These are givens. If you create, you face these things.
No, the real problem with being a craftsman is the whole hazy issue of crafts vs fine arts.
If you make ceramics, you're excused from this discussion. I hate you. Okay, not true. It just drives me crazy that you got lifted out of crafts and onto a level with fine arts.
This kind of thing is less important when all you want to do is make things, sell them, and make a living doing it, although it does have an impact. The problem shows up when you decide that your one of a kind piece deserves a little more thought, a little more attention. Maybe it's because you're addressing an issue. Your tapestry doesn't exist just to decorate the wall: it is a statement against the dehumanization brought on by mass produced items, or it presents things in a new way. Or you realize that your jewelry isn't just jewelry. It's a re-imagining of the way the human body relates to the world. There are a million solid craft pieces that you look at, and your jaw drops, and you say "that's amazing!"
Because they are pieces of art.
So, being pieces of art, you decide to submit your work to a gallery. We'll say you do it by way of a call for entry. And you're filling out the forms, checking down the list. Yup, you've got good photos. The dimensions are what they called for. Your piece(s) fit the theme of the exhibition. Excellent.
Except, what's this? "No crafts." Or, even more often, "no jewelry." (Bitter irony, ceramics often has it's own listing as acceptable in these shows. Pet peeve, sorry.)
Some days, when I'm feeling sympathetic, I understand. There is a lot of crafts work that looks like a third grader made it at summer camp. But that's not it. There is a lot of crafts work that is wonderfully constructed and attractive, but merely serves a purpose. The teapot that is an excellent teapot. Unassuming, weighted well, wonderfully comfortable to hold and pour. And we should all be so lucky to own such a handmade teapot. But it doesn't make for a good gallery show, most of the time. There is a lot of jewelry that is very simple, store bought components assembled in a very pleasing fashion. But it has no message, no contradiction, nothing to change your view of it as a piece of jewelry. This too, while attractive, does not bring over much to a gallery setting.
Art galleries, after all, show art.
Now, let me explain further. It is not the art galleries that deal strictly in painting that I take issue with. Perhaps that is the way the owner's tastes run, perhaps there is no floor space, any number of reasons you only show two dimensional, wall hung art. No, I'm peeved by the many galleries that declare "all media" and open their arms to sculpture as well.
I would like someone, somewhere, to explain to me why we have decided that because sculpture serves no function, as fine art serves no function, it is better than craft. (Fine art and sculpture are excellent things. We need them, to keep us looking at the world, to startle us. But I speak as a craftsman here.)
Because that is, effectively, what our culture has said. Because craft serves a function, because, in theory the silver teapot shaped like a gargoyle can serve tea, because that necklace is wearable, we have decided that function debases it to the mundane. Puts all craft objects, no matter what the merit of their message is, on the same level with the teapot or shirt you purchased at Walmart. And when I put it like that, it sounds as silly as it is. I leave you with two questions:
Do craft objects not have the same merit as fine art?
Is this tiara by Lalique of any less artistic merit than
Monet's Water Lilies?
(Photograph of Lalique tiara by montuno)
Maybe the arts and crafts movement did not help in this regard: somehow our visual awareness has been raised in general as our society is inundated with endless supplies of finely executed pieces showing superior craftmanship. Where craftmanship has excelled as a technique , it has equally excelled as an artform. Unfortunately, we get wrapped up in a technicality of terms: craft vs. art. As a whole our visual sophistication has increased and it will take time for crafts to be recognized and elevated to the realm of it's historical counterpart.
ReplyDeleteUndue recognition never stopped artists from creating . We do it because it's as necessary as the air we breathe. We will just have to leave the rest to fate, as our predecessors did before us.
Leaving things to fate has never really been the realm of art though, if you think about it. Art tends to be about reaction, striving. Every movement is commentary on the social/cultural feelings at the time, and they are frequently well received at first, no matter how we laud them now. Take Impressionism, which the artists had a nearly impossible time of getting into the Salon.
ReplyDeleteCertainly we create because we must. But is it not necessary, if we want our craft (and here I speak of individual disciplines) to survive that we encourage the perception of it as art? That we strive to raise it to the recognition it deserves, that we won't be the last hold out of knowledge?
(Thanks so much for commenting!)
That would be really fantastic collections
ReplyDeleteBeaded Jewelery