Chapter 14 The Crafts as Fine Art
• “Craft media”: ceramics, glass, fiver , metal, and wood– Employed to make functional art
• Craft: work made primarily to be used
• Art: work made primarily to be viewed
Title: Apotheosis of Homer Vase
Artist: Josiah Wedgwood
Date: 1786
Source/Museum: Courtesy of the Wedgwood Museum,
Barlaston, Staffordshire, England.
Medium: Blue Jasper ware
Size: Height 18 in.
1. May 1 1759 Wedgewood start to make two kinds of
pottery Staffordshire, England
1. Ornamental Ware (Artistic)
1. Elegant
2. Handmade
3. Work of highly skilled craftsmen
2. Useful Ware (Commercial)
1. New in appearance
2. Manufactured
3. Cheap
3. Useful Ware supported his business
2. Utilitarian Objects
1. Form Vs. Aesthetics
1. Craft vs. paintings
Ornamental Ware
Title: Wedgwood Queen's Ware kitchen ware
Artist: n/a
Date: c.1850
Source/Museum: Courtesy of the Wedgwood Museum,
Barlaston, Staffordshire, England.
Medium: n/a
Size: c.1850
Useful Ware
1. Made by casing liquid clay
2. Designs chosen from pattern
books
3. Printed by Mechanical
means
4. Made available to middle
class in Europe and America
Title: Revelers
Artist: Euthymides
Date: c. 510-500 BCE
Amphora
1. An amphora a two handled vase
from the Greek culture
1. Both functional and
Aesthetically pleasing
2. Used to House wine, oil or
honey
3. “Euphronious never did
anything like it”
Title: Apotheosis of Homer Vase
Artist: Josiah Wedgwood
Date: 1786
Title: Copy of Portland Vase
Artist: Josiah Wedgwood
Date: c. 1790
Source/Museum: Courtesy of the Wedgwood Museum,
Barlaston, Staffordshire, England.
Medium: Black Jasper ware
Size: Height 10 in.
Title: Tea Bowl Named Amagumo
Artist: Hon'ami Koetsu
Date: Momoyama or early Edo period, early 17th century
Source/Museum: Mitsui Bunko Museum, Tokyo
Medium: n/a
Size: 3 ½ x 4 9/10 in.
Ceramics: Slab Construction
1. Process of Making Ceramics
1. Slab construction
2. Coiling
3. Throwing
2. Glazing: Painting on the Ceramic
Piece
1. Way of the Tea
1. Leaving the earthly world
behind
1. Ease
2. Harmony
3. Mutual respect
2. Wood ash fusing with the
glass on the pottery
3. 2500 degrees
Title: Jar
Artist: Maria Montoya Martinez
Date: c. 1939
Source/Museum: San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. The National Museum of
Women in the Arts. Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay.
Medium: Blackware
Size: 11 1/8 x 13 in.
Ceramic Construction: Coiling
1. Technique developed in 1919
2. Piece was constructed and
smooth down to a shiny sheen of
red clay
3. Slip: liquid clay used to paint the
design on the pot
4. Partway through the firing the
pot was smothered with dung
5. Smoke blackened the clay
6. The areas painted with the slip
stayed matt and dull while the
rest of the pot receives a high
glossy sheen because of the
smoke
Title: Pottery Wheel – Throwing
Artist: n/a
Date: n/a
Source/Museum: From Craft and Art of Clay. Courtesy of
Lawrence King Publishing, Ltd.
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a
Title: Untitled
Artist: Peter Voulkos
Date: 1988
Source/Museum: Collection of Deborah Scripps, San Francisco. Photo:
Schopplein Studio, Berkeley, California. © Peter Voulkos.
Medium: Monotype
Size: 50 x 35 in.
Title: Pyramid of the Amphora
Artist: Peter Voulkos
Date: 1985
Source/Museum: Collection of Bruce C. and Monica Reeves, Alameda, California.
Photo: Schopplein Studio, Berkeley, California. © Peter Voulkos.
Medium: Paper collage with pushpins
Size: 52 x 37 in.
Source/Museum:.
Medium: Wood fired stoneware stack
Size: 34 ½ in x 21 diameter
Title: X-Neck
Artist: Peter Voulkos
Date: 1990
Accidental Work: “Controlled Accident”
1. Fired in a anagma
1. Traditional Japanese kiln
2. Pyramid image (Aztec)
1. Tension
2. Sacrifice
3. Primitive violence
4. Emotions
5.
Ceramic Construction: Thrown
Title: Onion Feelie
Artist: Rose Cabat
Date: n.d.
1. Reminiscent of vegetables or
gourds
2. Impossible to have a function
1. Beak is to small to hold
2. Does not function
Title: Plate, Ming Dynasty, Kraakporselein
Artist: n/a
Date: Late 16th-early 17th century
Source/Museum: Probably from the Ching-te Chen kilns. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York. Rogers Fund, 1916 (16.13). Photo © 1980 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Medium: Porcelain, painted in underglaze blu
Size: Diameter 14 ¼ in.
Ceramic Type:
1. Porcelain: fired at extremely high
temperatures
1. Becomes translucent
2. Smooth and extremely glossy
3. Invented in China during the T’ang
Dynasty (618-906CE)
1. Earthenware: made of porous clay and
must be glazed to hold liquid, fired at a
very low temp
2. Stoneware: fired at mid to high range
temp. is impermeable to water and is
commonly used for dinnerware today
3. Porcelain: fired at the highest
temperature becoming smooth and
tranlucent
Title: Floral Vase and Shadow
Artist: Betty Woodman
Date: 1983
Source/Museum: Courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa
Monica, California.
Medium: Glazed ceramic
Size: n/a
Contrast Between
Function and Art
Title: Plaza Las Fuentes
Artist: Joyce Kozloff
Date: 1990
Source/Museum: Pasadena, California. Sculpture: Michael Lucero; Landscape
architect: Lawrence Halprin. Photo by Tom Vinetz, courtesy the artist.
Medium: Glazed ceramic tiles
Size: n/a
Elevating the Crafts to High Art1. Pasadena: City of Roses
2. In the US Craft art was
associated with women art
Women’s Work
Title: The Dinner Party
Artist: Judy Chicago
Date: 1979
1. Feminist Movement with the Art
field
1. Judy viewed the art field of
painting as a monopoly
that embodied the views of
men
2. Made by 300 female artist in
about 5 years
3. 39 plate settings for all the
women who made an important
contribution to history
4. 999 Tiles of important women
Title: Mosaic glass bowl
Artist: n/a
Date: 25 BCE-50 CE.
Source/Museum: Roman. Victoria and Albert Museum,
London/Art Resource, New York.
Medium: Fused and slumped
Size: Height 4 ½ in.
Glass and Function
1. Made over a ceramic mold
2. When heating the glass would
melt and fuse together to make
the mold
3. Glass made of silica and sand
mixed with soda ash
Title: Alabaster Basket Set with Oxblood Lips Wraps
Artist: Dale Chihuly
Date: 1991
Source/Museum: Courtesy of Dale Chihuly. Photo: Claire
Garoutte.
Medium: Glass
Size: 18 x 27 x 21 in.
Glass and Aesthetics
http://www.chihuly.com/Video/SRbasvid_56.html
http://www.chihuly.com/Video/inhotshop_56.html
Title: Rotunda Chandelier (Victoria and Albert Chandelier)
Artist: Dale Chihuly
Date: 1999
Source/Museum: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Photo:
Terry Rishel.
Medium: Glass
Size: 27 x 12 x 12 ft
Glass as Sculpture
Title: Drip Drop Plop
Artist: Fred Wilson
Date: 2001
Source/Museum: Photo: Metro Pictures, New York.
Medium: Glass
Size: Approximately 8 x 5 ft.
1. Oil, ink, Tar,
2. Black: African Americans
3. Black Tears
1. Influence: Derogatory Cartoons of His time
Title: The Hunt of the Unicorn, VII:The Unicorn in Captivity
Artist: n/a
Date: 16th century
Source/Museum: Franco-Flemish. © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection,
Gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 1937 (37.80.6). Photo © 1993 Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Medium: Silk and wool, silver and silver-gilt threads
Size: 12 ft. 1 in. x 8 ft. 3 in.
Fiber: Weaving1. All fiber art traces back its origins to weaving
2. Weaving
1. Interlacing vertical and horizontal threads
1. Vertical threads: warp
2. Horizontal threads: weft or woof
Title: Embroidered rumal
Artist: n/a
Date: Late 18th century
Source/Museum: Victoria and Albert Museum Picture Library.
Medium: Muslin and colored silks
Size: n/a
Fiber: Embroidery
1. Embroidery
1. Design made by needle work
2. Rumals: used for wrapping gifts in
Chamba India
1. Made of muslin
2. Used for exchange of gifts
(groom and wife)
3. Used when making an offering at
the temple
3. Floral border
4. Wedding rumal: might depict the
actual wedding
5. The same design would be on the
other side
Title: Nicholas Carroll Estate Inventory, MS 2634
Artist: n/a
Date: c. 1812
Source/Museum: Manuscripts Division, Maryland Historical Society
Library. Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland.
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a
Title: Mining the Museum, Installation details
Artist: Fred Wilson, artist/curator
Date: 1820-1960
Source/Museum: Photos: Jeff D. Goldman. © Contemporary
Museum, Baltimore.
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a
Title: Mining the Museum, Installation details
Artist: Fred Wilson, artist/curator
Date: 1820-1960
Source/Museum: Photos: Jeff D. Goldman. © Contemporary
Museum, Baltimore.
Medium: Silver Vessels and Slave Shackles for Metalwork
Size: n/a
Title: Wall Hanging
Artist: Anni Albers
Date: 1926
Source/Museum: The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Association Fund. Photo: Michael Nedzweski.
© President and Fellows of Harvard College, Harvard University. BR48.132. © 2003 the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Medium: Silk (two-ply weave)
Size: 72 x 48 in.
Patterned Design
Title: Bars and String-Pieced Columns
Artist: Jessie T. Pettway
Date: 1950s
Source/Museum: The William Arnett Collection of the Tinwood Alliance.
Medium: Cotton
Size: 95 x 76 in.
Abstract Style of Gee’s Bend
1. Exhibition held at the MFAH
2. Work from women from Gee’s Bend, Alabama
3. 60 quilts from 42 women
4. Cultural Function viewed as Artwork
Title: Tar Beach (Part I from the Woman on a Bridge series)
Artist: Faith Ringgold
Date: 1988
Source/Museum: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Medium: Acrylic on canvas bordered with printed, painted, quilted, and
pieced cloth
Size: 74 5/8 x 68 ½ in.
Biography in Fiber
1. Mother died in 1981
1. Started to write her own autobiography
2. Represents the roof of the apartment building
1. They would sleep on the roof
2. Manifestation of the Childs Dream
3. Embodiment of the African-American
experience
http://www.faithringgold.com/
Title: Aunt Billie, from the triptych Uncle Clarence's Three Wives
Artist: Marilyn Lanfear
Date: 2007
Fiber and Personal Experience
1. East Texas oil fields
2. Died March 18, 1937 in New London
1. School had a natural gas leak
2. A spark from an sander ignited the blaze
3. 600 students and 40 teachers present
1. 130 escaped
2. 295 were killed
Title: More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid
Artist: Mike Kelley
Date: 1987
Source/Museum: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Purchase, with
funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee, 89.13 a-e.
Medium: Stuffed fabric toys and afghans on canvas with dried corn
Size: 90 x 199 ¼ x 5 in.
Fibers and Assemblage
1. Afghans and crocheted dolls
Title: Backs in Landscape
Artist: Magdalena Abakanowicz
Date: 1978-1981
Source/Museum: Marlborough Gallery, New York. Photo © 1982 Dirk Bakker, Detroit Michigan.
Medium: Eighty sculptures of burlap and resin molded with plaster casts
Size: over-lifesize
Fiber and Figurative Sculpture
1. Forms bent in prayer or pain
1. Repetition and rhythm
2. Spiritual emptiness: figures are
hollow
3. Humans vs. nature
4. Clothing as Protective shield
1. Burlap
5. Fibers make up all living things
1. Plants, tissue, and the
human body
Title: Victorian Couple
Artist: Yinka Shonibare
Date: 1999
Source/Museum: Collection of Susan and Lewis Manilow, Chicago.
Medium: Wax printed cotton textile
Size: Approx. 60 x 36 x 36 in.; approx. 60 x 24 x 24 in.
Metal
Title: Tutankhamen Hunting Ostriches from his Chariot
Artist: n/a
Date: c. 1335-1327 BCE.
1. Made of gold: very soft an
pliable
2. Repousse: design realized
by hammering the image
from the reverse side
3. Embossing: design
realized by hammering the
reverse of the repousse
4. Association with the ka
and the permanence of
gold
Title: Griffin bracelet
Artist: n/a
Date: c. 500-400 BCE
Source/Museum: From the Oxus treasure, British Museum, London. The Bridgeman Art Library.
Medium: Gold and stones
Size: Diameter 5 in.
Metal: Gold Jewelry
1. Griffin guardian of the Indian Gold
2. Originally inlaid with gems
3. Great amount of detail
4. Might have been a commission for Royalty
5. Was stolen by bandits to be melted, later
rescued and donated to the museum
Title: Saliera (saltcellar), Neptune (sea), and Tellus (earth)
Artist: Benvenuto Cellini
Date: 1540-1543
Source/Museum: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Erich
Lessing/Art Resource, New York.
Medium: Gold, niello work, and ebony base
Size: Height 10 ¼ in.
1. Salt and Pepper Shaker
2. Neptune: God of the Sea (male figure)
3. Goddess of the Earth: Female Figure
4. Four seasons and daily schedule for meals
Title: Inner Circle Teapot
Artist: Susan Ewing
Date: 1991
Source/Museum: Photo courtesy the artist.
Medium: 925 silver, 24K vermeil
Size: 9 ¾ x 10 ¼ x 8 ¼ in.
1. Silver with plated gold in a process called vermeil
High end Aestheticism with Juvenile Functionality
Title: S.P.I.T. (Saliva and Paper Instigating Trauma)
Artist: Nathan Dube
Date: 2005
Title: Bent-Corner Chest (Kook), Heiltsuk tribe
Artist:n/a
Date: c. 1860
Source/Museum: The Seattle Art Museum. Gift of John H. Hauberg
and John and Grace Putnam. Photo: Paul Macapia.
Medium: Yellow and red cedar, and paint
Size: 21 ¼ x 35 ¾ x 20 ½ in.
Wood: Heritage Vessel
Title: Oak Armchair for the Casa Calvet
Artist: Antoni Gaudí
Date: 1904
Source/Museum: Museo Gaudi, Barcelona, Spain. The
Bridgeman Art Library.
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a
Wood: Furniture
Title: Ladder for Booker T. Washington
Artist: Martin Puryear
Date: 1996
Source/Museum: Installation view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,
Texas. Collection of the artist. Photo: David Woo. © David Woo.
Medium: Ash
Size: 438 x 22 ¾ (narrowing to 1 ¼ in at top)
Title: a round'
Artist: Ann Hamilton
Date: May 7-September 12, 1993
Source/Museum: Courtesy Sean Kelly Gallery, New York. Photo:
Cheryl O'Brien.
Medium: Wrestling dummies, canvas floor, circular hand knitting
Size: n/a
