Arts and Crafts is Cactus

The term ‘arts and crafts’ unites a broad spectrum of qualities and associations: beauty, artisanal and artistic workmanship, haptics, sensibility, uniqueness, individuality, and decorative potential, but also charm, play, and provocation. Residing as it does between ‘art’ and ‘crafts’, this compound term thus clearly distinguishes itself from ‘design’ and its exacting conception of industrially manufactured serial products.

Whereas previously craft was the only possible method of production, over the course of the Industrial Revolution it became the antipode in the form of mass production oriented towards profit. Today arts and crafts is about creating one-offs that lean towards not only function and decoration but also free, artistic objects – in one direction or the other, depending on individual predilection. Not coincidentally where arts and crafts are concerned, the various types of material – ceramic, glass, metal, wood, textile or paper – are of particular focus. It is thus a decidedly multifaceted and exciting field, whose unique qualities have yet to be dis- covered precisely on account of its pivotal positioning.

It is for this reason that the Museum of Applied Art in Frankfurt am Main set itself the task of exploring its own arts and crafts collection from the second half of the twentieth century. In doing so, the provocative ‘cactus’ in the publication’s title serves as an ironic metaphor for a perceived void at the threshold between arts and crafts, one that, as with this particular spiny survival artist, is not easy to grasp.

In well-researched essays, the authors convey the various perspectives of this broad terrain – from the connection between East Asian and Western ceramics, via the handiwork of the Romantic period, to considerations on contemporary works in jewellery, glass, and silver. The avenues of thought opened up in these essays form a theoretical kaleidoscopic mosaic, a multifaceted, unrestricted invitation to examine the wide domain of arts and crafts.

The texts are accompanied by almost 200 images of the works and 1:1 details along with their respective, explanatory texts. Views of the exhibition, for which this book was produced, further convey a picture of the diversity of the objects on show. The inventory catalogue is concluded with an index of the collection.

The skillful use of typography and insertions of different papers as well as the eclectic page layout makes this publication an aesthetic delight for the eyes too – a book object that invites discovery and will keep you reading till the very last page.

Graphic design: Sandra Doeller, Frankfurt am Main.


Contents
30  Arts and Crafts is Cactus A Preamble
      Matthias Wagner K
36  Arts and Crafts is …
      Sabine Runde
42  Arts and Crafts as Adventure
      Eva Linhart
53  The Collection since 1945 Special Selection
      Sabine Runde
456 From the Nimbus of the Luxurious to Sustainability – Contemporary Silver Design Mirrored by the Silver Triennial
       Christianne Weber-Stöber
460 God of Fire and Pandora –Thoughts on Contemporary Jewellery
       Ellen Maurer Zilioli
466 Textile Art since 1945
       Beatrijs Sterk
472 Glass, Breath, Meaning and Form – New Ways between Immateriality and Materiality, Fortuity and Construction
      Christina Schroeter-Herrel
478 One-offs
       Rike Felka
482 Handiwork of the Romantic Age – Between Artistic Value and an End in Itself
       Christiane Holm
486 The Transcendental Pot – East Asia And Western Ceramics
        Nora von Achenbach
493 The Collection since 1945 Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt/Main
        Sabine Runde