The author of “Craft: An American History” describes how whole communities of craft specialists were “systematically erased.”
Readers of Glenn Adamson’s new book “Craft: An American History” may never look at a piece of hand-turned furniture, an intricately embroidered tablecloth or even high fashion on the runway in the same way again. That’s because they will know how the legacy of racism, sexism and economic inequality could have played a role in their creation.
Dr. Adamson, 48, is a former director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and a former head of research at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In “Craft,” he has connected what he called in a recent interview “existing histories that weren’t touching one another before” — like the labor movement, African-American artisans, Native Americans and women — to show how they shaped crafts.
Across a timeline that stretches from the role of wampum beadwork in a 1613 treaty to the hand-sewn face masks of the coronavirus pandemic, the author has personalized the narrative through the lives of artisans past and present.
There are the tradesman roots of Benjamin Franklin; the hiring of women by the Arts and Crafts pioneer Candace Wheeler; efforts by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi to set up a craft guild at an internment center in Arizona during World War II; and more recent influencers like the artist Judy Chicago with her feminist work “The Dinner Party,” Faith Ringgold and her “Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?” storytelling quilt, and even the Girl Scouts.
From his home in the Hudson Valley area of New York State, Dr. Adamson, who has a doctorate in art history from Yale University, weighed in on the evolution of craft. His comments, by email and phone, have been edited and condensed.
How do you define “craft”?
In a very common-sense way: skilled making at human scale. That can apply to a lot of different things, of course — not just pottery and weaving, but also plumbing and paintings.
Why is the history of American craft worthy of a book? Why now?
From native traditions, going back centuries before colonization, through Paul Revere and Betsy Ross and down to the present day, craft has always been a key aspect of American identity. But while it’s been written about a lot, nobody had really woven together all the strands of the story, everything from colonial furniture to 19th-century machine making to Martha Stewart. When you do look at it all at once, you realize both how pervasive craft is in our history, and also what we lose when it disappears. Fortunately, right now we seem to be going through a sort of craft revival, powered, ironically, to great extent by the internet, which allows small shops to connect a wide audience.
Some people might not think that a quilt or a toy qualifies as art. But you write that craft is a vital presence in both fine art and industrial production.
The marginalization of craft — which by the way, has to do also with its association with women and people of color — has really blinded people to its importance in art production. Nearly every painting, every sculpture, is skillfully made by hand. But it’s perhaps most striking in recent works, like those of Jeff Koons, which are made by large teams of specialist fabricators.
As to industry, I think particularly of prototypes. Cast-iron stoves in the 19th century were based on hand-carved wood patterns. Even our smartphones were first modeled by hand in hard foam and other materials. Wherever you have innovation, you are almost sure to need a craftsperson to make the first step.
So this looking down on craft as a lesser art: Is that changing?
The forms of creativity that were primarily associated with women, the working class and with nonwhite people — those are really the forms of creativity that were designated as craft in the first place. I encourage people not to take art-craft opposition as natural. The only reason we think that in the first place is because of a power dynamic. What’s at stake in, let’s say, the recent embrace of ceramics and textiles is more than just a question of those media, but also a question of whose creativity is valued.
You have worked at major museums in Britain and the United States. Is craft perceived differently in London than it is in New York?
It is slightly different, yes — maybe more intellectual in its orientation in the U.K. But the stronger difference is with Europe, where craft-based industries still persist (think of Italian and French luxury firms, or Dutch and Scandinavian design) and are proudly supported by the government. American craft culture is much more individualistic and less grounded in traditions — though Native American artisanship is an important exception.
So what makes American craft unique, if indeed it is?
It certainly is unique, because it reflects the makeup of Americans as a people. Craft is intimately bound up with histories of race and racism, for example: We can’t understand the U.S. prior to the Civil War (or after it, for that matter) without realizing the role of skilled, enslaved African-Americans in building the economy, literally making the country. Then there is our history of immigration, which of course had such a dramatic and tragic impact on Native Americans, while also introducing wave after wave of traditions and skilled people to our shores.
In the book, you write, “When we are faced with an 18th-century teapot or high chest in a museum, it is usually impossible to know whether or not it was made partly with enslaved labor.”
Black and Native craftspeople were systematically erased from the public record, so their work often hides in plain sight. I do tell the stories of craftspeople like Elizabeth Keckley, who was born enslaved, managed to buy her freedom through her own skill as a dressmaker and actually lived in the White House during the Civil War as Mary Todd Lincoln’s confidante. But of course women like her were an exception: She wrote an autobiography, and that allows me to tell her story today.
What about the economics of crafts?
In a way, this is the crucial fact in the story: Craft is much less efficient than industry. We have traded in those human values for cheapness, which has raised standards of living. There continues to be a disparity in compensation for women. The relegation of skilled women to the bottom of the labor movement, throughout most of its history, is a good example. But of course the same is true throughout the economy. We live in a sexist patriarchy, and craft is actually a relative bright spot. Historically, women have had much better opportunities to work in, say, textiles or ceramics than in most other industries.
Craft has also been politicized, like the AIDS quilt project in the 1980s and more recently, those knitted pink pussy hats. Are crafts an effective way to mobilize public opinion?
Yes, I think so — because making something by hand is a way to demonstrate commitment.
Craft also seems like one of the unexpected heroes of the pandemic.
Yes, definitely. We mostly hear about craft coming to the rescue in a time of shortage — everyone making their own masks, “maker spaces” leaping into the breach to make personal protective equipment for hospitals. But I think that it’s been even more important as an activity for people in social isolation. Using your hands is such a great way to stay grounded and sane.
What sparked your own interest in craft?
In college, I got to have a handling session with ancient Chinese pots. When I held one in my hand, it just made this amazing connection — so much better than looking at slides in the dark. I thought, I have to find out about this stuff. And I’m still thinking about it, 30 years later.
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Work by Enslaved or Female Artisans Can ‘Hide in Plain Sight’ - The New York Times
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