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One
Good Turn
An exhibit at the Art Gallery will surprise those who remember woodturning
as bowls and bats crafted -- badly -- in high school shop class.
October
2002
by
Bruce Fellman
More than 2,000 years
ago, an anonymous Egyptian craftsman figured out how to set a block
of wood spinning and then turn it into something useful. While technology
has transformed the lathe that does the actual turning from a human-powered
bow to a motor-driven precision tool, the point of the endeavor
has remained, for most of history, decidedly utilitarian.
In recent years, however,
this venerable craft has made a transition from hobby to high art.
"Wood Turning in North America Since 1930," an exhibition that runs
from September 10 through December 1 at the Yale
Art Gallery, documents the transformation. "It's no longer just
about balusters and salad bowls," says Albert LeCoff, executive
director of the Philadelphia-based Wood Turning Center.
LeCoff, along with
Pat Kane, curator of American Decorative Arts; Edward S. Cooke Jr.,
the Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts;
and Glenn Adamson '01PhD, among others, have assembled 134 objects
that chronicle the way the craft has changed. "Wood turning," says
Kane, "has entered another realm."
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Mosaic
Bowl
by Philip C. Moulthrop (1994) |
Set
of Baskets
by Christian Burchard (1998) |
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Sudden
Impact
by Bud Latven (1994) |
Bowl
by Michael Shuler (1989) |
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