Thinking Through Craft

• Main Author: Adamson, Glenn (Author)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: New York BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS 2018
• Subjects: Art > Technique; Handicraft; Workmanship
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.
• Physical Description: x, 209 pages illustrations 25 cm
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index
• ISBN: 9781350092631

This book is a timely and engaging introduction to the way that artists working in all media think about craft. Workmanship is key to today's visual arts, when high 'production values' are becoming increasingly commonplace. Yet craft's centrality to contemporary art has received little serious attention from critics and historians. Dispensing with clichéd arguments that craft is art, Adamson persuasively makes a case for defining craft in a more nuanced fashion. The interesting thing about craft, he argues, is that it is perceived to be 'inferior' to art. The book consists of an overview of various aspects of this second-class identity - supplementarity, sensuality, skill, the pastoral, and the amateur. It also provides historical case studies analysing craft's role in a variety of disciplines, including architecture, design, contemporary art, and the crafts themselves. Thinking Through Craft will be essential reading for anyone interested in craft or the broader visual arts.