A New Show Sheds Light on the Unexplored World of Enamel Art

To many, the word "enamel" conjures images of antique brooches, nail polish, or dentistry. The practice of enameling, however, is an ancient technique in which a semitransparent or opaque glasslike substance is applied to a hard, metallic surface, then fired in a small kiln up to 20 different times. In this way, enameling is not unlike cel animation or Photoshop, with the layers themselves actually forming the work of art. The only real difference is that with enameling, the end result is an actual physical object that can be aesthetic, decorative, utilitarian, or all of the above.

Culled from the permanent collection of the Enamel Arts Foundation, Little Dreams in Glass and Metal: Enameling in America, 1920 to the Present at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles is a sweeping survey of the varied and complex practice of enameling in the US, featuring over 100 examples of how enameling can take any form.

Curators Hal Nelson and Bernard Jazzar co-founded the Enamel Arts Foundation in order to collect and research often unsigned enamel pieces, many of which, until now, have mostly been relegated to the sidelines of art history.

"There are three principal traditions that lead into American modern enameling," says Nelson. "One of them is the Arts and Crafts tradition, where enameling is sort of a decorative element, and the metal is of greater importance. The second tradition is coming from Limoges, France, and it's a more pictorial tradition, where you see artists almost using enamel as a form of oil painting to create narrative scenes. And then the third tradition comes from Vienna, and that's sort of more the sleek, modern tradition."

Since the 1920s, artists have explored the versatility of enameling, using non-traditional applications that make objects look indistinguishable from paintings rendered in oil or acrylic. One example is the work of Jamaican-born artist Helen Elliott, who eschews the natural shiny, slick glossiness in favor of a stoning process. Her creative process is a kind of metaphor for the way she represents memory: that is, in layers that are obfuscated by new memories/layers, until the image itself becomes sufficiently abstracted from the original.

Most artists working with enamel only have access to a small 12-inch by 12-inch kiln and the works tend to skew small. But Edward Winter (1908-1976), who practiced in Cleveland during the 40s, 50s, and 60s, was able to increase the scale of his art by partnering with an industrial enameling company, which gave him access to larger kilns. While most enameling is applied to copper, for industrial purposes, it's steel that's used for things such as stoves and countertops. Winter was able to use industrial kilns to create larger-sized steel panels.

Contemporary enamel artists aren't just innovative with their techniques, either. Many are exploring unlikely subject matter. Artist Jessica Calderwood, whose Smoking Boy (2005) effectively subverts the stereotypical tiny preciousness inherent in artistic enameling by depicting a youthful act of rebellion. In the show's catalog, she explains: "Sexuality, gender, human relationships, and issues surrounding the body are subjects that often permeate my work. My most recent pieces are psychological portraits addressing the idea of personal obsession and consumption in contemporary culture."

There's Mary Chuduk's Veiled (2009), with hair-color samples and pearls ornamenting an image of an individual in a loose-fitting niqab, the hair-color samples referencing the veiled portion of the hair. "My recent work is informed by the plight of women," she’s quoted in the catalog. "I become more and more aware of the gross misunderstandings that continue to fester worldwide, especially those concerning women of various countries in the Middle East. The goal of my new metalwork is to inform, educate, and galvanize my viewers to see the wide variety of differences between many countries in relation to the powerful meanings of the veil."

Smoking Boy, 2005, by Jessica Calderwood; enamel on copper (Courtesy Enamel Arts Foundation/CAFAM. Photo by Jairo Ramirez)

With access to increasingly progressive techniques and new equipment, enameling today offers artists the potential to discover an age-old medium that yields as many creative opportunities as standard painting or drawing, keeping enameling both a traditional craft and a continuously developing fine-art medium. The 90 artists whose works appear in Little Dreams in Glass and Metal are united in the sense that, in an age of 3D- printing and computerized graphic editors, each artist is embracing a manual artisanal method that has historically been under-recognized and under-appreciated — until now.

Little Dreams in Glass and Metal: Enameling in America, 1920 to the Present is on view at the Craft and Folk Art Museum through May 8, 2016.

Related:

Endless Enamel: Pins of the Week #1

[Enamel Pins Are Taking the Internet by Storm](http:// http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/pins-the-internets-new-collectible-obsession)

Everything We Know About the Art in 'Empire'