Talking 'Crafting Modernism' with the Curators

Get out your calendar - and get excited. Three weeks from now, on October 12, "Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design" opens at New York's Museum of Arts and Design.

The exhibition, which traces the handcrafted object in the postwar era, has been years in the making – in more ways than one. Its roots go back to the early '90s, when Janet Kardon (then director of MAD, then called the American Craft Museum) launched the Centenary Project, a series of exhibitions chronicling decorative arts and craft in the 20th century. Three shows came to fruition – as you'll read below – before MAD put the historic series on hold.

Under director Holly Hotchner, MAD renewed the project in 2008, tapping curators Jeannine Falino and Jennifer Scanlan to lead the charge. Three years (and, clearly, no shortage of devotion) later, the women have organized what promises to be a thrilling exhibition, the first Centennary Project installment at MAD's new Columbus Circle location. There's also a book-lust-worthy scholarly catalog, shipping in October and published by Abrams, and an intriguing timeline still to be unveiled (more details below!).

As busy as they've been, Falino and Scanlan generously made time to answer the questions ACC librarian Jessica Shaykett and I had about their exhibition. Enjoy – and let us know if you're planning on going to see the show!

Can you begin by telling us a little bit about the decision to rekindle the Centenary Project? As curators, what was your approach to picking up the reins on the series?

The Centenary Project was envisioned as a series of exhibitions on 20th-century decorative arts, with a focus on hand craftsmanship. The three previous exhibitions were produced under the direction of Janet Kardon, and all were important contributions to the field. The series began with a show on the arts and crafts movement ("The Ideal Home"), and was followed by two on the interwar period ("Revivals!" and "Craft in the Machine Age"). Each show required considerable research and many loans, and each was accompanied by a catalog that included an impressive resource section with information on the artists, schools, teachers, galleries and organizations of the period.

A series of conferences in the mid-90s on the postwar exhibition eventually led to the conclusion that more time was needed to gain scholarly perspective on the era. We were always committed to making the exhibition happen, especially because it was essential to our own history as a Museum – MAD was founded in 1956 as the Museum of Contemporary Crafts and was the first museum in the nation to feature contemporary hand crafted or designed work. When Jeannine Falino was hired as guest curator to develop the exhibition, together with MAD associate curator Jennifer Scanlan, exhibition plans began in earnest.

We knew that "Crafting Modernism" had to meet the standards set by the Centenary series, as a serious contribution to a field that is as yet underrepresented in scholarship. At the same time, with the Museum's move to 2 Columbus Circle, we had a much wider range of visitors, many of whom were not familiar with our past at all, and we wanted to present the period and the objects in a way that was engaging and accessible. The postwar period was a very exciting time, one that many of our visitors will remember personally, and we felt it was important to connect what was going on in the craft movement with a larger social and cultural context.

Thinking about this rich period, can you speak to the significance of an exhibition about it? What do you hope comes out of the show?

"Crafting Modernism" is all about the intersection between art, architecture, craft, and design that was prevalent at midcentury. This was a fluid moment in time when artists experimented freely with different disciplines and unfamiliar materials. We want to throw open the door on this period, when these sorts of cross-media activities were very fresh and new. We will be juxtaposing the work of artists from these different arenas and reveal their influences upon one another.

We hope that people will see craft in a broader context that touches on many areas of life. And we hope to get people excited about artists and works that they will not see in other museums.

With so many artists to choose from, how did you narrow down to those featured in the show? Were there any other challenges you had to overcome?

Well, Jennifer will say that it was hard to keep Jeannine from adding additional artists. We found such a rich body of work at museums and in private hands that we could have done several exhibitions. As you know, many of the artists that we know best are sometimes those who are more adept at self-promotion, or are long-lived. But there were many others who made important contributions despite the lack of public awareness. We have struggled to find a balance between the two.

As for challenges, there were some things that we were not able to do. For instance, due to space considerations, few artists are represented in the show by more than one object. Another issue was that we were unable to show as many works made of plastic as we would have preferred, as it was a new and exciting medium. We do have a fantastic door designed and made by Ruth Radokavich in the show, but we would have liked to have more of this to share.

Lastly we were able to find only a few truly modern examples of work made in the southeast and by Native Americans. Our goal for the show is to be national in scope, and we still wonder if this omission has been due to an oversight on our part, or whether these two groups were simply less involved in modernist developments during that period.

As you mentioned, this exhibition is very much the history of MAD - and the American Craft Council, too. Did working on this show deepen, develop, or otherwise change your perspective on your institution?

One thing that became clear as we worked on the exhibition is that the museum at its inception was similar in many ways to the museum today. The exhibition history shows that in the beginning, the museum was constantly exploring the intersections between craft, design, and fine art. The very first exhibition, "Craftsmanship in a Changing World," showed examples that ranged from handmade, one-of-a-kind functional pieces, to production work that incorporated elements of the handmade, to non-functional, sculptural and wall pieces. Early exhibitions also investigated craft on a global scale, including works from Sweden, India, and Japan.

We found that with all the changes that the museum has gone through, including the name change, in an interesting way we have returned to our roots.

As with the museum, the experience also deepened our appreciation for all of the ACC organizations and spinoffs, like the School for American Craftsmen that were central to the evolution of the studio craft movement. We came away very impressed with its national influence. Craft Horizons, for instance, was the only magazine devoted to craft media in the United States and abroad, and it was a real lifeline for people often working alone in studios around the country - remember, this was long before the Internet!

Another realization was that many regional organizations were formed in response to the ACC, and at least one was wound down because it was deemed that the national organization superseded local efforts. America House was the first New York gallery devoted to craft, and it was closed only when the commercial gallery system became well established. And then ACC helped to found the World Craft Council, which continues to this day.

What were some of the catalysts for the intersection of craft and design that occurred during this period? How did this cross-over impact contemporary American society?

One of the major catalysts for the intersection of craft and design was the interest in Scandinavian design. The popularity of Scandinavian designers, such as Alvar Aalto, and influential exhibitions, especially "Design in Scandinavia," which toured the US in the early 1950s, introduced a new version of modernism which incorporated many aspects of the handmade: natural materials, rounded forms, tactile surfaces, and handcrafted details in production. For the millions of young couples furnishing their homes in the period of growth after WWII, this version of modernism was both up-to-date and comforting.

Within the craft movement, there was a significant effort being made to convince craftspeople to become designers for industry-early on, this was considered the future for the craftsman. Conferences such as First National Conference of American Craftsmen, sponsored by the Crafts Council and held in Asilomar, CA in 1957, promoted this idea, and included speakers such as Charles Eames and Jay Doblin. When we read transcripts of that conference, however, it was clear that not all of the craftspeople were interested in designing for industry, or even designing for production on a limited scale. In fact, soon after that conference, the focus of the crafts movement began to shift away from design towards fine art, though of course elements of craft would continue to be incorporated into contemporary design periodically throughout the decades.

How did the fine art world react to this boom in craft media during the postwar era?

That is an interesting question. Of course, some individuals in the fine art world were already working in craft media before the war. Alexander Calder can be considered a primary catalyst of the early movement as he was continually working cross media, making large sculptures as well as such toys as his famous circus, not to mention jewelry, watercolors, and ordinary tools. He also designed textiles. And because of his stature, he was able to cross these disciplines without criticism from those who upheld the traditional hierarchies between the arts, in which artificial universe the "applied" or decorative arts were deemed of less value. Like Calder, Isamu Noguchi found pleasure working in different disciplines, in his case as a sculptor and as a designer of modern furnishings.

We believe that the rising visibility of craft media, especially by the 1960s, proved irresistible to many artists working in the fine arts. This may have been partly due to the efforts of Paul Smith, the museum's early curator and director. Smith mounted a wide and lively range of traveling shows that featured bread, shoes, plastic, puppets and more. For that reason, we have included yarn-covered furniture by Lucas Samaras and a stuffed Giant BLT sandwich by Claes Oldenburg.

Another part of what's so exciting about this show is its accompanying resources – the gorgeous catalog, the timeline you're producing. Tell us more about what went into them, and how you see them complementing the exhibition.

Well, Abrams has been a terrific partner as our publisher. We are really thrilled with the quality of the publication, and designer Sarah Gifford's willingness to go the extra mile in fine-tuning some of the details. Our hardcover version, for instance, is very special. It has a completely different inner cover, which contrasts a Lee Krasner table made of broken glass and found items with our fabulous Fred Woell Good Guys pendant. Sarah also designed the end papers as a mélange of covers from exhibitions of the period, many of which were mounted by MAD.

In addition to being beautiful, the catalog is a comprehensive resource to the period. Our goal was for it to supplement the exhibition, and also stand apart as a long-term contribution to scholarship in an emerging field. It includes 12 essays, both on broad themes and focusing specific media. There is an extensive resource section, with bios on all of the artists in the exhibition, as well as entries on schools and workshops, museums and professional organizations, conferences, manufacturers and design firms, galleries and retailers, and a bibliography. And, of course, the catalog has over 300 images, of pieces in the exhibition as well as other key pieces of the period, and several never-before-published archival images (including one iconic image from Playboy!).

As for the timeline, we felt it was important to put the exhibition in the context of all of the other events that were happening in what was a very turbulent, but exciting time. It bears some similarities to the timeline that you produced for your recent issue of American Craft, but while you put emphasis on various craft media, we direct the viewer to events in politics, pop culture, art, design and architecture. The timeline will be available as an interactive version in the exhibition galleries and online. In the galleries, we have incorporated video and audio clips. The online timeline also connects directly with our online collections and exhibitions database.

We hope it will serve as a portal for users to research the period and the artists, including links to the ACC's newly digitized collections. It has been fun to work with ACC librarian Jessica Shaykett, as we discover new materials in our respective archives, and we look forward to sharing these with the public.

Looking back at a process that has literally taken years, take a moment to revel in it. Tell us about one or two of your favorite moments in pulling this all together.

The artists have made the whole experience worthwhile. We have visited with many of them, seen their studios, and learned their stories. They all have a quiet confidence in who they are and how far they have come – and what they have accomplished at a time when funds were tight or tighter than they are now. It feels very good to show their work at a time when the field often seems dominated by the latest novelty. We hope their work will inspire young artists to persevere and follow their dreams.

Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design opens October 12 and runs through January 15, 2012. Stay tuned here after the exhibition opens for a review by Beverly Sanders, former senior editor of American Craft.