ART 345/445/446 - Weaving II/III/IV: Books and Media

More than four hundred illustrations complement this chronological exploration of the American craft tradition. Available in print and online from ebrary.

Choosing Craft explores the history and practice of American craft through the words of influential artists whose lives, work, and ideas have shaped the field. Editors Vicki Halper and Diane Douglas construct an anecdotal narrative that examines the post-World War II development of modern craft, which came of age alongside modernist painting and sculpture and was greatly influenced by them as well as by traditional and industrial practices. The anthology is organized according to four activities that ground a professional life in craft--inspiration, training, economics, and philosophy. Halper and Douglas mined a wide variety of sources for their material, including artists' published writings, letters, journal entries, exhibition statements, lecture notes, and oral histories. The detailed record they amassed reveals craft's dynamic relationships with painting, sculpture, design, industry, folk and ethnic traditions, hobby craft, and political and social movements.

This major new work comprises more than 1,000 images that highlight the beauty, subtlety, simplicity or complexity of textiles created around the world. The juxtaposition of historical and contemporary examples highlights the skill and imagination of textile designers throughout history, as well as the remarkable range of achievements. Thematic illustrated sections present in-depth knowledge and sweeping insights into the role textiles have played throughout all human civilization, and illuminate the ways in which structure or surface decoration or embellishment enhance this most tactile of arts. With a definitive text by Mary Schoeser, drawing together knowledge gathered over a liftime of immersion in the textile arts, no other book in the vast literature on the subject has so comprehensively celebrated the spectacular and enduring appeal of textiles.

This excellent PBS video series has interviews with several weavers.
DVD available in the library. Some episodes available streaming online at: http://video.pbs.org/program/craft-in-america/episodes/

Companion book to the PBS series of the same name, Craft in America highlights the work of America's most interesting craft artists past and present. Illustrated with more than 200 commanding images and signature objects from furniture, wood, ceramics, and glass to fiber, quilts, jewelry, metal, and basketry.

The Arizona State University Art Museum is renowned for its extensive and notable craft collection and features international acquisitions in wood, ceramic, and fiber. This book, edited by the museum's curators, uses the ASU collection to explore the idea of craft within a critical context, as both idea and action. Crafting a Continuum begins with the genesis of the craft collection and relates it to the historical development of craft in the United States and abroad, exploring both anthropological and cultural concepts of the field. Peter Held and Heather Sealy Lineberry present photographs of the museum's objects alongside essays by distinguished scholars to illuminate historical and contemporary trends. Sidebars and essays by writers in the craft field offer a broad overview of the future of contemporary craft.