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Description
Co-published in Association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
This book is a timely and engaging introduction to the way that artists working in all media think about craft. Workmanship is key to today's visual arts, when high 'production values' are becoming increasingly commonplace. Yet craft's centrality to contemporary art has received little serious attention from critics and historians.
Dispensing with clichéd arguments that craft is art, Adamson persuasively makes a case for defining craft in a more nuanced fashion. The interesting thing about craft, he argues, is that it is perceived to be 'inferior' to art. The book consists of an overview of various aspects of this second-class identity - supplementarity, sensuality, skill, the pastoral, and the amateur. It also provides historical case studies analysing craft's role in a variety of disciplines, including architecture, design, contemporary art, and the crafts themselves. Thinking Through Craft will be essential reading for anyone interested in craft or the broader visual arts.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Supplemental
"Homage to Brancusi"
Wearable Sculptures: Modern Jewelry and the Problem of Autonomy
Reframing the Pattern and Decoration Movement
Props
Chapter 2: Sensual
Ceramic Presence: Peter Voulkos
The Essence of Clay: Yagi Kazuo
The Materialization of the Art Object, 1966-72
Breath
Chapter 3. Skilled
Learning by Doing: Teaching Modern Craft
Thinking in Situations: Josef Albers
Learning Architecture: Charles Jencks and Kenneth Frampton
Chapter 4: Pastoral
Regions Apart
Two Versions of Pastoral
North, South, East, West
Chapter 5: Amateur
"The World's Most Fascinating Hobby": Robert Arneson
Feminism and the Politics of Amateurism
Abject Craft: Mike Kelley and Tracey Emin
Conclusion
Product details
Published | 01 Oct 2018 |
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Format | Paperback |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 224 |
ISBN | 9781350092631 |
Imprint | Berg Publishers |
Illustrations | 44 bw and 16 colour illustrations, biblio, index |
Dimensions | 244 x 172 mm |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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'At a time when technical skill has been widely dismissed or outsourced in the production of art, Glenn Adamson crucially adds an entire spectrum of hand-crafted objects to the creative history of the post-war era. And at a time when theoretical frameworks have stagnated, these objects, in his hands, bring with them a fresh and sophisticated set of interpretive perspectives.'
Thomas Crow, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
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'Adamson asks provocative questions about the marginalization of craft within the discourse of modernism. Best of all, he writes with a lucidity, energy and engagement that takes the reader with him all the way.'
Pennina Barnett, Goldsmiths College, University of London
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'A highly original contribution, Thinking through Craft is both thoughtful and exacting about crafted objects and the lessons provided by the artists' time, labor and material inventiveness.'
Modern Painters
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'A pathbreaking book'
Elissa Auther, University of Colorado
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Throughout Thinking Through Craft, Adamson offers such provocative readings of both fine art and craft history that are likely to instigate radical new ways of thinking about each.
Maria Elena Buszek, for Surface Design
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This book is ... full of thoughtful and pertinent analysis and achieves an impressive theoretical take on the role of studio craft within the history of modern art.
The Journal of William Morris Studies

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Bloomsbury Collections
This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.