The concept of craft as a widespread, diverse mode of creative expression is explored during an exhibition currently on view at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The large-scale exhibition, featuring more than 120 objects by 100 artists—in materials such as wood, glass, fiber, ceramics, metal and more—spans the 1940s to present day, telling a unique story of American creativity.
Maria Martinez (San Ildefonso, 1887-1980) and Julian Martinez (San Ildefonso, 1884-1943), Storage Jar, ca. 1940, Native-clay ceramic, 16 x 22¼”. Philbrook Museum of Art. Gift of Clark Field, 1946.46.1. © Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez.
“We wanted to highlight what a vibrant, diverse and creative area of production this has been and that craft is not separated from art,” says Jen Padgett, associate curator at Crystal Bridges, who co-curated the show with art scholar and guest curator Glenn Adamson. “It’s not a dichotomy of craft versus art, but rather, craft is a lens to look through to understand a broad variety of arts…That idea of how skilled humans can be in all of these different areas.”
Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee), IN NUMBERS TOO BIG TO IGNORE, glass beads, artificial sinew, copper jingles, metal studs, repurposed wool army blanket and wood, 60 x 42”. Collection of Judith and Paul Fried.
Included in the exhibition are a selection of works by historic and contemporary Native artists, an extraordinarily important aspect of the American story. “It was so important within the show to foreground Native artists. We can’t discuss craft without discussing the diverse contributions of Native artists,” says Padgett. “It’s important to us to recognize the range of contributions in terms of media and also geographic representation, so we have Native artists from Alaska to North Carolina to Brooklyn…[furthering] the idea that there’s not just one space in which the contribution of Native artists is located.” Represented in the early part of the 20th century, she says, is David Williams Sr. and Charles Loloma, alongside contemporary makers Gina Adams, Jeffrey Gibson and Melissa Cody, to name a few. “The variety of contexts in which these artists worked, we were excited to [highlight them in] that core story we were telling.”
David Williams Sr. (Tlingit, 1904-1973), Wolf Bowl/Dish, 1964, yellow cedar, walrus ivory and wood stain, 141/3 x 7¼ x 4¾”. National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 25/6105.
Among the central aspects of Crafting America were the metaphorical conversations between different works of art, pairing certain works near one another within the physical space of the show. “Something we really thought about when approaching the checklist was ‘what are those interesting conversations?’ When you enter the first gallery, there’s a section where we explore this idea of ‘what is craft?’” says Padgett. One pairing is a carved bowl by Williams and a tea set by avant-garde artist Beatrice Wood, connected around the idea of ritual. Also paired together is a large ceramic jar from around 1940 by Maria and Julian Martinez, alongside an elegant glass basket by Joe Feddersen (Colville Confederated Tribes), “grouped around the idea of reinvention—that artists continue to look to the past for inspiration, but also reinvent their art and themselves, [finding] new forms and new vocabulary,” Padgett says.
Gina Adams (Ojibwe/Lakota), Treaty with the Yankton Sioux 1837, antique quilt with hand-cut calico letters, 91½ x 72½”. Courtesy the artist and Accola Griefen Fine Art.
Other works by Indigenous artists in Crafting America include Daisy Taugelchee, Diego Romero, Preston Singletary and more. The exhibition will be on view through the end of May.
Through May 31, 2021
Crafting America
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
600 Museum Way , Bentonville, AR 72712
(479) 418-5700, www.crystalbridges.org
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