Reading 1

    The articles, "Art Versus Craft: The Issue of Craftmanship in Twentieth-Century Art", and "Towards a Standard of Beauty" are both historical in nature. The first article talks about pottery's shift between art and craft, how pottery fit in with industrialization, and how Zen Buddhism changed pottery.  The second article refers to the opening of the Folkcraft Museum in Japan, its contents, and the beauty of handmade vs. machine made.  Industrialization and the opening of Japanese trade were two events common to each article.

    Pottery went through various movements with industrialization of forms being the impetus beginning in the early 1900's with the invention of the automobile.  Futurists praised the machine and denounced handicraft.  It was implied that because the potters wheel was a machine and clay was a "cheap industrial medium", pottery survived.  The Bauhaus melded the schools of fine arts and industrial designers, producing classical and industrial forms.  Potters began to look beyond the functional form.  With the opening of trade with Japan, and the introduction of Zen Buddhism, irregular forms and Japanese painting on pottery began emerging.  This brought about self expression, which then led to abstract expressionism in pottery.  With abstract artists like Peter Voulkos, Miro, Picasso, and Robert Arneson, pottery transformed into an art.

    In Japan, industrialization through trade made its way.  It threatened the beauty of handiwork and folk craft.  Standardized products and the profit margin mentality degraded the hours of hand making, creating far superior products,  meant to last and be passed down.  Handmade products conveyed warmth and beauty from the heart.  Machine made products were cheap, standardized, and cold.

    Both methods of creating product had limitations.  It was suggested that hand work and machine work could work together, each overcoming their shortcomings.  The handmade items in the Japan Folkcraft Museum would serve  as inspiration for hand made crafts of the future.

  Side Note:  Article one stated that Soetsu Yanagi, Shoji Hamada, and Bernard Leach toured
                     the U.S. promoting folk pottery.  Article two was written by Soetsu Yanagi.  Yanagi
                     and Hamada built the Japan Folkcraft Museum.