RosettaStone: CRAFT A primary, secondary, and annotated source reader for functional craft. By: Randi O'Brien

This is an annotated evaluation of the following:

Critical Approaches: Fragments from an Evolution. By Patricia Malarcher
Patricia Malarcher, “Critical Approaches: Fragments from and Evolution” in Objects and Meaning: New Perspectives on Art and Craft, ed. M. Anna Fariello and Paula Owen, 36-53 (Maryland: Scarecrow Press Inc., 2004)

Reviewed by Randi O’Brien

This is a reflective article on the enduring discussion of the conflicting critical approaches taken when evaluating the field of craft. Critical Approaches: Fragments from an Evolution, written by author and fabric artist Patricia Malarcher, investigates a “body of critical writing on craft that has been evolving slowly”. The author presents a view for craft connoisseur to see the lineage and confliction within critical evaluations of craft as a general field; including glass, fibers, and ceramics, which the author believes is finally making its impressions on the critical landscape for the crafting field. Malarcher is dedicated to point out multiple perspectives of critics evaluating the same or specific shows of artist and craftsmen. My overall evaluation is that the author has represented her research in a creditable way while employing a clear and logical lineage of the critics who perceive art and craft from both perspectives and biases.

In this article, the author has relied on chronologic research of critics who have evaluated craft from the 1940’s to the mid-1990. Malarcher sites both insiders and outsider critics of the crafting field including Harold Rosenberg, Newman Rice, and Roberta Smith. The author contends that while on the one hand critical evaluation has elevated in significance through the nineties, on the other most critics leave out a holistic engagement of the crafts. For example when one review of a show is published it may rely heavily on form, function, and process, yet entirely overlook expression and vice versa. Emerging critics would find this article useful for the mistake that have been mad and the needs that must be addressed when evaluating craft objects. Reader will find that after reading this article they are better able to use the individual and selective successes Malarcher pinpoints of contemporary critics and will be able to harmonize these specific case studies to develop a holistic approach to evaluating both craft and art. Though lacking any actual suggestions for improvement or suggestions of reading by critics who Malarcher feels connect all the critical foundations of craft evaluation the article is a good stepping stone to address the continued need for critical evaluation the engages material, process, function, expression, and aesthetic effect.