• ISBN13: 9781350007048
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: N/A
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Publisher Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Publication Date: October 3, 2019
• Pages: 208
• Original Price: GBP 110.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 567 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): Decorative Arts, Asian / General, and History & Criticism

Jennifer Way's study The Politics of Vietnamese Craft uncovers a little-known chapter in the history of American cultural diplomacy, in which Vietnamese craft production was encouraged and shaped by the US State Department as an object for consumption by middle class America.

Way explores how American business and commerce, department stores, the art world and national museums variously guided the marketing and meanings of Vietnamese craft in order to advance American diplomatic and domestic interests. Conversely, American uses of Vietnamese craft provide an example of how the United States aimed to absorb post-colonial South Vietnam into the 'Free World', in a Cold War context of American anxiety about communism spreading throughout Southeast Asia.

Way focuses in particular on the part played by the renowned American designer Russel Wright, contracted by the US International Cooperation Administration's aid programs for South Vietnam to survey the craft industry in South Vietnam and manage its production, distribution and consumption abroad and at home. Way shows how Wright and his staff brought American ideas about Vietnamese history and culture to bear in managing the making of Vietnamese craft.

Way, Jennifer: - Jennifer Way is Professor of Art History at the University of North Texas, USA, specializing in modern and contemporary art, emphasizing social meanings and uses that people make of art, fabrication activities, craft, design and exhibitions. Her current work examines craft objects and fabrication in contexts of war-related coping and healing since the 19th century. She is the author of The Politics of Vietnamese Craft (Bloomsbury, 2019) and co-editor of Craft and War (Bloomsbury, forthcoming).