HOW TO MAKE OBJECTS OF WOOD
Kendall T. Bassett, Arthur B. Thurman, Victor D’Amico
Kendall T. Bassett, Arthur B. Thurman, Victor D’Amico: HOW TO MAKE OBJECTS OF WOOD. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1951. First edition (Art for Beginners Series). Octavo. Gray cloth titled in black. Printed dust jacket. 95 pp. Fully illustrated with black and white halftones and line art.Jacket with light shelf wear and rear panel soiled, otherwise a nearly fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket. Rare.
7.75 x 10.25 hardcover book with 95 pages devoted to nine projects and a section on the home workshop “to help the beginner design and make objects of wood with hand and power tools.” The published record of the four years of the War Veterans’ Art Center sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art and its’ continuation as the Museum’s People’s Art Center.
Includes work by James Prestini, Eero Saarinen and Charles O. Eames.
The book was the third in the Art for Beginners series, “planned as a means of self-instruction for persons working on their own and as an aid for the teacher in directing large groups.” The authors of the book included Victor D'Amico, a progressive educator who began working as the director of MoMA's Education Project. In that capacity, he created several outreach programs, including MoMA's War Veterans' Art Center and its successor entity when the veterans' center disbanded in 1948, the People's Art Center.
The book's other two authors, Kendall T. Bassett and Arthur B. Thurman, were affiliated with War Veterans' Art Center; Bassett was also affiliated with the People's Art Center.
According to the press release announcing the War Veterans' Art Center's first art show, "The Art Center has a twofold object: to give veterans an opportunity for personal satisfaction in creating some form of art; and to provide preliminary professional training in the fundamentals both of fine and applied art.”
The center, which was founded in 1944, 15 years after MoMA's founding, was open free of charge (for both instruction and materials) to all returned service men and women. The press release described the center as " a place where returned service men and women not only learn but produce painting, sculpture, ceramics, industrial design, jewelry, silk screen printing, graphic arts and allied subjects.”
The first year's divisions included Design Workshop; Drawing and Painting; Graphic Arts; Jewelry and Metalwork; Lettering, Layout, and Typography; Orientation; Sculpture & Ceramics; Silk Screen Printing; Wood Engraving and Book Illustration; and Woodworking Design (taught by Kendall T. Bassett). A typical student was a veteran who, prior to the war, worked as a farmer but "doesn't want to go back to farming and has decided that our class in Woodworking Design offers him an opportunity to develop a new vocation." Another student mentioned by the administration suffered an eye injury in combat and was cautioned to avoid heavy labor. "Attracted by the class in Woodworking Design, he came to the Center where he hopes to learn to make toys and small furniture, thus using his skill without physical strain.”
Modern Art (1944-1948), a master's thesis written about the center, noted that veterans were screened but allowed to enroll at any point of the class and proceed at their own pace at projects that were organized for increased complexity—a system Victor D'Amico developed specifically for veterans, although it has obvious echoes in progressive child education generally.
In its excitement about its individual-centered approach, MoMA proposed to distribute pamphlets directly to veterans for self-instruction; the publication project then grew into the "Art for Beginners" series, a partnership with Simon & Shuster for publication of books for the general public.
How to Make Objects of Wood is a notably straightforward book. There isn't chat about the philosophy of woodworking. The text, which addresses design and construction techniques, and the numerous black & white photographs and sketches, all come right to the point.The tone is encouraging in its matter-of-fact belief that the reader can accomplish a great deal if he or she follows the instruction. The participants from the War Veterans' Art Center were, after all, experienced at following commands. The projects start out with a joint and eventually graduate to a desk and dollhouse. You can do it, the book suggests. We believe in you.
Although MoMA's progressive centers had broad support from its trustees, including members of the Rockefeller family, they withered away with the retirement of their chief champion, Victor D'Amico. The redemptive project of making "objects of wood," as the humble title called them, was forgotten. — Joel Moskowitz