Arts and/or crafts?

Firstly a quote for the week from my father-in-law. Not known for his interest in art, although owning some Evelyn Page prints (maybe the ex-wife’s?) he said “I saw that Rita Angus thing on TV. It was good, I thought she just painted hills”. Again yay! for the charter.

I have been a bit slack on the blogging front lately as being home with the kids 7×24, I’ve become immersed in domesticity and slightly fanatical about bread making – which is an art isn’t it? However it has led me to think about art vs craft.

I have some friends who are very ‘crafty’ and I am quite envious of what they produce. While it is craft eg can a needle holder be anything else? Much of it is art in my eyes. It brings to mind Rosemary McLeod’s wonderful “Thrift to Fantasy” book and the associated exhibition at the Dowse. See also this commentary by Douglas Lloyd Jenkins which is really worth the read. Craft seems to be the new “in thing”, well for my demographic anyway, but I can see the association with art and liked this from Kris Herbert “It’s pretty hard to undercut The Warehouse, so craft has a new role – relief from mass-produced sameness” So isn’t that art – “relief…from …sameness”. It also describes what was behind the “Arts and Crafts movement”, which was supposedly a reaction to industrialisation. Interestingly, I tend to associate this movement with James Chapman Taylor’s houses which are often finished in concrete and which is of course, an industrial material. Maybe the current resurgence in craft is a reaction to our techno-age? Of course the ‘craft blog’ is a similar paradox

So what is Art and what is Craft? Well on trusty Wikipedia, Visual arts seems to encompass the whole, fine arts and craft arts. Although they probably mean jewellery etc as craft rather than embroidered doilies. I think its just one of those gray/grey areas that probably doesn’t really require definition. But I’d love to know…

So rather than trying to define it I though I’d provide some examples of what I consider Art/Craft crossover. You may of course disagree…

 Buttons and brooches made from doillies by Helen

 

Bayeux Tapestry

There were the knitted vaginas too but I couldn’t find a good photo :-) There are also many things I don’t consider art. I have to say my latest ‘bug bear’ is interior decorating art where people just stretch a piece of curtain farbric and hang on the wall. I am sorry but to me this is “mass-produced sameness”.