Our interests
The Crafts Movement in 20th Century America
In the waning years of the 19th century -
economic, technological, cultural, educational, international and aesthetic
forces were creating new movements in the visual arts. One movement encouraged
the rejection of artists' conformity to traditional academic and artistic
rules. In this "rewriting" of the rules "Modern Art"
was born.
Another movement was a rejection of
industrialization and commercialism, a movement that put a high value on
handiwork and artisan based economies for social change. As rural
America witnessed its decline, as workers sought city jobs and lifestyles, as
urbanization was on the rise, a return to aesthetics of NATURE and an
appreciation of folk art and crafts found adherents in the intelligentsia and
among the common man. This "Crafts Movement" crossed
economic lines and among many became a shared value. The Crafts
Movement's roots were in England
and the movement spread to Europe and the United
States / Canada.
As an international movement the various countries shared common values, yet
uniquely nationalistic traits appeared in the "art popular" of the
early 1900s.
The "industrial revolution" and rural
electrification put home workshops within the reach of everyone. A
reaction to rapid urbanization and industrialization was the Crafts
Movement which took advantage of new products and labor saving tools. The early
20th century was the "golden age" of American woodworking crafts.
The developing infrastructure of the United States allowed for rural
mail delivery and a crafter access to all varieties of hobby materials, tools,
supplies, books and magazines through catalogue sales and subscription.
Consider Electra Havemeyer Webb a philanthropist, who
as a member of America's
"aristocracy", as teenager, in 1908 purchased a cigar store Indian
for $25.00. Her folk art collection grew into The Shelburn Museum.
Consider the missionary work of, Frances Goodrich in rural North Carolina, who in the 1890s created a
craft guild. This guild movement survives to this day,
founded on the belief in the redemptive possibilities of handiwork and
crafts. Consider Thomas Durant (and latter the Vanderbilt family) who
began construction in 1895 of a rustic summer retreat, a great camp, in the Adirondacks called the Sagamore . America is
scattered with these great camps, the summer retreats of the privileged, and
these testify to the appeal of the nature aesthetic, a rustic revival in
architecture, interior design and furnishings. Consider Arsene Coll
an immigrant textile worker who crafted tramp art items during a union
strike. Coll "just happens" to be remembered for
his craft yet there survives in the antique market place, a huge body of work,
by anonymous, "blue collar" crafters.
This Arts and Crafts movement of the early
20th century became an American value. AND - by "Arts and crafts
movement" we mean something much larger and inclusive than the aesthetics
of the Mission Style and the associated practitioners such as Stickley / Roycroft and such associated manufactured (mass produced) decorator items, It is unfortunate that "arts and
crafts" in today's popular culture has come to define a rather narrow
slice of a much larger and richer pie. With this caution in mind and for
the sake of clarity we shall refer to this shared value of early 20th century
Americans as simply the CRAFTS MOVEMENT. And, this crafts movement,
despite the radio and then television and now the internet- remains alive to
this day.
A new technology helps to popularize several crafts
The invention of photography blossomed in the late 1800s and
early 1900s into "big business" and also became a form of recreation,
i.e. collecting photographs, going to get your picture taken and later -
taking you own pictures. The demand for photographs created a demand for
picture frames which turn of the century crafters helped to meet.
Picture frames were often made for a crafter’s personal
keepsake photographs or to give as gifts (love tokens). This need for picture
frames helped to popularize a great variety of crafts including tramp
art, pyrography chip carving, , crown of thorns, prison art, folk marquetry,
match stick, fretwork, memory and rustic. A great variety of these folk art frames survive
in today's antique market.
Concurrent with the the crafts movement was the Manuel Arts
Movement in public education. This movement brought a variety of domestic and
occupation skills into the public school classroom and curriculum. The
theory being that the ABCs and math were insufficient in an industrialized
economy. In varying degrees the following were introduced to America's
classrooms. The graphic arts – drawing and picture making. The mechanic
arts – woodworking and metalworking. The plastic arts – modeling and
pottery. The textile arts – weaving, braiding, sewing and garment
making. The booking arts – paper and cardboard work, lettering , bookbinding
and leather tooling. This was more than a "how to" education,
as an emphasis was put on problem solving and creativity. The coexistence
of the Crafts Movement and the Manuel Arts Movement, reinforced and
strengthened one another. All variety of helpful books were published by
the Manuel Arts Press covering the vast scope of this curriculum and example
being "The Art Of Whittling" by Walter I. Faurot
Folk Art? I know it when I see it - the
ordinary turned extraordinary
American crafts & folk art of the early 20th
century - definitions & terminology
When do crafts become folk
art? The answer has as much to do with scholarship as personal
preference. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and some eyes are
perhaps better "trained" then others. Not every handmade craft
exemplifies the characteristics of folk art.
Defining folk art has been
the subject of a lot of academic discussions. What most definitions
have in common is making an aesthetic judgment upon the objects we make and
live with, i.e. our material culture. Unfortunately folk art can be
construed as a value like "beauty" or "ugly." All
definitions tend to be somewhat vague and change over time. Decades ago
"folk art" was used to describe decorated items crafted by
pre-industrial cultures, the hand decorated household items of the Pennsylvania
Germans, for example. Today, folk art is used
indiscriminately to describe a much larger body of works.
Folk Art has been used describe objects that:
- are decorated and handmade. The decorated objects
often being "every day" household items such as clock cases, shelves,
ditty boxes, furniture and other items of utility.
- the decorations can be described as being "bold",
"open", as having "strong design" and "uncomplicated
meaning".
- The materials used to fashion folk art items are often what
is on hand or can be harvested, recycled or scrounged from the waste stream.
- Often the makers of folk art objects: are anonymous, untrained amateurs.working within family and cultural traditions (ethnic,
religious, national, occupational, fraternal, etc.) The
craft becomes generational, passed from older to younger, a continuum of skill,
practice and often design. This sentiment can be described as
"traditional arts." The crafter works in a culture of like
minded people.
The problems with definitions are that -
there are exceptions to every rule. Consider folk art "weather
vanes" produced in quantities, produced by skilled craftsman /
metalworkers, multiple copies made of a single design, possibly fabricated by
more than one artisan's hand and are identified to a particular manufacturing
business. Is this folk art? Yes, such a work might be folk art. The
same scenario could apply to cast iron wind mill weights or shooting gallery
targets, so understanding folk art can be vague and problematic!
The size of an item is not a concern, as folk art can be
used to describe outdoor visionary creations that cover acres of land.
Sculpture parks, and decorated architecture often stand as roadside
attractions and dot America's
landscape.
Luckily there exists a language that surrounds folk art that
helps one zero in on the attributes of a decorated item or the
characteristics of the item's maker. These terms too, can be
"vague" and "problematic," but the following terms are
useful and make for a more meaningful discussion of folk art.
Obsessive Art is often seen in works
that "glory" in repetitive tasks of construction and works that
disregard design conventions of the times. The crafter is seen as
separated from society, fashioning junk, waste, and items on-hand, through
diligence and free expression into items that the crafter tends to keep for
personal enjoyment or to give as gifts. The repetitive nature of the
construction techniques can lend themselves to a kind of personal meditation
for the crafter and results in items requiring hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
hours of handiwork.
Naive Art is often seen in works that are outside of
traditional design styles and the similar arts of the period. The crafter
is not just untrained but more importantly unschooled, uninformed or
uninhibited, fashioning items that are very individualistic and items
likely considered bizarre by the crafter's contemporaries.
Outsider Art is a designation that at one time said more
about the creator then the creation. If 'folk art can be considered
"main stream," then "outsider" is out of the stream
altogether! The creations are naive and possibly obsessive. Outsider
art challenges the concept of "utility" or "decorated
household items" that once seemed to be a characteristic of "folk
art" as outsiders are likely to decorate any and every thing.
In this instance the crafter's art becomes consuming, to the crafter creativity
becomes an outlet for some "mental demons." Perhaps the crafter
is inspired by a consuming religious missionary zeal, a profound sense of
isolation or dejection or other physic malady. The outsider often crafts
a living space or home environment that is totally decorated and devoted to
this passion. The concept of Visionary or Intuitive is aptly applied to
outsider art as these terms speak to personal obsession. Today, outsider
art has become a more "art market" driven term, used by
galleries and artists to sell contemporary naive art / folk art.
Folk Crafts is a very useful concept to invoke when
"folk art" becomes restrictive, for example in; I know it is hand
decorated but is it folk art? From our vantage point of the 21st
century, we might allow that these antique wood burn items created from
"kits" sold by the Flemish Art Company qualify as folk craft but not
as folk art. Such wood burning kits once enjoyed a huge popularity and
their craft projects have become a collectable in today's antique market.
Folk craft is so inclusive that anything "folk art" is automatically
included .
Our interests and the cousins of tramp art
: This website is a work in progress. As time allows
this study in antique folk art shall grow. tramp art, crown of thorns, whimseys, folk marquetry,
rustic, paper crafts, fretwork, memory / shard, stick craft, wood burning,
bottle caps and chip carving are of interest. All of these crafts are often
labeled (mistakenly) as "tramp art" and this website shall
provide an argument that each craft might stand alone. Call these various
crafts that are not tramp art, the cousins of tramp art.
During the era when these crafts flourished they had the common bond of being
associated as working class hobbies. In the early 1900s other decorator
type items in the Crafts Movement such as textiles and pottery enjoyed a
greater popularity. Comedian, Jean Shepard has called items like
"pink flamingo yard art" and beer can flashlights, "American
slob Art." To steal that phrase, the COMMON forms of these
antique crafts were the "American slob art" of their time. EXCEPTIONAL
forms and crafters have always been - exceptional. During the 1960s these
crafts graduated in the antique market to "ugly Attic." Today
these antique crafts are appreciated as folk art items, can command strong
prices and are sought after by collectors, decorators and museums.
