Maria Emilia, Executive Director, Florida Craftsmen
In the nearly two years since I’ve been Executive Director of Florida Craftsmen, I’ve had lengthy discussions with people who share a wide range of opinions about the craft vs. art conversation.
My own point of view is very simple. Fine craft is art and those who create it are artists. My opinion is informed and supported by the formal elements academically attributed to art design. Fine craft involves Line, Shape, Form, Space, Texture, Light and Color. It also includes the four basic principles of Art: Balance, Proportion, Scale, Unity /Variety. This applies to the humble mug as well as to, let’s say Claus Oldenberg’s giant sculpture of a typewriter. This begs the question, should Oldenburg be considered a fiber artist? If you hesitate because of his implied content, consider the work of the Gee’s Bend Quilt makers. Is their narrative less or more poignant because of their unschooled honesty? Take a minute to review the work of the 2006 Aileen Osborn Webb Awards, named for the founder of the American Craft Council. New York Sculptor Howard Ben Tre, for example outlines an exhibition schedule that includes Fine Art-Museums, and refers to his content in terms of an “emotional and intellectual dialogue.” The same is true of Chicago jeweler Kiff Emmons. I love her quote “Art belongs by right to the ongoing conversation between friends of the work, intimate lovers of the work, its enemies and all those whose world is informed and transformed by it.” Others use color to transcend their medium. For example, our own Florida artist Carol Hetzel’s symbolic use of the color red to add content to some of her baskets. Each of these artists defy the traditional form and function discussion by not just including, but defining the work by means of aesthetics and content.
I’ll like to initiate the premier conversation of this Forum with two basic questions:
- What does a person who works in a traditional craft medium have to do before being considered an artist?
and
The following are excerpts from the July 2007 issue of Craft Report by James Calder:
“ …When we say “craft,” it represents fine handmade traditional crafts such as glasswork,
metal, sculpture, clay, wood-working, fine jewelry, and other categories. These are art forms in which artists spent years and decades perfecting their craft. But is there a danger in calling it “craft” in a world where it’s now normal for anyone who picks up a hot glue gun or scrapbook to consider themselves a highly trained skilled artist.”
Else where in the same article:
“According to its website, at “SOFA exposition, prominent international galleries and dealers present masterworks bridging the worlds of design, decorative arts alongside new, innovative expressions. The works presented bridge historical periods, art movements and cultures, from ethnographica, Asian arts and mid-century modern to the cutting-edge contemporary arts and design.”
The word craft is noticeably left out of this description, even though many of the mediums featured at SOFA are those which we consider fine crafts.”
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