How a Medium Is Well-Done : Art: ‘Contemporary Crafts’ from the Saxe holdings at Newport Harbor emphasizes the quality of functional pieces over materials used.

It’s not that they take no pride in making Art and Antiques magazine’s annual list of the Top 100 collectors in the United States. But Dorothy and George Saxe see it not so much as a personal honor, but rather as recognition for the cause they’ve championed for years.

Besides amassing one of the country’s leading collections of crafts--once rigidly viewed as inferior to fine arts for a focus on material and technique rather than intellectual concept--the Bay Area couple have long advocated the medium’s admission into the hallowed halls of mainstream American art.

“We started out to try to have craft material elevated and included in the art world,” George Saxe said the other day, “and I think that in some small way maybe we have done that.”

A less ephemeral measure of the Saxes’ efforts arrives today at Newport Harbor Art Museum: “Contemporary Crafts and the Saxe Collection” showcases 120 objects from their holdings, roughly half of which they donated in 1990 to the Toledo Museum of Art, the show’s organizer and originator.

“We have never constructed barriers between the decorative arts and the so-called fine arts,” said Toledo museum director David W. Steadman. “A number of major pieces in the Saxe collection have been exhibited within our regular contemporary art galleries.”

There should be no separation, agreed Bruce Guenther, chief curator at Newport Harbor, which, he said, had never hosted a large craft show.

“Each work in this exhibit,” Guenther said, “stands on its own within the context of its creation and ambition and successful resolution of material and content.”

Graceful vases, rotund bowls, whimsical figurines, woven wall hangings, delicate baskets, sculpture and purely abstract, enigmatic forms make up the exhibit, with works in glass, clay, fiber, metal and wood.

Nearly 100 emerging and well-known artists from around the world are represented. Many of them are classed as contemporary artists, not craftspeople, and exhibited in fine art galleries and museums. About one-fourth are from California, a leader in the crafts movement, including Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, Sam Maloof, Peter Voulkos and Beatrice Wood. Ceramist Jerry Rothman, who will give a lecture at the museum on May 3, resides in Laguna Beach.

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In a recent three-way phone interview from their Menlo Park home, the Saxes discussed their passion, Dorothy repeating a point she’s obviously made before.

“There’s good art and there’s bad art,” she said, “and who is to say a sculpture made of marble or bronze is anything more wonderful than something made of glass or clay? The material is secondary--it’s the concept and execution that’s paramount--and we’re interested in crafts that have the same aesthetic expectations, whether in ideas or in execution, as the best fine art.”

Frequent travelers, the couple had always picked up handmade knickknacks abroad, but never with any grand intention. Even their first expensive piece--which happened to be made by Dale Chihuly, a renowned glass artist--was purchased merely for home decoration.

“We’ve always liked glass,” Dorothy said, “and we chose glass.”

In 1980, around the time they began to seek a new, joint avocation--once their three grown children had left home--the Saxes discovered a dazzling catalogue from an exhibition at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York.

“I looked through that book,” said George, a semi-retired real-estate developer, “and I said to Dorothy, ‘My God, I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life.’ It just sort of took our breath away, and we said, ‘Maybe this is something we’d be interested in.’ ”

Concentrating first on glass--which, along with ceramics, dominates their collection--the Saxes branched out. As the scope of their acquisitions grew, so did their efforts to strengthen the field.

The ‘80s were a boom time for patronage of all the arts, and, rather than buying direct, they became staunch supporters of the new, burgeoning craft-gallery network.

“The only way the galleries can be supported is by the collectors,” Dorothy said, “and without the galleries, artists have no place to show their work.”

The Saxes also began promoting education, joining the boards of the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and the renowned Pilchuck Glass School in Washington. They continue to allow students to tour their home, where even the place mats and each piece of furniture are handcrafted.

“We think that this is a field of endeavor that has been under-seen and underappreciated,” Dorothy said, “and we do everything we can to make sure the work is seen and artists continue to produce it and people continue to appreciate it.”

Their major gift, consisting mostly of glass, to the Toledo Museum of Art exemplifies the Saxes’ desire to help the craft movement move into the mainstream. A respected museum with a broad focus and a long history of glass collecting, the Ohio institution bolstered its 20th-Century glass holdings with the donation.

All told, the Saxes have acquired more than 600 craft items. They’ve also gained intangibles, such as the gratifying knowledge that they are helping emerging artists and the sense that, despite their admitted lack of creativity, they are an integral part of a creative effort.

“Just this morning,” George said, Oakland craft artist Gail Fredell “was here. We have commissioned her to do our dining-room chairs, and it’s been a sort of joint venture, where she keeps us posted as she goes through the process of development and design and gets feedback from us.”

Some art experts contend that crafts will never attain parity with fine art, and the Saxes say theirs is still an uphill battle. But encouraging signs continue to emerge, George said, citing the Glass Art Society’s 24th annual meeting next week in Oakland. The society is an international, nonprofit member organization.

“As a result” of the meeting, he said, “certain galleries that would never have dreamed of showing glass before are showing glass. It’s wonderful to see.”

* “Contemporary Crafts and the Saxe Collection” runs through June 5 at Newport Harbor Art Museum, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. $2-$4. Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For related lectures and activities, call (714) 759-1122.