Craft for a Modern World: The Renwick Gallery Collection

Features over 180 highlights from the Renwick Gallery’s remarkable collection of contemporary craft objects Publication of this new volume in 2015 celebrates the current major renovation of the Renwick Gallery, which opened in 1972 as the home of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s craft and decorative arts program. For more than 40 years, it has showcased the museum’s outstanding collection of contemporary studio craft, and presented special exhibitions that feature the best craft objects and decorative arts from the 19th century to the present. Nora Atkinson looks at the whole notion of what defines craft, and how attitudes towards it are continually changing, from the pioneering years of the studio craft movement through to new definitions and expressions of craft today. This new volume features works by artists including Matthias Pilessnig, George Nakashima, Albert Paley, Ron Fleming, Zack Peabody, Billie Ruth Sudduth, Todd Hope, Michael James, Toots Zynsky, Michael Sherrill, Patti Warashina, Merry Renk, and Kim Schmahmann AUTHOR: Nora Atkinson is the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, a newly endowed position at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Her most recent publication is ‘Fragile Fortress: The Art of Dan Webb’ (2014). 195 colour