Page 72 - Constructing Craft

craft movement began to gain support, was a country that valued egalitarian

principles and was suspicious of apparent pretentiousness. Ernst Anton (E. A.)
Plischke, an Austrian Modernist architect and furniture designer phrased his

understanding of the relative positions of art and craft in the 1950 Arts Year Book in
the following way.

At all times there have been the bread-and-butter arts,
ministering to the simpler and more pressing needs of
humanity. ... It is useful to maintain some sort of hierarchy
amongst the arts. But this must not be taken to imply that
residence in the upper stories of the building in some way
confers social superiority. And it is unsafe to assume that the
basement and lower floors can be dispensed with; or even
neglected for long. All it can be taken to mean is that there are
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larger or smaller contexts, different levels of intensity.

Plischke knew the work of some craftspeople was a form of artistic expression for

them and in an effort to support them he was aligning the crafts with the arts – but
on a different level. The locating of the crafts in relation to the arts became the

fulcrum on which the debate swung back and forth but during the 1950s and 1960s
the animosity that would later split the craft movement was not evident.

Ernst Anton Plischke (1903-1992).Writing desk c.1947-9. This desk
was the wedding present of the government of New Zealand to
Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Photo: The Royal Collection.

Constructing Craft