Table of Contents
Oct/Nov 2008
Oct/Nov 2008
Books
A Marquetry Odyssey: Historical Objects and Personal Work
By Silas Kopf Hudson Hills Press Manchester, Vermont $65 In the more than 30 years that the Massachusetts woodworker Silas Kopf has been making furniture including Music Cabinet, 1990, he has established himself as a recognized master of marquetry, the art of taking diverse species of wood and piecing them together to form patterns and images. Distinguishing the technique from inlay, ...
By Silas Kopf Hudson Hills Press Manchester, Vermont $65 In the more than 30 years that the Massachusetts woodworker Silas Kopf has been making furniture including Music Cabinet, 1990, he has established himself as a recognized master of marquetry, the art of taking diverse species of wood and piecing them together to form patterns and images. Distinguishing the technique from inlay, ...
Henry Moore Textiles
The British sculptor Henry Moore is known worldwide for monumental works in organic shapes, often inspired by stones, bones and seashells, and also for his haunting drawings (1940-42) of Londoners enduring the Blitz. What is less known, is that starting in those same World War II years, at the instigation of a small textile company headed by Czech émigrés Zika ...
The British sculptor Henry Moore is known worldwide for monumental works in organic shapes, often inspired by stones, bones and seashells, and also for his haunting drawings (1940-42) of Londoners enduring the Blitz. What is less known, is that starting in those same World War II years, at the instigation of a small textile company headed by Czech émigrés Zika ...
Kevin Coates: A Hidden Alchemy, Goldsmithing: Jewels and Table-pieces
By Elizabeth Goring, Helen Clifford, Nel Romano, Francoise Carli, Kevin Coates Arnoldsche Art Publishers Stuttgart, Germany $75 The British goldsmith Kevin Coates is acclaimed for his jewelry, table sculpture and presentation works, such as Ovid Metamorphoses, 1995, distinguished by their technical virtuosity, wide-ranging cultural references and richness of materials. In their mysteriousness and preciosity, they remind some viewers of objects displayed ...
By Elizabeth Goring, Helen Clifford, Nel Romano, Francoise Carli, Kevin Coates Arnoldsche Art Publishers Stuttgart, Germany $75 The British goldsmith Kevin Coates is acclaimed for his jewelry, table sculpture and presentation works, such as Ovid Metamorphoses, 1995, distinguished by their technical virtuosity, wide-ranging cultural references and richness of materials. In their mysteriousness and preciosity, they remind some viewers of objects displayed ...
The Fat Booty of Madness: The Jewellery Department at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich
Texts (English and German) by Florian Hufnagel, Maribel Königer, Ellen Maurer Zilioli and Otto Künzli Arnoldsche Art Publishers Stuttgart, Germany $75 Otto Künzli is known internationally for his art or studio jewelry, or, in German, Autorenschmuck (auteur jewelry)—work loaded with meaning and a strong conceptual edge. The Swiss-born artist is perhaps equally famed as a teacher of the influential class ...
Texts (English and German) by Florian Hufnagel, Maribel Königer, Ellen Maurer Zilioli and Otto Künzli Arnoldsche Art Publishers Stuttgart, Germany $75 Otto Künzli is known internationally for his art or studio jewelry, or, in German, Autorenschmuck (auteur jewelry)—work loaded with meaning and a strong conceptual edge. The Swiss-born artist is perhaps equally famed as a teacher of the influential class ...
Critic’s Corner
Making is Thinking
Barry Schwabsky considers two weighty books that in distinctive ways reexamine the place of manual skill in our culture.
Barry Schwabsky considers two weighty books that in distinctive ways reexamine the place of manual skill in our culture.
Editor’s Letter
Making it While Making it
Pondering what it means to “make it” in the arts.
Pondering what it means to “make it” in the arts.
Feature
Christa Assad: A Life Made from Mud
Ensconced in a new studio in Berkeley, California, Christa Assad finds herself at a comfortable place in her life as a studio potter.
Ensconced in a new studio in Berkeley, California, Christa Assad finds herself at a comfortable place in her life as a studio potter.
Polly Dickens: Craft and Culture at the Conran Shop
As creative director of the Conran Shop, Polly Dickens brings her love of handcrafted objects from around the world to bear on the products and collections that go into creating the Conran look. In conversation with Iain Aitch, Dickens explains how she finds suppliers and makers and how she brings together designers, makers and manufacturers for fruitful results.
As creative director of the Conran Shop, Polly Dickens brings her love of handcrafted objects from around the world to bear on the products and collections that go into creating the Conran look. In conversation with Iain Aitch, Dickens explains how she finds suppliers and makers and how she brings together designers, makers and manufacturers for fruitful results.
Wendell Castle: Shifting Shapes and Breaking Rules
In a day spent with the legendary furniture maker and sculptor Wendell Castle at his work studio in Scottsville, New York, Laurie Manfra learns about his success as the result of a lifelong ambition to push the limits of materials, question the constraints of craftsmanship and defy the inclinations of the art and craft markets.
In a day spent with the legendary furniture maker and sculptor Wendell Castle at his work studio in Scottsville, New York, Laurie Manfra learns about his success as the result of a lifelong ambition to push the limits of materials, question the constraints of craftsmanship and defy the inclinations of the art and craft markets.
Hot Spots
Arline Fisch: Creatures From the Deep
Fisch dives in with textile techniques applied to metal, creating a shimmering street-side aquarium of jellyfish sculptures for the Racine Art Museum’s Windows on Fifth Gallery.
Fisch dives in with textile techniques applied to metal, creating a shimmering street-side aquarium of jellyfish sculptures for the Racine Art Museum’s Windows on Fifth Gallery.
Hunting & Gathering
Seeing Red: The Intrigue of Russian Textiles
Susan Meller, a veteran textile collector, has assembled and published an eye-dazzling array of Russian-manufactured fabrics made for the bazaars of Central Asia. Andrea DiNoto queries her on the allure of these colorful cloths and garments and on her tech-savvy approach to locating choice examples.
Susan Meller, a veteran textile collector, has assembled and published an eye-dazzling array of Russian-manufactured fabrics made for the bazaars of Central Asia. Andrea DiNoto queries her on the allure of these colorful cloths and garments and on her tech-savvy approach to locating choice examples.
Material Matters
Material Matters: Quiltmaking in the 21st Century
Materially speaking, quilt makers today have left tradition behind. Investigating the quilts in the Columbus Museum of Art show “Material Matters,” Christine Kaminsky discovers bold works that broach new frontiers of meaning, materials and techniques.
Materially speaking, quilt makers today have left tradition behind. Investigating the quilts in the Columbus Museum of Art show “Material Matters,” Christine Kaminsky discovers bold works that broach new frontiers of meaning, materials and techniques.
On Our Radar
Joseph Walsh
When Joseph Walsh was eight years old he fell in love with wood. Four years later, after leaving school for what was meant to be a temporary break, he turned to furniture making full-time and never looked back. Now, at age 29, Walsh runs his own studio in the countryside near Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, with nine people working for ...
When Joseph Walsh was eight years old he fell in love with wood. Four years later, after leaving school for what was meant to be a temporary break, he turned to furniture making full-time and never looked back. Now, at age 29, Walsh runs his own studio in the countryside near Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, with nine people working for ...
People & Places
Here, There & Everywhere
News… Lloyd Herman, founding director of the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC, from 1971 through 1986, has made a challenge gift of $800,000 to the Smithsonian American Art Museum to jump-start the endowment of a curator of craft position at the Renwick (to donate, contact Ross Randall, 202-633-8393)… Anders Ruhwald, a ...
News… Lloyd Herman, founding director of the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC, from 1971 through 1986, has made a challenge gift of $800,000 to the Smithsonian American Art Museum to jump-start the endowment of a curator of craft position at the Renwick (to donate, contact Ross Randall, 202-633-8393)… Anders Ruhwald, a ...
Preview
Robert Sperry: The Artist as Observer
American Museum of Ceramic Art Robert Sperry: Bright Abyss Pomona, California August 30 –November 8, 2008 The career of a major figure in American studio ceramics in the Pacific Northwest is revisited in this retrospective of the work of Robert Sperry (1927-1998). The American Museum of Ceramic Art is presenting over 90 works by this extraordinarily prolific Seattle artist, including chargers, ...
American Museum of Ceramic Art Robert Sperry: Bright Abyss Pomona, California August 30 –November 8, 2008 The career of a major figure in American studio ceramics in the Pacific Northwest is revisited in this retrospective of the work of Robert Sperry (1927-1998). The American Museum of Ceramic Art is presenting over 90 works by this extraordinarily prolific Seattle artist, including chargers, ...
Small Revolutions
Francine Seders Gallery Anne Hirondelle Seattle, Washington September 5–October 12, 2008 For more than 20 years of a career spanning three decades, the noted Northwest ceramist Anne Hirondelle (who was a student of Robert Sperry’s at the University of Washington) worked within the vessel tradition, earning a reputation for shapely stoneware functional forms characterized by clean architectural lines and subtle glazes. ...
Francine Seders Gallery Anne Hirondelle Seattle, Washington September 5–October 12, 2008 For more than 20 years of a career spanning three decades, the noted Northwest ceramist Anne Hirondelle (who was a student of Robert Sperry’s at the University of Washington) worked within the vessel tradition, earning a reputation for shapely stoneware functional forms characterized by clean architectural lines and subtle glazes. ...
Product Placement
Jabou Design
“I wanted something unpredictable. Something that, when it’s sitting on a counter, makes people go, ‘What is this?’” says Janene Bourgerie of California-based Jabou Design, talking about her new line of turned-wood pepper mills, aptly called Culinary Art. These elegant sculptural forms are grooved, striped and checkered in combinations of maple, manzanita and wenge, their unvarnished surfaces sanded ...
“I wanted something unpredictable. Something that, when it’s sitting on a counter, makes people go, ‘What is this?’” says Janene Bourgerie of California-based Jabou Design, talking about her new line of turned-wood pepper mills, aptly called Culinary Art. These elegant sculptural forms are grooved, striped and checkered in combinations of maple, manzanita and wenge, their unvarnished surfaces sanded ...
Review
Klaus Moje
Sue Taylor offers an in-depth appreciation of kiln-glass master Klaus Moje’s retrospective at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon.
Sue Taylor offers an in-depth appreciation of kiln-glass master Klaus Moje’s retrospective at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon.
Possibilities: Rising Stars of Contemporary Craft in North Carolina
Kate Dobbs Ariail assesses six “rising stars” at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design.
Kate Dobbs Ariail assesses six “rising stars” at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design.
Summering in Santa Fe
Gussie Fauntleroy surveys the state of mostly European studio jewelry in three shows at Patina Gallery, Santa Fe.
Gussie Fauntleroy surveys the state of mostly European studio jewelry in three shows at Patina Gallery, Santa Fe.
Shop Talk
Where I’m Coming From
Ann Ruhr Pifer puts down the bank book (just in time) to explore art and craft in St. Paul and beyond.
Ann Ruhr Pifer puts down the bank book (just in time) to explore art and craft in St. Paul and beyond.
Wide World of Craft
Providence, Rhode Island: Culture Fest
Shannon Sharpe finds that craft thrives among an abundance of arts venues, events and festivities…
Shannon Sharpe finds that craft thrives among an abundance of arts venues, events and festivities…
Oct/Nov 2008
Vol. 68, No. 5
Vol. 68, No. 5
Departments
