On the second day of the 1984 Society of North American Goldsmith’s conference held in June in New York City, the pragmatic theme of “Art and Industry” was briefly abandoned and esthetic concerns came to the forefront.…
Michael Rowe uses functional containers as a base from which to explore formal studies of space, form and balance, which are enhanced by his expressive use of patination. His holloware gains strength from the fact that he is not distracted…
When I first heard about the craft show “Ancient Inspirations: Contemporary Interpretations,” I was impressed. The press information packet that I was sent by Metalsmith, when asked to review this exhibition, struck me as…
David Paul Bacharach is a part of the growing contingent of American metalsmiths who are challenging the Modernist tradition of vesselmaking (see “American Holloware, Changing Criteria” by Jamie Bennett, Metalsmith, Summer…
In the world of fine art, galleries wield enormous power. Galleries such as Castelli, Knoedler and Marlborough, through the artists they choose to show, dictate which artists and styles are “in” or “out,” which…
Starting in the early 1950s, Gerda Flöckinger worked to change the face of British jewelry. Others joined her fledgling crusade, only to drift off to other fields, or to other countries, where the contemporary jewelry movement was more established.…
Undeniably, American crafts of the 20th century have been influenced by Japanese esthetics. From raku to mokumé, American crafts would not be what they are today without the Japanese connection. So, when I moved to Japan two years ago, I was…
For the “Jewelry Design” show at the Johnson Museum of Art, Louise Porter, Coordinator of Crafts, selected both jewelry and sculpture by New York State artists. She was especially drawn to artists oriented toward jewelry design…
From 1919-23 the Bauhaus also had a jewelry workshop run as a private enterprise by Naum Slutzky. He was on the of the only teachers at the Bauhaus at this time that was both an artist and a technician. Born in Kiev in 1894, he had learned goldsmithing…
“It is allowing machines to be our masters and not our servants that so insures the beauty of life nowadays.” Ironically, this quote does not come from a contemporary philosopher decrying the computer age, but rather, from William…
In this article Deborah Norton traces the rise and fall of this seminal 20th-century school. Although Bauhaus policy revolved around personalities and philosophies, it nonetheless embarked on an influential experiment of incorporating…
The history of the School for American Craftsmen (SAC) can be seen as a microcosm of the history of the post World War II craft movement. Because of this a study of the former can help illuminate the latter. This is especially true of SAC’s…