Crafting a Legacy: Contemporary American Crafts in the Philadelphia Museum of Art - Hardcover

Ramljak, Professor Suzanne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813532035 ISBN 13: 9780813532035

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Published to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Philadelphia Museum of Art craft show, Crafting a Legacy showcases the Museum's burgeoning collection of contemporary American crafts. More than one hundred color plates illustrate many of the Museum's prime holdings in ceramics, wood, fiber, glass, metal, and furniture. Entries on sixty-four featured artists, including Dale Chihuly, Wharton Esherick, Sheila Hicks, and Peter Voulkos, place their work in the context of the dynamic field of American crafts. Suzanne Ramljak reveals the valuable role that crafts play in contemporary culture and artistic practice. In a world of bland, mass-produced consumer goods and technologically mediated virtual experience, Ramljak argues that crafts-one-of-a-kind handmade objects-can reawaken our senses. In his introduction, Darrel Sewell, the Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Curator of American Art, outlines the history of the crafts collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as the vital role Philadelphia has played as a center for innovation in contemporary crafts. The book also includes an illustrated checklist of the Museum's more than three hundred holdings in contemporary crafts.

Crafting a Legacy will be of interest to artists, collectors, and anyone who appreciates the beauty of finely crafted handmade objects.

About this title

About the Author

Suzanne Ramljak, a writer, art historian, and curator, is editor of Metalsmith magazine. She was previously curator of exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts, editor of Sculpture magazine and Glass magazine, and associate editor of American Ceramics magazine. Ramljak has contributed to numerous catalogues and publications, including One of a Kind: American Art Jewelry Today and Turning Wood into Art: The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection. She has lectured widely on twentieth-century art and served as guest curator for several exhibitions, including Seductive Matter and Elie Nadelman: Classical Folk.Darrell Sewell is the Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Curator of American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813532035
• ISBN 13: 9780813532035
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192