The 1969 exhibition “Objects: USA” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum was a watershed event in art appreciation. Without it, there’d be no San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, said its curator, Ariel Zaccheo.
“The impact of it was just massive,” she said. “It put craft on the map as not just being something functional, but rather as another kind of medium competing with fine art.”
That exhibition has inspired a new show with the same title at the Museum of Craft and Design, with objects displayed in 1969 placed alongside their contemporary cousins. There’s no hierarchy — not between older and newer artists, nor famed and unknown. With the installation dictated by materials and aesthetics, it’s often difficult to tell which pieces were in the original Smithsonian exhibition and which are new.
“I played a game with our final installer, asking her to pick which objects are from the 60s and which are contemporary,” Zaccheo said. “She got so many of them wrong.”
The original Smithsonian exhibition brought together over 500 pieces of art and traveled to 33 destinations, introducing the world to artists who would become famed in their field. “It became an evangelist of American craft throughout the nation and other countries,” Zaccheo said.
As part of the exhibition, the museum store is selling reprints of the original catalog for the Smithsonian show, a thick tome published in 1970 that has become a kind of bible for those working in craft and design.
“I went to school for history, but craft history was never part of that conversation,” Zaccheo said. “When I came here, I had to learn that history on my own and find my own sources of information, and what did that for me was the Objects USA original catalog.”
The current exhibition came about when the museum learned in 2022 that the New York gallery R and Company wanted to tour its recent show, “Objects: USA 2020,” which mixed contemporary artists with those from the original Smithsonian exhibition. The exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Design is smaller than the Smithsonian original — over 70 objects instead of over 500 — yet it manages to provide both a holistic and kaleidoscopic capsule of American craft.
“One of the main notes we wanted to hit was to make sure we had a lot of different materials,” Zaccheo said. “That was really a huge part of the original show,” she continued, noting its catalog was organized by material rather than date or region.
The terracotta piece by Ebitenyefa Baralye, who was inspired by works from the original Objects show, is a textural masterpiece in one of craft’s most iconic materials.
Nearby stands stoneware by the founder of the Guerneville pottery commune, Pond Farm, Marguerite Wildenhain, a leader in American ceramics in the mid-1900s. Although decades have passed, her pieces in the show are flawless. “She is a sturdy survivor of a woman,” Zaccheo said. “So it makes sense her work is sturdy, too.”
Another kind of guessing game can be played with the piece by Jay Sae Jung Oh, in which leather cords wrap all kinds of objects — an infant ice skate, a watering can, a cocktail shaker, a fishing tackle box — and render them as only their shapes, challenging the viewer to guess which is which.
The original “Objects: USA” show contained work by glassmaker Dale Chihuly, who has since become a household name. On an edgier note, the Museum of Craft and Design offers Amber Cowan’s glassware piece, “Ecco to the Bridesmaid,” a masterpiece of repurposed and newly made glass.
The show also represents nearly all of the “four fathers” of American furniture making: George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Wendell Castle and James Krenov (the only one not in the show), placed alongside contemporary artists like Norman Teague, who is trying to bring design to communities of color.
Jeff Zimmerman, Vine, 2023.
Christopher Kurtz, Singularity (Suspended), 2017.
On the platform (left to right):
Wharton Esherick, Stool, 1963.
George Nakashima, Walnut Bench, 1965.
JB Blunk, Stool #7, 1973
On the wall: Liz Collins, Fire, 2020. OBJECTS USA at Museum of Craft & Design SF_#031_©Henrik Kam 2026
Joyce Lin, Skinned Chair II, 2022.
Rocking chair on right: Sam Maloof, Rocking Chair, 1976. OBJECTS USA at Museum of Craft & Design SF_#030_©Henrik Kam 2026
By including people of color in design, “he’s trying to totally rewrite that narrative,” Zaccheo said.
Yet craft, on the other hand, has a built-in advantage in representing people who have traditionally been shut out of the fine art world. It’s also diverse geographically: While fine art can be concentrated in art-making capitals like New York City and Los Angeles where there are both schools and markets to support it, craft artists come from all over the country.
While it’s less controversial today to understand utilitarian objects as pieces of art, the success of the Smithsonian show more than half a century ago was in part because it shifted people’s perspective — and added a diverse, progressive voice to the art world.
The distinction between craft and fine art typically comes down to two factors: material and utility. If an object can be used in everyday life and if it’s made of materials like terracotta or wood, that can easily slide it towards the craft category.
Yet looking at some of the vases in “OBJECTS: USA,” one can just as easily imagine them standing in the Museum of Modern Art. Indeed, mainstream museums are acquiring materials like fiberwork and clay — and utilitarian objects — to such a degree that it can be difficult to tell there’s still a distinction. “Those boundaries are blurred,” Zaccheo said.
OBJECTS: USA
Museum of Craft and Design , Sept. 5 – Jan. 17
