce Metcalf offer a detailed analysis of seminal works and discussions of education, institutional support, and the philosophical underpinnings of craft. In a vivid and accessible narrative, they highlight the value of physical skill, examine craft as a force for moral reform, and consider the role of craft as an aesthetic alternative. Exploring craft's relationship to fine arts and design, Koplos and Metcalf foster a critical understanding of the field and help explain craft's place in contemporary culture. Makers will be an indispensable volume for craftspeople, curators, collectors, critics, historians, students, and anyone who is interested in American craft.

Mask Makers and Their Craft
Mask Makers and Their Craft

Author: Deborah Bell

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0786457643

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Profiling 30 mask makers from around the world, this book explores the motivations and challenges of contemporary artists working to bring the traditional methods and conventions of mask making to an evolving global theatre. There are 181 photographs--including two sections of color plates--which illustrate how the mythic iconography of masks is used in the modern fields of dance, mime, theatre and storytelling. Topics include the ways in which mask artists and performers maintain a sense of universality despite varying local customs; the legacies of Italian mask makers Amleto and Donato Sartori and of the California-based Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre; and the ways in which traditional approaches in mask artistry continue to influence commercial mask performance ventures in film, on Broadway, and in touring companies.

Choosing Craft
Choosing Craft

Author: Vicki Halper

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2009-05-15

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 080788992X

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Choosing Craft explores the history and practice of American craft through the words of influential artists whose lives, work, and ideas have shaped the field. Editors Vicki Halper and Diane Douglas construct an anecdotal narrative that examines the post-World War II development of modern craft, which came of age alongside modernist painting and sculpture and was greatly influenced by them as well as by traditional and industrial practices. The anthology is organized according to four activities that ground a professional life in craft--inspiration, training, economics, and philosophy. Halper and Douglas mined a wide variety of sources for their material, including artists' published writings, letters, journal entries, exhibition statements, lecture notes, and oral histories. The detailed record they amassed reveals craft's dynamic relationships with painting, sculpture, design, industry, folk and ethnic traditions, hobby craft, and political and social movements. Collectively, these reflections form a social history of craft. Choosing Craft ultimately offers artists' writings and recollections as vital and vivid data that deserve widespread study as a primary resource for those interested in the American art form.

Building the New World
Building the New World

Author: Erik Olssen

Publisher: Auckland University Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 9781869401061

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Topics addressed include masters and journeymen, skilled women workers, carpenters, the skilled men of the metal trades in the Hillside workshops, the construction of a political culture based on class and the shifting meanings of that word.