Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design explored the rich intersection of craft with fine art and design in the period 1945–1969, a time of tremendous social change. The exhibition rethought postwar Modernism through the lens of a nationwide interest in the handmade.
Crafting Modernism examined art, craft, and design within the context of the growth and transformation of American culture during the midcentury, from the returning veterans of the postwar period to the growth of the counterculture in the 1960s. Featuring the work of more than 160 artists and designers, including iconic figures such as Sheila Hicks, Isamu Noguchi, and Peter Voulkos, and lesser-known, though highly influential artists and designers such as Art Smith and Clare Falkenstein, Crafting Modernism demonstrated through furniture, textiles, tableware, ceramics, glass, jewelry, sculpture and painting, how the period between 1945 and 1969 proved a key transitional era for American art and design.
Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design was made possible in part through the generosity of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design. Major support for the exhibition catalog was provided by an anonymous donor.
