Craft vs Art

Craft Vs Art

• Q.  What are crafts?
• A.  Things made to be used by people in daily life, such as clothes and furniture.  Something different from fine arts, such as pictures made to look at.
• Q.  What is the particular kind of beauty in crafts?
• A.  Beauty that is identified with use.  It is beauty born of use.  Apart from use there is no beauty of craft.  Therefore, things made that do not stand up to use or that ignore utility can barely be expected to contain that kind of beauty. – Soetsu Yanagi, 1927

Quote Highlights

“Things made to be used” “Something different from fine arts” ”Beauty that is identified with use” “beauty born of use. Apart from use there is no beauty of craft.”

Soetsu Yanagi’s quote perfectly encapsulates the separation felt between art and craft, he states craft is “something different from fine arts”. Even though this quote was made in 1927 artists and craftsmen are still arguing over this same topic, Grayson Perry once stated “I see the craft world as a kind of lagoon and the art world in general as the ocean. Some artists shelter in this lagoon, because their imagination isn't robust enough to go out into the wider sea.”

The original quote was written just after Japan’s rapid modernization and the traditional (handmade crafts and traditional beliefs alike) was rapidly disappearing. Yanagi clearly loved the aesthetics and tradition of everyday utilitarian objects created by local craftsmen;

• ·         He founded the Korean Folk Crafts Museum in 1924.

• ·         And coined the term mingei meaning “hand-crafted art of ordinary people”.

Yanagi’s point is difficult to argue, I completely agree that craft has to have a use (jewellery is to be worn, ceramic cups are drunk from, etc). It always bothered me as a child that when I would visit galleries or museums you couldn’t touch anything because “it wasn’t made to be touched”. I think that is why I like craft’s so much, because you specifically make something to be used, touched, held and it can be beautiful too.

It is important to note that I don’t believe that just because an item is handmade it is beautiful. Useful items are not inherently beautiful, despite the idea of “beauty born of use”.

I would say that not all useful objects are beautiful, but that beautiful objects are more so when useful.

Craft vs Design

Craft Vs Design

One axiom has it that the machine is the predestined enemy of art.  The hour has finally come to discredit such ready-made ideas.  The machine can propagate beautiful designs, intelligently thought-out and logically conditioned to facilitate multiplication.  It will become an important factor in raising the level of public taste.  Through the machine, a unique concept can, when sufficiently inspired, popularise endlessly the joy of pure form, while preventing the distribution of a multitude of inept creations whose sole claim to being works of art stems from the presumable difficulty or skill involved in making them by hand. Siegfried Bing, 1895

Quote Highlights

“The machine is the predestined enemy of art - discredit such ideas” “machine can propagate beautiful designs” “the machine can – popularise endlessly the joy of pure form” “whilst preventing the distribution of a multitude of inept creations”

Siegfried Bing’s quote suggests that art or artists should not be separated from designers and “the machine”. That machines when used in conjunction with an “intelligently thought-out” design could create beautiful art, capable of demonstrating the “joy of pure form”. It is important to note that this quote was written in 1895, notable events that year include;

·         Auguste & Louis Lumiere showing the first movie to an audience (audiences where obviously astonished).

·         The first US patent was granted for the auto-mobile (a new and highly desirable modern wonder).

·         Wilhelm Röntgen detects and displays X-Rays (also known as Röntgen-Rays).

All of these events show the machine in a favourable (progressive) light and the quote was made prior to the First World War, something that will forever change some people’s minds about the human race’s use of machines (I would be curious to know Siegfried’s thoughts).

I do agree that art and design (for any kind of manufacture) are not (and should not) be mutually exclusive, but as Siegfried says the design must be thought out. It could be argued that machinery has become an integral tool in modern artists work;

·         We use belt sanders and lathes that where once hand powered and took a huge amount of time and effort, now these are electrically powered machines (requiring a fraction of the time to use).

o   This does not take away from the artistry of the work.

Using machines to compliment the work of the artist is obviously beneficial allowing for faster production and “preventing the distribution of a multitude of inept creations whose sole claim to being works of art stems from the presumable difficulty or skill involved in making them by hand”.

The work itself should be beautiful and well-made not just beautiful because it is hand-made.

Craftivism Notes

I tried doing my lectures notes a bit differently this week, based on some of the tasks we've been doing recently. I've created a kind of word collage on paper for my folder, but I wanted to put something on here too so what follows is a collage of images on here for you to see (and maybe be inspired).

Craftivism

Craftivism (Craft + Activism) is a form of activism, incorporating elements of anti-capitalism, environmentalism or feminism, that focuses on using craft - most notably knitting and crocheting.