ABOUT: HISTORY of Craft -- The Society for Contemporary Craft

	History of Craft

	Tradition and Change: The Contemporary Craft Movement Arts and Crafts Movement in America: 1875-1920 The simple life, back to nature, utopian communities, uncluttered design: these were the ideals which fueled the Arts and Crafts Movement in America. By about 1875, manufacturing had swept the nation. Looking for a simpler life found in pre-industrial age, reformers believed that the Industrial Revolution had caused degradation of work and destruction of the environment. The formerly creative craftsman was reduced to an anonymous laborer mindlessly repeating the same unfulfilling task. Reformers believed that only a return to handcraftsmanship would restore individuality and quality to the work process. Influenced by movements in England and France, they advocated straight-forward design, solid materials of good quality, sound, enduring construction techniques, and motifs inspired by nature. It was thought that this could best occur in an integral community of like-minded people. These tenets captured the imagination of American society. Hundreds of Arts and Crafts groups were established to exhibit and sell made-by-hand work and to promote high standards of craftsmanship. Many periodicals were founded, The Ladies Home Journal and House Beautiful among them. Bucolic colonies were formed, such as Byrdcliffe in Woodstock, New York, where furniture and other crafts were created. By 1920 small regions of the country continued to produce traditional handcrafts, but disillusionment prevailed. The Arts and Crafts Movement could not address the growing problems of poor housing and inferior mass-produced products. Also, it could not keep the pace with a vigorous profit-based economy using the slow, expensive master-apprentice method. Influence of the German Bauhaus, 1919-1933 As World War I ended, the future of American crafts was being shaped in Europe. The German Bauhaus became an international hub of thought as it sought to become an art school / workshop integrating architecture, sculpture, painting and crafts. Dedicated to the needs of a modern world, Walter Gropius founded his school with a faculty of the most visionary artists of the time: Itten, Marcks, Feininger, and later, Klee, Kandinsky, Moholy-Nagy, Albers, and Mies van de Rohe. The Bauhaus was meant to bridge the gulf between fine arts and crafts. It was Gropius' idea that the two are not fundamentally different activities but two varieties of the same thing. Craft apprentices would be taught elements of color and form from painters. The formation of a new design aesthetic was, therefore, not based on historical references. A "modernist," "clean-lined," functional style developed in the design of carpets, lights, furniture, ceramic containers and other objects. They were well-made, beautiful and affordable, which was beneficial to industry and to society at large. With the rise of pre-Nazi Germany, the Bauhaus closed in 1933. Many of its most important thinkers came to the United States and taught at universities, revitalizing art education here. They introduced new themes, processes and material to artists, and established craft programs with fine art departments. Walter Gropius went to Harvard, Joseph Albers to Black Mountain College, and Mies van de Rohe to Chicago. Their inspirations and inventions promoted the Bauaus ideal of the designer-craftsman as one who is concerned with the total form and function of an object. Out of this aesthetic, important schools of design adopted Bauhaus principles, such as the Rochester Institute of Technology and Rhode Island School of Design. A new age had dawned for the melding of art with craft by post-World War II. Post-World War II and Aesthetic Parallels: Painting/Sculpture/Crafts The end of the war also marked the time when colleges and universities were flooded with students returning to school on the GI Bill. Students entering painting and sculpture programs were now commonly exposed to a wealth of ideas and instructors from throughout the world. Not only did the Bauhaus faculty move to the United States, but great numbers of European artists and intellectuals emigrated to the US in the 1930's and '40's. The diversity of ideas, cultures and materials created an atmosphere of experimentation and subsequently led to a unique interaction between material and idea. Painters started working with clay, potters started making non-functional objects and large environments that included anything and everything. Separations between artists and craftsmen started to be blurred and irrelevant. The new-found freedom and experimentation of the 1950's and '60's continues today and has led to something of a state of ambiguity for "crafts." It is impossible to provide a concise and acceptable definition of craft in America. It is possible, however, to create a subset of contemporary art that focuses on one-of-a-kind objects made of metal, clay, glass, wood, fiber and found objects. Traditional crafts: functional items that are typically rooted in a historic framework and are meant to be reproducible. Apprenticeships and workshops as well as traditional crafts programs provide the educational background needed for the production of this work. One-of-a-kind objects: Objects that are created by craftsmen and fine artists using craft media, and are meant to stand on their own as works of art. There is clearly an artistic, individual intent present in this work. While these objects often are influenced by a historical reference or a school of thought, they are not meant to be replicative. While these objects may at times be designed for use, their main purpose is artistic and not functional.