In 1958, curator Robert Laurer brought a handheld movie camera to work and began filming. His subject was the installation of an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts (MCC), New York, titled The Furniture and Sculpture of Wharton Esherick. The six-minute long film that Laurer made contains the only known moving-image footage of Esherick. It documents the buzz of activity in the museum gallery in the days leading up to the exhibition opening—including the assembly of the iconic spiral staircase from the Esherick Studio.
Enjoy as we take a look into the 1950s New York craft world. In this 20-minute program, we watch Laurer’s film and explore the stories of the people in it. The cast of characters includes Esherick, crafts patron Aileen Osborn Webb, MCC director Thomas Tibbs, and museum carpenters whose names went unrecorded.
