The ‘Buy American’ Mantra Comes for High-End Interior Design
An update to a 1960s Smithsonian exhibit restates the case that the future of collectible craft isn’t Europe but the U.S.
Weed pots by Doyle Lane were exhibited in the 1969 show, Objects: USA.
Photographer: Joe Kramm, courtesy of R & Company
In the late 1960s, a New York art dealer named Lee Nordness came to S.C. Johnson & Son with an idea: He would organize a show on American craft, and the company, which had a history of sponsoring showcases for American art, would pay for it. As a sweetener, part of the sponsorship entailed S.C. Johnson buying every object in the exhibition, which it could then donate to museums of its choosing.
The company agreed, and in 1969, Objects: USA opened at the Smithsonian Institution with pieces crafted by about 250 people.