Author Description

The period between the two world wars has come to be known as the machine age, the era of the airplane and the ocean liner, the time when Manhattan became a beacon of modernism symbolized by that indominitable structure, the great American skyscraper. This was also the time when hundreds of European artists fled to this country, seeking liberty and a better life, and bringing with them new ideas and new technical skills, thereby significantly influencing and altering the face of American craft. Craft in the Machine Age: 1920-1945 focuses on this period in American design. International in spirit, these twenty-five years witnessed a great many influences and styles: the influx of emigre artists, such as Eliel Saarinen, Josef Albers, Gertrud and Otto Natzler, and Paul T. Frankl; the landmark 1925 Paris exposition; the Bauhaus both in this country and abroad; the famous "World of Tomorrow" exhibition at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Individually and collectively, each contributed to the shift in craft as it moved away from the handcrafted objects of the Arts and Crafts Movement to the streamlined and geometric forms of European modernism. Some of the finest works in the areas of ceramics, glass, metal, textiles, and wood made by the most important craft artists and designers of these decades are presented here in more than 250 illustrations, 90 of which appear in full color. Experts in the fields of furniture, textiles, glass, ceramics, and metalwork discuss the major practitioners of this period, the European artists who immigrated to America, some of whom founded such famous schools as the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Black Mountain College, and the New Bauhaus in Chicago, and other developments in the craft community, among them the Studio Glass movement. An extensive reference section on the artists, exhibitions, production centers, and more make this book a major contribution to our knowledge and understanding of American craft during one of its most fertile and innovative periods.