Native Craft Revival & MoMA’s Indian Art of the United States
In 1941, MoMA hosted its first exhibition of Indigenous art, Indian Art of the United States, marking a departure from prior shows focused solely on Euro-American makers. Organized by René d’Harnoncourt and Frederic H. Douglas, the exhibition claimed to celebrate Indigenous traditions and adaptation while acknowledging “the cultural debts” owed to Native peoples. Though echoing previous fantasies of Indianness, MoMA presented Native artists as capable of contributing to modern American life, notably in its “Indian Art for Modern Living” section. Set against the backdrop of the Native Craft ‘Revival,’ the Indian Reorganization Act, and federal initiatives like the WPA and Indian Arts and Crafts Board, the exhibition foregrounded Indigenous craft in spaces historically dominated by white narratives, navigating tensions between aesthetic recognition, commercial markets, and Anglo intervention.
Crafting ‘Indianness’ in Indigenous Pottery: Maria Martinez, Otherness, and Contemporary Reclamations of Identity
Investigating Indigenous craft and the construction of “Indianness” in early twentieth-century New Mexico through the work and lives of Maria and Julian Martinez, this paper examines the ways in which Anglo actors, institutions, and legislation, shaped perceptions of Native identity through nostalgia, exoticism, and the “vanishing race” mentality. In its consideration of how the Martinez’s artistry and commercial success were entangled with imposed fantasies and the institutionalization of “authentic” Native craft, it concludes by highlighting contemporary Indigenous ceramicists whose work reclaims identity, challenges historical stereotyping, and expands the understanding of Native artistry.
‘Sloppy’ is a Good Thing: The Power of the Human Hand and its Relationship to Bay Area Funk
This paper examines the emergence of “sloppy craft” within contemporary ceramics as a continuation of the anti-establishment mentality initiated by Peter Voulkos and the Bay Area’s Funk movement, situating calculated imperfection, the purposeful “devolution of skill,” and the visible presence of the maker’s hand as central to shifting craft paradigms. Grounded in craft’s historical dependency on masterful perfection and skill, the paper reframes sloppiness as more than a technical aesthetic, understanding it instead as a reaction to alienation, capitalist systems of value, and the demands of mechanized perfection. Drawing parallels between the socio-political turbulence of the 1970s and that of the present, it positions sloppy craft as inherently political, experimental, and anti-capitalist, echoing Funk’s irreverence, humor, and resistance to institutional hierarchies. Through the work and practices of Christian Moses, Diana Yesenia Alvarado, Narumi Nekpenekpen, and Alake Shilling, the paper explores how contemporary ceramics expand Funk’s legacy by using sloppiness, cuteness, and material vulnerability to critique identity, community, and late-stage capitalism while dissolving the binary between the “skilled” and the “sloppy” and reaffirming the power of the handmade.
Dear Ray Johnson: Exploring Correspondence Art
Focusing on the 1960s and 70s, this work investigates correspondence art as a tool for community building and non-hierarchical exchange. In the proposed presentation, I explore the medium of mail art, which uses text, collage, and found objects, as a democratized vehicle of art-making while examining its positioning as a form of interactive performance art. An overview of the aforementioned tenets of the movement- including its political subtext, employment of surveillance, and creative collaboration with public services (USPS) is provided. Ray Johnson (1927-1995), once dubbed ‘the most famous unknown artist’ will touch upon the development of his practice at Black Mountain College and the establishment of the New York Correspondence School will also be analyzed. This project applies queer theory to explore Johnson’s career through his untimely death in 1995, and his consistent challenging of conventional art markets, materials, and gallery systems. His refused categorization and dedication to subversion will likewise be expanded upon. The adaptation of correspondence art and its evolution by Miranda July, contemporary filmmaker and performance artist, will further contribute to the relevance, impact, and value of Johnson’s once ‘low brow’ work.
The Old Man on Stilts, Thomas Buergenthal
This essay meditates on the relationship between public memory and private remembrance through a family photograph of my grandfather, Holocaust survivor and Judge Thomas Buergenthal. Writing from within the intimacy of family memory, I reflect on how his life—which is so often framed through institutional narratives of survival, justice, and historical instruction—coexisted with moments of play, humor, and love. The essay explores the contradictions and tenderness to be found between public perceptions and memory versus the lesser known personal. The piece reclaims the remembrance of my sometimes famous grandfather as my Opa.
The (Irreverent) Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit: Robert Arneson, TB9, and Funk Ceramics
research presented at the Art Design History and Theory Graduate Symposium at Parsons School of Design at The New School (2024)
Robert Arneson first birthed Funk, the irreverent California ceramics movement, in 1961 with his nullification of a ceramic bottle, No Deposit, No Return Bottle. This then-rebellious act was prefaced by the rising celebrity of Peter Voulkos, the powder keg of the post-war studio craft movement, rising social awareness, and changing craft vs ‘fine’ art ideologies. The formulation of Funk Ceramics, through its humble beginnings at Temporary Building 9 (TB9) at The University of California, Davis and Arneson, and its solidification at Peter Selz’s 1967 Funk, has allowed the movement to maintain its pungency today. Alongside an outlining of Peter Voulkos and Bay Area counter-culture’s impact onto the perception of ceramic craft, Funk’s formulation at UC Davis, and the adoption of its spirit by contemporary artists will be surveyed and discussed in relation to recently developed theories of cuteness and sloppiness. The anti-establishment nature of Funk(y), sloppy, and cute ceramic works will be explained in addition to modern artists’ purposeful ‘deskilling’ of the medium amidst a changing skill and value-based craft paradigm.
History is Not Straight: A Re-evaluation of Female Intimacy and Queer Existence Within the Eighteenth Century
research presented at Concordia University Art History Graduate Symposium (2023)
Queer, non-heteronormative history has been commonly erased and minimized by its apathetic straight storytellers. Eighteenth century white women, such as Mary Delany, Elizabeth Montagu, and Duchess of Portland Mary Cavendish, have been no exception to such erasure despite their relative privilege. Given their identities, all three actors were presented opportunities to defy social norms expected of them in small, everyday acts of resistance. Still, in prevalent scholarship pertaining to non-heteronormative characters, a framework of misogyny and an overarching assumption of heterosexuality has often been applied to the analysis of such sexually ambiguous groups. In turn, history has often minimized the subtle resistance queer actors like Delany and her circle engaged in. This minimization has included the branding of female non-heterotypical individuals as “lesbian,” the application of modern understandings of gender and sexuality onto historical actors, and the labeling of relationships between women as “intimate friendships.” The absorption of these ideas into the mainstream canon of eighteenth century scholarship has resulted in the falsification of such histories and often denied modern queerness its origin story. Using contextual and material culture evidence, Delany, Montagu, and Cavendish represent a model for the unbiased research of non-heteronormative figures in history and the foregrounding of cis-straightness.
On Peg Avrill’s Stop Militarism in Our Schools! (Object Description)
research presented at Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association Symposium (2024) and published in part by the War Resisters League (via blog, 2024)
Designed by Peg Averill and belonging to the collection of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the poster Stop Militarism in Our Schools! has been without an object description or accompanying research prior to 2023. Through a visual analysis, long-time War Resisters League member interviews, and a feminist approach to material culture, Stop Militarism in Our Schools and its conception can be understood to reflect both the significance of protest art and the volatility of the post-war period. Designed as part of a series by Averill for the now 100 year old War Resisters League (WRL), the poster demonstrates (protest) arts ability to act as a tool that works to further and/or enact counter-cultural and non-hegemonic change. In an analysis of this particular work, Averill’s inclusion of non-official WRL ideas is suggested to have signaled the artist’s intersectional awareness and minority status within a misogynistic society. Such deviance from WRL sanctioned tenets included socialism, androgyny, feminism, and strategic iconography. Although easily addressed and identified here, other Averill posters support such ideas and uphold evidence of her political vocabulary and intelligence. Averill’s design and its anti-war and violence sentiments are reflections of the counter-cultural ideas that gained prevalence within the contemporary socio-political landscape of the 1970s. The understanding of protest art that emerges through the contemplation of Stop Militarism in Our Schools! provides insight regarding the poster’s contemporary culture and the historical relevance of protest art.
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