By GlennAdamson Blacksmithing The American

Revival

41 VOL. 41 NO. 2 42 40½ x1614in. Steel Fabricated FireplaceTools Left: Previous spread: Photo: HoustonCofield Gift oftheArtist,2003.7.8 Metal MuseumPermanentCollection, 10 x6¾7in. Mild steel Inverted VikingHelmetwithThreeHorns C. CarlJennings Right: Photo: KimWard Gift ofThorntonJordan,2020.3.1a-d Metal MuseumPermanentCollection, compass for creativity. a marginalized activity, its sights mainly fixed on the past, with little vital crafts, by the mid twentieth century, blacksmithing had become Once one of the nation’s most widely practiced and economically captured in Buster Keaton’s classic short !#%% film while others were converted to garages (a process memorably was wiped out in the course of a generation: many forges closed, wrought tools and equipment by mass-produced ones. The business beginning of the twentieth century, and the displacement of hand- since the replacement of horse-drawn carts by automobiles at the state of their trade. It has been dying a slow death for decades, ever A group of sits together, talking heatedly about the March !", !#"$: Lumpkin, Georgia, , 1996

, 1994 Carbondale. Both of these men cleverly adapted familiar historic tropes in their led the only academic program in the %eld at Southern Illinois University, which made him a nationally recognized %gure; and L. Brent Kington, who commission of a lifetime, a set of gates for the Smithsonian’s , who was already well known for his when jewelry spectacular he got the signi%cant audience for professionals. while simultaneously expanding at the elite level, with amateurs as serving a techniques and forms—a tendency ampli %ed by the Bicentennial in !"#$ — thrive at the amateur level, with interest centered principally on historic pressing, simply because of the organization’s success. Blacksmithing could craft, or contemporary design? Eventually, that question became less Should ABANA the serve professional the artist, avid hobbyist, traditional competition. also They faced similarly di&cult questions about orientation. commercial context—blacksmiths enjoyed a similar sense of camaraderie and two %elds—their work was too heavy and too costly to make it viable in that of glassblowing. Though lacking the robust network support gallery of those of woodwork (turning and furniture-making), and the slightly earlier revival opened in Memphis. Ornamental Metal Museum, now known more simply as the Metal Museum— Anvil’s Ring Books were published, as well as a special interest journal, nicely titled Touring exhibitions like hundreds of members, then thousands. Skills were learned and shared. Association of Artist- North America (ABANA)—soon attracted With twenty-seven founding members, the organization—named the reviving ironwork as a creative discipline. The response was extraordinary. morning, they formed a new organization with the declared purpose of In order,short two clear leaders emerged in the discipline: Paley,Albert This phenomenon closely paralleled the contemporaneous renaissance The blacksmiths in Lumpkin wanted to change all that. On that spring . In !"#", an institution devoted to the discipline—the National Iron: Solid Wrought / USA The The Blacksmith ) ## were(!"#$– mounted. The ). craftsmen—!gures whom Gerakaris describes as the ebb. If not for the persistence of a few remarkable This was when the iron was cool, the craft at its lowest the period just prior to the revival of the ’$%s and ’'%s. two articles, it aims to make a start, by focusing on Wallace, Gerakaris, and Michael Bondi. The !rst of depth and detail. This article draws on interviews with SIU, such as Wallace, Philip Baldwin, and Joel Schwartz. !eld, including some from his !rst years of teaching blacksmithing at !nesse. Many of Kington’s students have also gone on to success in the Chase, and Christopher Ray, all capable of extraordinary invention and work; and talented makers like Ivan Bailey, Thomas Bredlow, E.A. brothers Stephen and Michael Bondi, specialists in creative architectural Robert Owings, both of whom as served editors of an informal bible for the !eld; Dimitri artist-blacksmiths Gerakaris and Museum; Alex Bealer, whose "#&# book James “Wally” Wallace, founding director of the National Ornamental Metal !red by the ambition to creatively develop the craft. Among them were He his started own shop in Santa Fe in "#$$, at the age of twenty-one. teenager under the printer and blacksmith Peter Wells in El Rito, . discussed here, Joyce also has roots in the "#$%s, when he apprenticed as a study of African metalwork. While younger than most of the other artists engagement with the materiality of iron itself, which has included an in-depth renowned for his implementation of industrial-scale tooling and his thoughtful most prominent blacksmith working in the US has probably been Tom Joyce, weathervanes, !replace tools, even the hobby horse. In more recent years, the and Kington making dynamic variations on the forms of Americana— work, with Paley taking inspiration from the whiplash lines of Nouveau,Art The story of all these makers deserves to be told in full There were also many other smiths in the revival generation, equally The Art of Blacksmithing The

Anvil’s Ring quality of steel bars commonly produced in twenty-foot lengths. forged steel bars to achieve architectonic mass and to overcome the linear serves as the entry to a new city square, punctuating a line of live trees. It was This work replaced a historic building that was fire-damaged beyond repair and © DimitriGerakaris Photo: ShermanG.Howe 27 x406ft. across MainStreetfromthestatecapitolinConcord,NH Forged andfabricated,color-galvanizedsteel Eagle SquareGateway Dimitri Gerakaris served as served ; the , 1983 plus forgedandfabricatedbronze,leading Forged andfabricated,color-galvanizedsteel Boylston PlaceGateway Dimitri Gerakaris constrained the design possibilities of preceding smiths. that bars steel of quality linear customary the overcome to and mass architectonic achieve to bars steel forged Gerakaris seamlessly combines forged steel plate with © DimitriGerakaris Photo: ShermanG.Howe 19 x246ft. to theBostonTheaterDistrictfromCommon , 1988 Photo: KimWard Michael Croft,2016.9.1 Collection, Giftof Metal MuseumPermanent 3¼ x2¾4½in. Sterling silver Dragster L. BrentKington

, ca.early1960s

43 VOL. 41 NO. 2 44 son smith who had trained under his father and went on to teach his of 'gures such as the formidable Fritz Kühn, an East German continent. Americans were well aware (and somewhat in awe) than ever, as reconstruction projects were undertaken across the ornament. After World War II, blacksmiths were more in demand less disrupted there, thanks to continuing interest in architectural sought out training in Europe. The trade had been considerably and potters studied the rich tradition of Japan, blacksmiths Murano near Venice, woodworkers set their sights on Scandinavia, domestic sources. Just as glassblowers looked to the island of pro'cient blacksmiths working anywhere near Carbondale. 'rst lessons in ironworking, having identi'ed the Deals as the only Kington—who was already well-trained in light metals—had his for birthplace an renaissance,artistic but it was here that Brent price tag scrawled in soapstone crayon.” It hardly sounds like the with what they are looking for, sometimes a 'nished job with the brothers can 'sh around under any pile of steel and come out local paper captured the atmosphere of the place in "#$(: “The goods and 'xing from everything lawnmowers to farm plows. A diversifying across a huge range of jobs, making small household brother. The two brothers ran a thriving if eclectic business, opened his shop in , "#&& teaching the craft in turn to his younger African-American students set up by Booker T. Washington. He Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the vocationally oriented school for Murphysboro, Illinois. James had learned blacksmithing at the who operated a grocery, junk shop, and blacksmithing forge in even greater struggle in restoring the discipline to vitality. “keepers of the ! ame”—the "#$%s generation would have faced an To be sure, not all aspiring smiths of the revival relied on An emblematic example is that of James and Ben Deal, brothers

Achim. his book Images of Edition Metal MuseumLibraryCollection, FritzKühn, translator, and included insights he gained from the experience in Germany, on a foreign study program, was able to as serve his not speak English, but Gerakaris, who had spent time in Freiburg, European masters to come and his impart knowledge. Ulrich did Ulrich came to demonstrate, making him the 'rst of many Ulrich in Aachen. In "#$), for the 'rst o*cial ABANA conference, Benetton in Treviso, Italy; Ivan Bailey studied for a year with Fritz with other masters: the Bondis apprenticed at the studio of Simone but a few adventurous Americans did travel to Europe to study was behind the Iron so Curtain, it was not possible to study there, MuseumAlbert in and toured the US in . "#(& His shop like published no fewer than twelve in his lifetime—and exhibitions Kühn’s work was widely known through his own books—he Towards a New Iron Age literally built by their hands. and carpentry— in architectural crafts such as masonry enslaved Blacks were widely involved not uncommon, and as both free formerly enslaved artisan. That was Carolina, was initially trained by a blacksmith in Charleston, South Philip Simmons, an African-American . (Huntingdon,PA:BlueMoonPress, 2010),41,47,61. WroughtIron Close-textured Screen . PhotoscourtesyoftheMetal Museum. , which originated at the Victoria and the South was quite , Screen , and Double Doors Wrought Iron,3rd , from Philip Simmons, an African-American blacksmith in Charleston, of Deco Art doors for the Building. Chrysler creating metalwork for many Manhattan buildings, including a set New York area, conducting repairs on the Statue of Liberty and and #$%"s, Kenneth J. Lynch was the leading blacksmith in the there, as well as Peter Renzetti and Christopher Ray a young blacksmith could get to grips with hammer and anvil; daysglory as a shop with !"" atartisans work, was one place that operational though at a much-reduced level in comparison to its from Europe who specialized in that arena. Yellin’s shop, still Yellin and Milwaukee’s Cyril Colnik, had both been immigrants luminaries of and Arts Crafts ironwork, Philadelphia’s Samuel for the few blacksmiths who still swung a hammer. The two great idiom in forged iron.” well as the Benettons in Italy, as main “the exponents of a modern The Anvil’s Ring The The Colonial Revival of this time also created opportunities. In America, meanwhile, historic metalwork was a mainstay

. He saw makersGerman like Ulrich and Kühn, as and Fred Crist were among those who spent time

Dimitri Gerakaris.

In the #$!"s four years old; he would eventually take over the shop when Boone Hensley remembered watching from the door when he was only who grew up next to Boone’s shop in Burnsville, North Carolina. ABANA meetings), and also trained another smith, Bea Hensley, He was succeeded by John Allgood (who was present at the early restoring and replacing the town’s historic metalwork in #$%&. work for men like Daniel Boone VI, who won the contract for preservation and construction of Colonial Williamsburg meant created a market for his work. for historic preservation, animated by the Colonial Revival, that the depths of the Depression. It was only the sudden enthusiasm full-time, however. He took over his mentor’s shop in , #$%% in blacksmiths to continue working in architectural ornament hands. Simmons was one of only a handful of African-American and South carpentry—the was quite literally built by their were widely involved in architectural crafts such as masonry That artisan. was not uncommon, as both free and enslaved Blacks South Carolina, was initially trained by a formerly enslaved Up in Virginia, meanwhile, the enormous of undertaking the Photo: KimWard ABANA Collection,2016.1.284 Metal MuseumPermanentCollection, 53 x2428in. Steel Punto d’Incontro Simon Benetton , 1984

45 VOL. 41 NO. 2 46 Photo: KimWard Collection, 2014.2.212 10th AnniversaryGatesRosette Metal MuseumPermanentCollection, 2¾ x¼in. Bronze Rosette Michael Bondi Photo: KimWard Gift ofClareYellin,1992.6.3a-b Metal MuseumPermanentCollection, 16½ x1221in.(each) Wrought iron,brass Andirons Samuel Yellin , 1989 , ca.1920 skills were preserved along with the material fabric of the the past, of midcentury blacksmithing was conservative;

As these stories imply, the overall orientation

providing little impetus for innovation. smithing in America.” His uniquely approach artistic to the medium was innovator: C. Carl Jennings, whom Bondi calls godfather“the of creative sourceimportant of knowledge and skill for less experienced makers. and when he did begin coming to ABANA conferences in !"#(, he proved an became impossible.” he didn’t want to talk to you, he’d just up start an arc welder, and conversation inherent interest in fostering the next generation of talent; Wallace says, “If in Aspen, Colorado. Whitaker was apparently a real curmudgeon, with little returning to the US, he set up shop in Carmel, California, and subsequently then went on a two-year apprenticeship with a blacksmith in Berlin. After , who had some basic training in Yellin’s Philadelphia shop, that preceded them. A reactionary,particularly though memorable, &gure was resource. Yet in other cases, they found themselves at odds with the generation book Streeter, a leader in historic preservation based in New Jersey, whose !"%$ sometimes formed strong bonds with older smiths. A good example is Donald smiths of the !"#$s—men like Paley, Kington, Gerakaris, and the Bondis— past, providing little impetus for innovation. The more inclined artistically was conservative; skills were preserved along with the material fabric of the smiths. Hensley’s shop became a regular pilgrimage destination for aspiring young retired. While the famous craft school in nearby Penland did not have a forge, Among the blacksmiths, midcentury one stands out as a particular As these stories imply, the overall orientation of blacksmithing midcentury Professional Blacksmithing ! Yet he was also an 'ective e teacher for basic techniques, supplemented Bealer’s earlier text as a key

Gift ofClareYellin,2018.2.1 Metal MuseumPermanentCollection, 86 x334in. Steel Door led byFrancisWhitaker Various Artists Photo: KimWard , 1983–84 Photo: KimWard Gift ofNancyBaldwin,2010.2.2 Metal MuseumPermanentCollection, 21½ x263in. Mild steel Window GrilleStudy Phillip Baldwin

, 1978 1 January !"!#. book newest is Glenn Adamson is a curator, writer, and based historian in New York. His foundation, a whole discipline reinvented itself. it was indeed still possible to be a working blacksmith in America. From that becalmed, the Deals, Simmons, Hensley, Whitaker and Jennings showed that By maintaining their practices at a time when the trade was thoroughly and the other blacksmiths of his generation o!ered was beyond technique. California Blacksmith Association. But the most lesson important that he at the College of the Redwoods, and as serving the (rst vice president of the website.) including material interview with Jennings, can be seen on the Metal Museum monument to intense individualism. (lm (A documentary on short the house, such as that of J.B. Blunk in Inverness. Nothing in it is standardized—it is a copper. It bears strong comparison to other crafted homes in California, his metalwork, from wrought iron lighting to a fantastical (replace in met at CCAC), beginning in #$'$ . The round stone structure is festooned with County, designed and built in collaboration with his wife Elizabeth (whom he work in copper and iron. His masterpiece was his own home in Sonoma extraordinary skill and vision, creating both functional and purely sculptural Naval shipyards. expanded during World War II, when he worked as a welder in the booming Forester (or Foster), who had come from Hungary. Jennings’s skill set further additional training from another European immigrant craftsman, a John College of and Arts Crafts, and worked in a welding shop in Alameda, getting blacksmiths. In the #$%&s, he went to study applied atart the California Born and raised in Illinois, his father and grandfather were both practicing the result of his exposure to several di!erent in "uences early in his career. Jennings did help younger craftspeople in the #$)&s, teaching occasionally After the war, Jennings established himself as a metalworker of Craft: Craft: An American History , published by Bloomsbury in repoussé

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