Page 70 - Constructing Craft

Chapter Three: Craft or Art?

The history of craft is a battle. The exclusivity of refined taste is pitted
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against the camaraderie of honest work.

Craftspeople, particularly potters, had little difficulty earning a living from producing
items that New Zealanders considered both aesthetically pleasing and practical.

But, as the level of skill amongst craftspeople increased, there was a growing desire

within the craft community to produce work that challenged the traditionally held
understanding of craft. This could extend into areas where function was not a

priority. Inevitably, when this work was displayed in art galleries, questions arose
about where it sat – was it art or was it craft? This question also became a subject

of debate amongst those with an interest in establishing the place of the studio craft
movement in the art/craft spectrum such as art critics.

Two broad themes dominated the debate. First was the aesthetic and technical side
of the art and craft divide. Within these discussions three lines of reasoning in which

craft was portrayed as distinctively different, and often inferior, to art were

employed. The arguments include: the notion that art is an imaginative experience
different from the physical experience that is craft; that craft works within a known

realm whereas art plunges into unknown, creative territory; and finally, that craft is
useful whereas art is not. The second major theme of the debate was the social and

cultural divisions between art and craft. As the surge of interest in craft spread
across the Western world after the Second World War it became apparent that the

educational background and socioeconomic position of craftspeople increasingly

placed them in a similar location to artists rather than their predecessor’s position as
craft workers. Such people would not tolerate the inferior social position that the

label tradesman (predominantly) would confer on them and therefore they actively
promoted craft as a form of art – they were craft artists not mere craftsmen or

craftswomen.

The separation of craft from art began in earnest in the eighteenth century. The art

historian E. H. Gombrich described the period from the French Revolution through
the nineteenth century as ‘the break in tradition’.

Constructing Craft