Turning Wood into Art : The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection

The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection is one of the world's premier collections of lathe-turned wooden objects. Comprising more than 125 extraordinary works by 43 craft artists, the collection ranges from bowls and vessels to abstract sculptural pieces, many made from exotic or unusual woods. The artists represented include most of the major figures in the field of wood turning from 1960 to the present-such as Virginia Dotson, David Ellsworth, Ron Kent, Mark and Mel Lindquist, Ed and Philip Moulthrop, and Bob Stocksdale-men and women who have used their artistry to reveal and heighten the natural beauty of wood. This sumptuously illustrated book, the companion volume to a traveling exhibition organized by Mark Richard Leach, director of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, North Carolina, features illuminating essays by two leading craft experts as well as by Arthur Mason himself. 141 illustrations, 130 in full color, 9 x 11 1/2" SUZANNE RAMLJAK, a curator of exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts and a guest curator at the American Craft Museum, writes frequently for ARTnews, Art & Antiques, and American Craft. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. MICHAEL W. MONROE is the former director of the American Craft Council and the former curator-in-charge of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art. He is also the author of Abrams' The White House Collection of American Crafts. He lives in Reston, Virginia. MARK RICHARD LEACH is director of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was formerly curator of 20th-century art at the Mint Museum of Art. He lives in Matthews, North Carolina. EXHIBITION SCHEDULE Mint Museum of Craft + Design,Charlotte, North CarolinaMay 20-Oct. 8, 2000