Defining Craft I

Through Nov. 14 at Cheekwood Museum of Art

The word craft often evokes the stereotypical image of people cross-stitching, painting birdhouses or scrap-booking—not something serious fine artists do, but rather a leisure activity for hobbyists, relegated to a lower place in the art world. Cheekwood's current exhibition "Defining Craft I: Collecting for the New Millennium" dispels such clichés, highlighting some of the most skillfully rendered art objects created over the past 50 years.

Originating from the permanent collection of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York (known as the American Craft Museum until 2002), "Defining Craft" is the first in a series of exhibits about contemporary craft, containing 110 works created since the postwar era. The objects and gallery signage question the nature of craft more than they actually define it, in the process challenging our preconceptions about how we categorize and value fine art, craft and design. Since the Renaissance, a distinction has been maintained between the "major arts," such as painting, sculpture and architecture, and the "minor arts," like printmaking, decorative arts and pottery, but the 1950s saw an explosion of innovation that redefined (and continues to define) craft. "Craft as we understand it today—professional knowledge and talent of unusual merit, combined with unique skills and abilities—is a chameleon-like concept, perennially renewed and revitalized by circumstance and concept," curator David Revere McFadden writes in the catalog essay.

The exhibition contains a wide variety of objects, ranging from intimate to overwhelming in scale, all of varying materials and styles but connected by an overarching attention to detail and seeming perfection—a bent wood rocking chair, intricately woven from thousands of willow branches; a blown-glass vase laced with an inlaid spider-like design of blue and gold glass. The works clearly demonstrate knowledge of and command over the artists' respective media, factors that emphasize the importance of materials, process and skill when attempting to define craft.

The show is separated into four subcategories: confirming, enriching, expanding and challenging the definition of craft. The "confirming" section opens the exhibit with examples of functional objects in what are considered the traditional craft materials: Wendell Castle's elegant oak and rosewood "Music Rack," a spindly three-legged music stand that looks like a wilting flower; a paper-thin lathe-turned wooden bowl by James Prestini; a dainty clay tea set by Beatrice Wood inscribed with floral patterns. Also included in this section are baskets and tapestries, other media typically associated with craft objects.

"Enriching the definition of craft" includes objects that incorporate innovative usage of traditional craft materials, such as Michael Shuler's laminated lathe-turned bowl, with its infinite checkerboard pattern of wood grains. But this category is similar to the "confirming" section of the exhibit—the pieces are all exquisitely done, but we still find utilitarian textiles, jewelry and household objects.

Not until "expanding the definition of craft" do viewers see the departure from tradition that historically gave craft a place in the fine art world, as artists began using traditional craft media and knowledge to create increasingly sculptural and conceptual works. Peter Voulkos is an integral figure in raising the status of ceramics to fine art; his stoneware "Cross," a misshapen "T" splashed with garish orange, purple and green glazes, is essentially a sculptural work done in craft materials. In the 1950s, Voulkos added gesture painting and unconscious symbols to his jars, eventually becoming more interested in throwing freeform sculptural ceramics. Robert Arneson's earthenware "Self Portrait of the Artist Losing His Marbles" is an example of the type of figurative work that emerged during the period. The piece depicts the silvery bust of a mustachioed man with a wide split running down his chest filled with marbles. Inspired by Arneson's figures, San Francisco-based Viola Frey, who was also working during this period, is known for her giant clay people painted in primary colors.

"Challenging the definition of craft" focuses on the most complex test applied to the shifting definition of craft: the introduction of technology and production lines. Roy Lichtenstein designed the graphic black dotted imagery for "Six Piece Place Setting"; though he's best known as a fine artist, these ceramic plates and bowls are considered craft works because they were handmade by a production line. Photographer Cindy Sherman's "Madame de Pompadour Nee Poisson (1721-1764)" is a lemon-yellow soup tureen and platter that looks like an antique of the Rococo period, but was actually manufactured in 2000 by the porcelain company Limoges. Known for placing herself as a character within her photographs, Sherman plays Madame de Pompadour, her stiff period portrait painted on the side of the tureen and accompanying platter. As with Lichtenstein's work, Sherman is not the craftsperson but the idea maker; still, this beautifully crafted piece of conceptual art is nonetheless defined as craft because of its medium and use of skilled artisans.

The use of production lines or "outsourcing" the labor deromanticizes the idea that craft is always a one-of-a-kind object created by an individual master artisan—a trend that has its roots in the dawn of the industrial age, when machines first became capable of mass-producing objects that were once the sole domain of the craftsperson. Interestingly, the craft artists in the "challenging" section embrace the very things that artists like William Morris, who headed the Arts and Crafts movement, fought against at the end of the 19th century. Lichtenstein, Sherman, Daniella Kerner (who used a computer to design her "Mag-Brooch") and others here indeed challenge the idea that craft need be handmade to be distinct.

Overall, this exhibit encapsulates the many faces of craft, from the traditional to the innovative, all in service of emphasizing the place of craft in the art world. While it's true that the focus of "Defining Craft" is on the continuing evolution of craft, the work here remains steeped in tradition, the artists dedicated to high quality and careful rendering. As art critic and historian Donald Kuspit writes, "Craft involves, at the least, a reemphasis on art as hard work, more particularly a kind of working through and mastery of matter." In this regard, "Defining Craft" can be seen as a tribute to education and the shared knowledge of master craftspeople across generations, centuries and borders, and their willingness to experiment and defy tradition.