This thesis has been undertaken for three major reasons. The first is the call from craft writers and academics, nationally and internationally, for an in- depth look at the studio craft movement. In 1992, at a visual arts forum at Wanganui Regional Community Polytechnic: Kareti A Iwi, Peter Gibbs, as the editor of Craft New Zealand, the only magazine being published at the time that attempted to represent all crafts, expressed his frustration with craft
writing when he stated that ‘a real difficulty in writing about craft is there is no
37
Although there is no evidence that the Beatsons consulted the report when researching their book.
38
Neil Scotts and Peter Mounsey, 'Craft New Zealand. A Study of the Craft Industry, Craftspeople and Their Training Needs', Wellington, 1983, p.4. Part 1, 1.3.
history of it taking place.’ He added, ‘In the absence of institutional
acceptance, craft has not had a framework for critical or historical writing to
develop within.’39
In her 1996 art history thesis on the Craft New Zealand magazine, Robin Gardner-Gee wrote: ‘Grace Cochrane’s text The Crafts Movement in Australia provides a wide ranging social history of the
contemporary craft movement. [I]n New Zealand the equivalent social history
remains unwritten.’40
Later, she suggested that the reason for this was the
absence of craft in New Zealand’s education system: ‘[T]here has not been
extensive support for craft research, craft theorising, craft writing or for the
teaching of craft history’.41
The lack of research and the lack of writing have
been linked. One arts writer in 1998 believed that ‘the dearth of craft-related
publications’ was why the genre was not taken seriously.42
This appears to be an international problem. Glen Adamson observed in his 2001 art history thesis that:
For the past fifty years, an increasingly large body of literature has been generated to service crafts. Much of it is promotional, some is critical, and a small percentage of it is historical. Yet the task of enfranchising the studio craft movement within the larger panorama of art history remains largely to be done.43
This thesis will argue that the lack of critical writing from within the craft community opened the door for a range of writers and critics to fill the gap. Attempts were made to establish a legitimating power that might have sanctioned more authoritative writing about craft. The Crafts Council of New
39
'Visual Arts Forum', Wanganui, January, 1992. Gibbs’ speech was printed in a report produced after the forum.
40
Robin Gardner-Gee, 'A Practice Called Craft in a Country Called New Zealand: Readings of Craft New Zealand 1982 – 1993', MA thesis, University of Auckland, 1996, p.20. In a
review of Cochrane’s book Judy Wilson said that a similar book in New Zealand was unlikely
to receive funding. See Judy Wilson, 'Book Review: The Crafts Movement in Australia - a History', Craft New Zealand, Autumn 1993, p.45.
41
Gardner-Gee, p.92. It is assumed here that Gardner-Gee is referring to tertiary education.
Grace Cochrane also called for the teaching of craft history. See Grace Cochrane, ‘Craft,
History and Curatorship’, in Sue Rowley, ed., Craft and Contemporary Theory, St Leonards, Australia, 1997, p.57.
42
'The Fine Line: New Zealand Craft and Its Place within the Arts Filament', Art News, Summer, 1998, p.24.
43
Glenn D. Adamson, 'Craft Paradigms: The Studio Craft Movement and the Avant-Garde, 1966 -1972', PhD thesis, Yale University, 2001, p.1. For a recent British example of the criticism of the lack of research and writing on craft see Emma Shaw, 'Re-Locating Ceramics: Art, Craft, Design? A Practice-Based, Critical Exploration of Ceramics Which Relocates the Discipline in the Context of Consumption, the Home and the Everyday.', PhD thesis, University of Westminster, 2007, pp.46-51.
Zealand (CCNZ), for instance, was partially successful in achieving this, but craftspeople largely refused to submit to a self-ordained ‘higher’ authority. The second purpose of this thesis is to expand the stock of more general social and cultural history through a study of craft. In examining the studio craft movement in New Zealand in this way the thesis adds to the growing body of social and cultural history written in recent times. Bronwyn Dalley and Bronwyn Labrum noted in the introduction to Fragments, their survey of
New Zealand social and cultural history, that, ‘a marked absence has been in
the scholarly – as opposed to more popular – examination of cultural
history.’44
Interestingly, the introduction makes no mention of the social or cultural history of craft – or art, although that can be explained to some extent by the absence of any essays on these subjects in the book.
The third reason for investigating the movement ‒ and also an explanation
for the prominence given pottery in the thesis ‒ is my own role as a
participant/observer. In this thesis I attempt to understand the movement I was a small part of for over thirty years as a studio potter/ceramic artist, administrator and occasional writer. Pottery is featured extensively in the text in part because of it being my chosen craft, but also because, according to the 1983 survey mentioned above, approximately half of all craftspeople (in the survey) earned their living at that date as potters.45 Studio pottery, while never providing the largest number of craftspeople in a specific craft,
nevertheless was the most prominent craft in terms of public profile.46
44
Bronwyn Dalley and Bronwyn Labrum, eds, Fragments: New Zealand Social and Cultural History, Auckland, 2000, p.3.
45
Scotts and Mounsey, p.11. Part 3, 2.3. 600 craftspeople responded to the survey questions. A 1979 memorandum on sales tax prepared for the Cabinet estimated that 45,000 craftspeople earned some income from craft but it cannot be assumed half of them were potters. See Interdepartmental Committee on Sales Tax on Craft Activities, Crafts Council of New Zealand (CCNZ) Records, AALR, 873, W5427, Box/Item 1911, Part 2, Archives New Zealand (ANZ), Wellington.
46
The number of potters in New Zealand during the studio craft movement has been the
subject of endless speculation. In July 2009 it was asserted that: ‘In 1979 it was officially estimated there were around 44,000 people actively engaged in pottery’. See Peter Stichbury, 'Foreword' in Neil Grant, Howard Williams, and New Zealand Society of Potters, eds, Then & Now: New Zealand Society of Potters Inc, Christchurch, 2009, p.6. Where this figure came from is unknown but the similarity to the cabinet memorandum suggests that estimates were based on anecdotal evidence and often became confused. Another means of estimating how many people were involved with craft more generally was by the
Therefore, I call on my experience as a potter and observer and combine it with evidence, weighted by examples from the most prominent crafts, in an attempt to understand why handcrafts experienced a resurgence in
popularity between 1949 and 1992 and why a movement that appeared united fractured.