Tradition, Modernisation, Création: Tensions in French Craft, 1960-1990

Abstract

Is it possible that in the middle of the twentieth-century, craft in France died? There is evidence that suggests it was at least on the brink of extinction, especially in the wake of its implication in fascist propaganda during World War II. A file of newspaper clippings collected during the 1960s and 1970s by curator Georges Henri Rivière at the Musée National des Arts and Traditions Populaires report on the impending disappearance of craft practices in the French countryside. A close reading of these articles reveals how discourse on regional craft was representative of a larger misperception of rural lifestyles as being overcome by modernization, when in fact the two existed simultaneously and even reciprocally. A shift away from these perceptions and towards the creative potential of craft is represented in a series of exhibitions organized at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris during the 1970s and 1980s; however, the curatorial, critical, and public reception as documented in the museum archives expose the challenges of locating craft within an artistic context. Drawing on comparative, transnational, and postcolonial methodologies, this article explores how these two archival sources frame the tensions between tradition and modernity within the category of craft in France.