The Life of Yet More Objects!

The Mid-America American Studies Association Conference was hosted by the Material Culture Focus Group at the UW-Madison this past weekend.  As a member of the focus group and attendee I can share a few insights with you. This is a continuation of Monday's blog and the highlights of Saturday's earliest Session about Re-consuming Art.

KLH Wells opened with her paper titled The Work of Tapestry in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. She asked "what is the advantage of hand reproduction in an age when photography and other means of mechanical reproduction are available"? Her point of reference is Nelson Rockefeller's contract with Madam Durnbach to hand weave tapestries of Pablo Picasso's work after deeming his original works of art too expensive to purchase. Guernica was commissioned in 1955.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso, Photo courtesy of Google Images

Durnbach insisted on changing the color palette to not one originally used by Picasso. Perhaps this move caused Rockefeller to request that Picasso sign a document endorsing Durnbach's work even though she wove his signature into her work above the mark of her studio, with Picasso's approval!

Here is a photo of the panel.

L-R, Stephen Knott, K.L.H. Wells and Jennifer Scott,  Photo by the Author

Jennifer Scott lightened the mood by presenting Change for Art:Repackaging Art Experiences through the Art-O-Mat.  A short history on vending machines revealed the Greek mathematician Hero devised a vending machine in 15AD to dispense holy water at a temple. Wow!  Art-O-Mat owns 89 machines through which they offer small pieces of original art from about 240 artists.  The works are vended in re-purposed cigarette machines and then offered to the general public at reasonable prices. It's a labor of love for the artists who barely make enough money to cover their expenses. She posed the question, was the art was secondary to the vending experience? This art is being consumed in a different

Courtesy Google Images

Finally Stephen Knott presented "The Obsolete Becomes Eternal: The Paint by Numbers Fad and Its Reception. He mentioned that an online museum of the finished kits is testament to their popularity. Knott argued that the individual hand is apparent in the visual differences between the same kits when executed by different artists. Here are two renderings of a sad face clown for you to examine the differences.  The bottom left image does appear to be darker than the top center, plus the hue of the blue backdrops are definitely different! 

Courtesy Google Images

Courtesy Google Images

Finally he questioned the re-appropriation of these finished works and suggested it is not respectful of the artists who created them. Cheers Mr Knotts! And thank you for traveling all the way from the Victoria and Albert Museum to present!

The highlight of the weekend was Sunday's trip to the Chipstone Collections in Milwaukee. A lively group ascended upon the lovely grounds and Colonial American reproduction mansion. We were greeted by Jon Prown, director of the Chipstone and Kate Smith a Hummel fellow at the foundation.

 L-R Kate Smith, Stephen Knott, Sarah Fayen Scarlett, Gionofer Fields, The Author, Andrea Truit, Jorn Guldberg
 Photo: Jon Prown.

I am astounded by both the collection and the information I take in every time I visit! The collection focus is American decorative arts; specifically furniture and pottery. Kate took us on an hour long tour highlighting the ceramics plus Neoclassical, Philadelphia rococo and Boston 18th century furniture. Luckily I was able to visit with all my favorites! 

 
The Chipstone also encourages the development of new concepts in furniture.  Recent additions to their collection include a blond oak linen chest by  BA Harrington and a marvelously modern interlocking chair by Hongtao Zhou. Zhou fashioned the chair entirely from wood pieces discarded by his students at the UW-Madison wood studio.

As you can see in the first photo, Zhou's chair can be conveniently stored flat on a peg on the wall. 

Photo courtesy of Hongtao Zhou

 

In the second photo the chair is pictured as we use it; fully open and operational!

Photo courtesy of Hongtao Zhou

And here is an image of Harrington's work at the Milwaukee Art Museum where it was featured in the exhibit "Remains: Contemporary Artists and the Material Past"
 

Photo courtesy of B.A. Harrington's website

You can also use the link on oak linen chest (above) and scroll to page 10 for an article on the exhibit. It was written by Chipstone's Ethan Lasser for the publication Furniture Matters.

The MAASA conference highlighted the effects of collaboration; when people get together for a common good, great things happen! Further, the Chipstone Foundation's acquisitions of the work of these up and coming artisans highlights the value of creative thinking!

Theresa

Yummy Furniture and Design

theresamhs@sbcglobal.net

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Speaker and Participant Credentials:

Kate Smith, Hummel Fellow, Chipstone Foundation
Stephen Knott, V&A/Royal College of Art. (PhD) 
Sarah Fayen Scarlett, Phd Student, Art History
Gianofer Fields, Art History, UW-Madison
Jorn Guldberg, University of Southern Denmark Kolding
Andrea Truit: Material Culture Blog Moderator

K.L.H. Wells, University of Southern California

Jennifer Scott, University of North Carolina-Wilmington