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Issue 15: Gabriel Rosati (Australia), 'No Dose' 1988, collage
oil painted on canvas with woven fibre elements, 180 x 150 cm
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Issue 16: Harvey Sadow (US), 'Australian Sketchbook Series', 1988, ceramic
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Issue 16 Dale Chihuly (US), 'Saffron Stem-
med Form with Royal Blue Persians', glass
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of confidence in traditional bastions of political and moral authority soon spread to the arts and began to challenge the relevance of the dominant tradition – modernism – which in turn led to the blurring and, ultimately, the breakdown of the barriers between art and craft.
These barriers have never been reinstated and during the following two decades confusion reigned concerning the relationship between contemporary art and contemporary craft. The ambiguity surrounding both activities had the effect of releasing craft from the shackles of assumed functionality and decoration, further fuelling its spontaneous excursion into what had formerly been the exclusive province of mainstream art. Of course, this development did not appeal to those makers who clung to their traditions and thought of themselves as craftsmen rather than artists. Fortunately, the new horizons of postmodernism seemed broad and flexible enough to accommodate practitioners of all persuasions, but not without intense and constructive
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Issue 17: Richard Marquis (US), 'Grey
Rock', 1986, fused glass, ht 72 x 58 cm
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Issue 19 Robert Foster (Australia), Jug,
anodised aluminium, ht 22 cm
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| debate, and occasional outbreaks of vitriol. In the final analysis, the distinction between art and craft, when it is not determined by the maker’s choice of categorisation of his or her work, usually comes down to the
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Issue 18, Peter Crisp (Australia), 'Hexagonal
Bowl', 1989, slumped, laminated glass, ht 11 cm
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Issue 19: Takashi Fukai (Japan), 'Dissipating
Thoughts', 1986, camphor wood, gold leaf
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Issue 21: Dorothy Hafner (US), 'Savoy', 1989,
handpainted porcelain, ht 20 x 39 x 39 cm
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Issue 20: Charlie Olsen (US), 'Teapot', 1989, cast and altered
porcelain, dry glaze, ceramic pigments, multiple firings, ht 16cm
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Issue 22: Salvatore Zofrea (Australia), 'Kids Help with Chaff Cutting', 1990, woodcut, 60 x 90 cm
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| application of technical skill. One of the catchwords of postmodernism is that the artist is permitted to employ whatever material or technique he chooses, regardless of whether he has been trained in it or not, so long as it enables him to make an original statement. The insistence on originality and innovation imposes a special value on invention and improvisation in artistic expression. Indeed, contemporary artists are often praised for their awkward technique, as if the absence of skill somehow conferred artistic integrity. On the other hand, craft has always valued technical skills, treating them as objective knowledge that can be transmitted from one craftsman to another. This outlook accounts for the existence of separate histories for each category of media, each of which proudly claims its own tradition.
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