Creating Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design

The Maker movement and a resurgence of craft in recent years make this book on the origins of modern American craft highly relevant. The last half of the book serves as an excellent reference, with separate essays on textile arts, ceramics, silversmithing and enameling, jewelry, wood, and glass. The essays are separated by galleries of images showcasing such work as Ed Rossbach’s nonutilitarian textile paintings and sculptures, the bold and organic jewelry of Bob Winston, and Dale Chihuly’s technically novel reinterpretation of a wine bottle as a bulbous glass, wood, and brass snake. The book also contains an invaluable 80-page resource list to the artists, schools, associations, museums, conferences, and manufacturers that influenced the growth of craft during the period. The six lengthy opening essays exploring the place of craft in a world celebrating postwar industry, mass production, and a growing global marketplace are repetitive. More interesting is an all-too-brief series of oral histories bringing to life the voices of the artists and evoking their struggles to support their work. Says weaver Jack Lenor Larsen: “There came a day when I knew I should design for the marketplace, but I had no such ability. Not knowing how to follow, I led.” 250 color illus. (Oct.)