This S.F. exhibition blurs the lines between art, craft and design

In 1969, the New York gallerist Lee Nordness was on a mission. 

“Placing paintings and sculpture into a convenient ‘fine arts’ category, and objects — whether functional or non-functional — into a craft category no longer sustains any aesthetic validity,” he wrote at the time. 

His historic exhibition at the Smithsonian that year — “Objects: USA,” featuring more than 500 works by ceramicists, weavers, quilters, woodworkers and artists specializing in metal, glass, enamel, mosaic and more — helped shift that line of thinking. 

Almost six decades years later, the Museum of Craft and Design is revisiting the concept, with a new “Objects: USA” with more than 70 pieces that break down the silos of art, craft and design.

Some works, such as Wendell Castle’s “Tongue,” a shiny end table with an angled base resembling a children’s slide, come from the original “Objects: USA.” Others, like a lamp made by Jolie Ngo, as fuzzy and colorful and wacky as a Dr. Seuss illustration, hail from our era.