Page 26 - Constructing Craft

movement. Under Mingei the original concept of Arts and Crafts had mutated into a

philosophy that idolised the anonymous craftsman.

Sōetsu Yanagi (1889 – 1961) and Bernard Leach (1887 – 1979) watching Shōji
Hamada (1894 – 1978) at work circa 1950. Photo: Ken Turner.

A Blending of Influences in New Zealand

In New Zealand, in a less urbanised environment with more moderate social

divisions, Arts and Crafts ideas continued to influence some aspects of thinking on
craft well into the twentieth century. In addition, the desire for simplicity of design

and practical functionalism that was associated with Modernism in Britain was
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beginning to infiltrate art circles ‒ although its acceptance was slow. After the
Second World War the studio craft movement in New Zealand formed around six

major features that this blending produced. They included: craftspeople working
collectively, sharing information and producing work based on their own designs;

Modernist ideas about the balancing of form and function; the involvement of a wide
section of the community, including the establishment of clubs and societies; a rural

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focus; traditions that came from England – a sense of ‘Englishness’; and the
appeal of both the Arts and Crafts movement and the studio crafts movement to the

more affluent groups in society. However, within these features lay the seeds of

later disputes between craftspeople in New Zealand. In Britain, the struggle for
control of the craft movement and the future direction of craft began earlier than in

Constructing Craft