OBJECTS: USA
Lee Nordness
Lee Nordness: OBJECTS: USA [Works by Artist - Craftsmen In Ceramic, Enamel, Glass, Metal, Plastic, Mosaic, Wood, and Fiber]. New York: Viking Press/Studio, 1970. First edition. Quarto. Tan cloth titled in gold. Photo illustrated dust jacket. 360 pp. Over 300 color and black and white reproductions. Artists’ work with short illustrated biographies. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. Textblock head lightly dusted. Price-clipped jacket with a faint crease to front flap, otherwise a nearly fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket. A nice copy of this influential book.
8.5 x 9.5 hardcover book with 360 pages and several hundred color and b/w images that represent a comprehensive overview of the craftman arts, circa 1970. An extraordinarily useful reference volume for the works of the 250 plus artists represented. But you already knew that, didn't you?
From the dust jacket: Since the end of World War II, many artists have turned to crafts as a reaction to the conformity, the built-in obsolescence, and the anonymity of mass-produced objects. They are creating objects to satisfy none but their own standards of technique and aesthetics...
Objects:USA is a comprehensive survey of this movement, and its illustrates a cross section of over 300 examples from the various crafts media: plastics; enamels; mosaics; wood; blown and stained glass; metal; jewelry; and hooked, woven, knitted, and sculptured fibers.
With his selection of examples created by more than 250 of the most talented artist-craftsmen living in the United States, Lee Nordness gives a valuable general history of American crafts. Because each object is so closely associated with the artist himself, the author also includes photographs of each craftsman represented in the book, with a brief biography and description of the significance of his work.
In addition, many of the artists have contributed statements on their aims and methods of working. This book grew out of the much heralded exhibition "Objects: USA," which opened at the Smithsonian Institution in the fall of 1969 before going on an extensive tour throughout the country. The exhibition was organized by the S.C. Johnson Company of Racine, Wisconsin, who commissioned Mr. Nordness to acquire the works shown on these pages...
- The History of Craft
- Enamels
- Ceramic
- Glass
- Metal
- Jewelry
- Plastic
- Mosaic
- Wood
- Fiber
Includes work by the following artisans: George Nakashima, Peter Voulkos, Gertrud and Otto Natzler, Dominick Labino, Paolo Soleri, Harvey Littleton, Bob Stocksdale, Kay Sekimachi, Ed Wiener, Beatrice Wood, Bob Winston, Marguerite Wildenhain, Frans Wildenhain, James Wayne, Arthur Ames, Robert Arneson, Anni Albers, Dale Chihuly, Margret Craver, Wendell Castle, Wharton Esherick, Kent Ipsen, Freda Koblick, Michael Higgins, Maurice Heaton, Maija Grotell, Robert Fritz, Joel Philip Myers, Jack Lenor Larsen, Harrison McIntosh, Herbert Sanders, John Prip, Art Espenet Carpenter, Edwin and Mary Scheier, Daniel Rhodes, Paul Soldner, William Wyman, Henry Takemoto, Toshiko Takaezu, Hui Ka Kwong, Rudolf Staffel, Clayton Bailey, Patti Bauer, Fred Bauer, Robert Engle, Verne Funk, David Gilhooly, Erik Gronborg, Howard Kottler, James Melchert, Kenneth Price, Ann Stockton, Ron Nagle, John Stephenson, James Leedy, Ken Shores, Fritz Dreisbach, Marvin Lipofsky, Tom McGlaughlin, Mark Peiser, Richard Marquis, James Tanner, Merry Renk, Olaf Skoogfors, Robert Turner, Kenneth Bates, Arthur Ames, Paul Hultberg, June Schwarcz, F. Carlton Ball, Rose Cabat, Henry Varnum Poor, Claude Conover, Val Cushing, Ruth Duckworth, Kenneth Ferguson, John Parker Glick, Byron Temple, Karen Karnes, Robert Sperry, John Mason, Gerry Williams, Rudy Autio, Michael Frimkess, Win Ng, James Wayne, Hans Christensen, William Underhill, John Marshall, Ronald Hayes Pearson, Zaven Zee Sipantzi, Frederick Miller, Arthur Smith, Bob Winston, John Paul Miller, Stanley Lechtzin, Ken Cory, Fred Woell, Arline Fisch, Svetozar Rodakovich and others.