craft horizons AUGUST 1975 $3 Billanti Now Casts Billanti White Bronze (similar to Nickel Silver) "As well as gold, platinum, sterling silver, brass and bronze." Ob- jects up to 6W high and AV2" in diameter can now be cast with our renown care and precision. Even small sculptures within these dimensions are accepted. As in all our work, we feel that fine jewelery designs represent the artist's creative effort. They deserve great care during the casting stage. Many museums, art institutes and commercial jewelers trust their wax patterns and models to us. They know our precision casting process compliments the artist's craftsmanship with superb accuracy of reproduction—a reproduction that virtually eliminates the risk of a design being harmed or even lost in the casting process. We invite you to send your items for price quotations. Of course, all designs are held in strict design Judith Brown confidence and will be returned or cast as you desire. _ . r^ J 64 West 48th Street Billanti Casting: Co., Inc. New York, n.y. 10035 (212) 586-8553 mmf m MARIETTA COLLEGE CRAFTNOVEMBES NATIONAR 1-30 L '75 $5,000 IN PRIZES AND AWARDS CRAFTS AND SCULPTURE IN ALL MEDIA Slides Due: September 13, 1975 Judges: Ruth Duckworth Eudorah Moore MADE Donald Wyckoff BY CRAFTSMEN SUPPORTED BY A GRANT FROM NEA FOR CRAFTSMEN Touring 1976, 1977 SINCE 1876 If you're buying For a free catalogue a loom, and dealer address: FOR PROSPECTUS WRITE: you at least owe it to LECLERC P.O. 491 Pittsburgh Arthur Howard Winer, Director MCCN yourself to consult a Leclerc Dealer N.Y. 12901 Box CM, Marietta College Marietta, Ohio 45750 craft horizons of the American Crafts Council August 1975 Vol. XXXV No. 4 6 Craft World 11 Letters 13 Books 14 Legends in Gold _by John Brzostoski 18 The Private Press: BLANCO —by Roger Shattuck and Denise Hare 21 All About Everything— by Harold Rosenberg 24 The Sleds of Scarpitta. by Rose Slivka 29 Space in Clay —by Linda Cathcart 32 Craft Multiples 36 Exhibitions 50 Calendar 52 Where to Show The Cover: Settlement and Pouch Sled, wood, canvas, and resin, canvas 93" x 841/2", sled 112" high, by Salvatore Scarpitta, on whom Rose Slivka writes (page 24). Photograph by Eric Pollitzer, courtesy Leo Castelli. Editor-in-Chief Rose Slivka Managing Editor Patricia Dandignac Assistant Editor Edith Dugmore Art Director Sydney Butchkes Advertising Department Anita Chmiel Editorial Board Robert Beverly Hale Leo Lionni Aileen 0. Webb Ceramics. -Daniel Rhodes Metal. Adda Husted-Andersen Textiles. Lili Blumenau Wood —Charles V.W. Brooks Bookbinding Polly Lada-Mocarski Published bimonthly and copyrighted 1975 by the American Crafts Council, 44 West 53rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10019. Telephone: 212-977-8989. Aileen O. Webb, Chairman of the Board; John L. Baringer, Vice-Chairman; Donald L. Wyckoff, Presi- dent; May E. Walter, Secretary; R. Leigh Glover, Treasurer; Joseph P. Fallarino, Assistant Treasurer. Trustees are: Nicholas B. Angell, Dr. Mark Ellingson, Dr. Richard Gonzalez, Robert D. Graff, August Heckscher, Samuel C. Johnson, Jack Lenor Larsen, Sarah Tomerlin Lee, Vera Neumann, DeWitt Peterkin, Jr., Barbara Rockefeller, Sam Scherr, Carol Sinton, Dr. Frank Stanton, W. Osborn Webb. Honorary trustees are: Alfred Auerbach, Walter H. Kiiham, Jr., Edward Wormley. Craftsmen-trustees are: Bill Alexander, Herbert Cohen, James Dugdale, Dextra Frankel, Lin Lipetz, Mary Nyburg. Membership rates: $12.50 per year and higher, includes subscrip- tion to CRAFT HORIZONS. Single copy: $3. Address unsolicited material to the Editor-in-Chief, CRAFT HORIZONS, 44 West 53rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10019. Ma- terial will be handled with care, but the magazine assumes no responsibility for it. Manuscripts will be returned only if accompanied by self-addressed, stamped envelope. Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing office. The complete content of each issue of CRAFT HORIZONS is indexed in the Art Index and Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, available in public libraries. Book reviews published in CRAFT HORIZONS are indexed in Book Review Index. Microfilm edition is available from University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. For change of address, give old address as well as new with zip code number; allow six weeks for change to become effective. Address all sub- scription correspondence to Anita Chmiel, Membership Manager, American Crafts Council, 44 West 53rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10019. Craft World of the labor department; all "employers" PYROMAN AND GORILLA APPRENTICESHIPS AND must keep a variety of records and generally involve themselves in an amount of paper- CAVORT IN CLAY CIRCUS THE LABOR LAWS work which most of us find distasteful. For In June of 1974, a compliance officer from me, personally, this excursion into labor law The "Greatest Clay Circus on Earth" came to the U.S. Department of Labor appeared at has cost about $1,400. Well worth it, I think, Rochester, Minnesota (May 27-28), with "Py- my woodworking shop in Putney, Vermont, but if other craftspeople wish to contribute roman" Don Reitz and "Gorilla" Peter Voul- and began questioning one of my two train- to my expenses I would be very grateful. kos taking the spotlight in center ring. The ees to determine whether he was an em- Any amount over $700 would be turned over performance started with Reitz and Voulkos ployee, as defined by the Fair Labor Stan- to the American Crafts Council to help other directing an enthusiastic contingent from dards Act of 1938. Because one of my stu- craftspeople in similar predicaments. ACC the audience who had accepted an invita- dents had applied for a draft deferment as has a list of attorneys willing to help artists tion to dress a circus beauty in a costume of an apprentice, in 1972, the State of Vermont and craftspeople with legal advice for nom- clay (weighing approximately 250 pounds). had (without informing me) turned my name inal fees. I advise anyone heading toward, or Group participation continued as the two over to the U.S. Department of Labor as a in, a similar situation to inform yourself first, headliners threw a number of large platters possible violator of the federal wage-hour before the Department of Labor does. which were passed round, decorated with laws. —SIMON WATTS slips and additional clay, and then thrown After meeting with two compliance offi- against a wall to make an instant mural. It cers, I was notified that I had been an un- looked like one of the circus elephants had witting employer and owed two years' back been disemboweled, but the clay was wages—some $13,000—which was due Au- CLAYWORKS STUDIO quickly rolled up and recycled. gust 15, just a few weeks away. I then sought In the afternoon they worked on the legal advice. My attorney obtained an ex- The trailblazing Clayworks Studio, Inc., in wheels: Reitz making pieces to illustrate tension of the August 15 deadline in order the stages of formation since 1973, is here points he would talk about; Voulkos doing to prepare an appeal. There followed an in- to stay. Started last spring as a pilot program the basic throwing that would be finished conclusive meeting in September, in Boston, at Hunter College, New York, for painters the next day. Wednesday morning, Reitz got between the Department of Labor's regional and sculptors to work in clay in collabora- down to some serious work and talk, with solicitor, two lawyers, and myself. It was ap- tion with ceramics experts, it is being direct- about 200 watching from the bleachers. parent that the Solicitor's Office had no par- ed by Susan Peterson, head of the ceramics Many of the younger participants were sur- ticular interest in harassing craftspeople, division of the Art Department. With initial prised to learn how carefully worked out but if an employer-employee relationship funding by the New York State Council on and controlled are many of the elements in existed and the provisions of the Fair Labor the Arts, the vigorously successful program Reitz's work, which might appear as intui- Standards Act were not being followed, they has been expanded and will continue for tive happenings or fortuitous accidents. had no choice but to force compliance. The the rest of the 1975-76 academic year at Wednesday afternoon, Voulkos entered solicitor agreed that since the dispute lay in Hunter College prior to establishing its own the ring. Pieces made the day before got wet an area of the law for which there were no permanent facility in downtown Manhattan. again and were fondled, rubbed, banged, clear precedents, and that important issues Participating artists include Elaine de Koon- and slashed. Three little cups were cut and were involved, the whole matter should be ing, Isamu Noguchi, Claes Oldenburg, Philip pressed out of round, clay added, holes referred to Washington for a decision. Pavia, Joellen Râpée, Salvatore Scarpitta, punched in them, and later plugged with among others. Hunter College has contrib- The argument seemed to hinge on the clay. Voulkos passed these around to be fur- uted the space, time, and materials to the question as to whether an employer- ther caressed and squeezed by the audience. project which, as professor Gerald Freund, employee relationship existed between the Two large platters got the same treatment. dean of the Humanities and the Arts, said, trainees in my shop and myself as defined Planters were worked over and the final piece ". has proven its worth to an art form, to by federal law. The only applicable prece- developed into one of Voulkos's stacked a high-level interaction of professionals and dent is the case of Walling vs.