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

This is an annotated evaluation of the following:

Replacing the Myth of Modernism. by Bruce Metcalf
Bruce Metcalf, “Replacing the Myth of Modernism” in Neo Craft: Modernity and the Crafts ed. Sandra Alfoldy, 4-32 (Nova Scotia: The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 2007)

Reviewed by Randi O’Brien

Bruce Metcalf writes a masterful article on contemporary social conditions within the ceramic field. Replacing the Myth of Modernism written by jeweler, author, and lecturer Bruce Metcalf, examines crafts envy and assimilation into the arts while calling for and addressing the fundamental differences essential to craft. Metcalf presents a contention for craftsmen to set aside modernism (or the principles that have elevated modernism) to re-address social and psychological functions, production, craftsmanship, the senses (tactility), and decoration to reshape meaning that is “relevant to social conditions today”, which the author believes is fundamental and beneficial for the survival and sustainment of modern craft. Metcalf is keen to point out modernist theory and the consequential effects on crafting practices. My overall impression is that the author has developed his contention in a practical and persuasive way while exercising a clear, relevant, and convincing methodology.

Craftsmen and critics would find this article useful for reigniting meaning and significance in what they choose to decorate, produce, sense, and critique within the crafting field. The author has been able to identify key obstructions in modernist theory of craft which gives support to Metcalf’s claim that; craft would be better off to “relinquish art envy and stop aspiring to the alleged nobility of fine art”. In summary, I believe that the author’s position that through embracing the conceptual foundations of craft; not art theory, has been progressively developed and justified.