REVIVALS! Diverse Traditions

Revivals! Diverse Traditions: 1920-1945, The History of Twentieth-Century American Craft

275 illustrations, including 98 in full color.

From the Jacket:

Revivals! Diverse Traditions features the many contributions of five strongly individual aesthetics—African American, Appalachian, Colonial Revival, Hispanic, and Native American—to crafts in the United States between 1920 and 1945. Although Colonial Revival was by far the most popular of traditions—especially with its focus on preserving an Anglo-Saxon past—these other cultures have provided us with a broad tapestry of American craft activity.

The period 1920-1945 was an especially heterogeneous one in which the American Dream was juxtaposed with dire poverty; Native Americans struggled in reservation camps but were romantically portrayed in Hollywood Westerns; and the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II pulled at the nation’s economy. Out of this social and political diversity arose a rich parallel artistic diversity, as reflected in this superbly illustrated book.

Showcased here are African-American quilts and basketry; Hispanic shrines, painted pine chests, and lacework; Appalachian love seats with woven corn-shuck seats, pewter bowls, and earthenware jugs; Native American jewelry and beaded clothing, woven rugs, and clay and leather goods; Colonial Revival furniture, including a mahogany Queen Anne daybed and a bombé secretary, silver, and wrought iron objects.

The enormous range of crafts—African-American strip quilts and Sea Island baskets, Pueblo blackware pots and Navajo rugs, Colonial Revival maple chairs and samplers—includes some of the most valued American collectibles today. Noted experts in the field provide thorough descriptions of these objects and their makers and explore their broader significance to the history of American craft.

An extensive reference section, complete with biographies of major artisans and lists of craft exhibitions, publications, schools, and more makes this book extremely useful for collectors of the period, and a welcome addition to any home library.

Revivals! Diverse Traditions is the second volume in the series The History of Twentieth-Century American Craft. The first volume, The Ideal Home: 1900-1920, was published in 1992.