Page 125 - Constructing Craft

Folk Artists

Finally, folk art is not considered art at all by those involved with it, although some

outside the network may think the work has merit. Becker used the example of
mountain women in America who make patchwork quilts. The members of this

community knew what good quality work was but no professional community
existed to formally assess the work. The members of this group all knew how work

was made and they work cooperatively, assigning tasks that are appropriate to the

skills of each member. They often met as much for companionship as the
advancement of knowledge of their craft. Māori carvers and weavers worked

cooperatively and could be likened to folk artists ‒ but they also exhibited

characteristics of the integrated professional. In New Zealand the work of folk
craftspeople was often derided as suitable only for charity shops or craft shops in

small rural towns. Very occasionally, their work might be ‘discovered’ by later writers
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and art historians.

When tensions developed in New Zealand it was between two opposing

philosophies, each supported to a greater or lesser degree by different types of

craftspeople. New Zealand followed a similar path to Britain where Philip Wood, in
his dissertation on craft in Britain, suggested that the divisions were between, ‘on

the one hand a professional “artist-craft” wing, and on the other a wider, mainly
amateur, band, which constitutes the “traditional” and “popular” side of modern craft

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practice’. By and large, the divisions that caused the most controversy in New
Zealand can be located within Wood’s construct but the membership of the two

groups could never be as clearly defined as Wood made them. In New Zealand,

amongst the ‘artist-craft’ wing, were many who did not work full time on their craft
and were called amateurs by those who did. Alternatively, those who made

traditional crafts, and could well have been defined as naïve or even folk
craftspeople, could earn a living from their craft. In the economic sense they were

professionals. But they were despised and derided by the ‘artist-craft’ wing.

Constructing Craft