Thinking through Craft

By: Glenn Adamson

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Hardcover | 1 September 2010 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
224 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
24.4 x 17.2 x 0.5

Hardcover

RRP $260.00

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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 cliched 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.

Industry Reviews

'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 '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 '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 'A pathbreaking book' Elissa Auther, University of Colorado

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