On this July 4 weekend, talking about a singularly American style of design seems like just what the doctor ordered: The American Arts and Crafts Movement.
The American Arts and Crafts movement is one of the most significant in the history of the decorative arts. As industrialization threatened time honored craft techniques with extinction throughout Europe, the Arts and Crafts movement really gained momentum in America. Ironically, the movement was actually started in England, the birthplace of industrialization but it was the United States that initiated this new paradigm in Western art history, redefining craft as art and craftsmen as artists. The philosophy was revolutionary as the decorative arts was traditionally considered one of "minor arts". Although caste systems still exist in art history, the admission of the decorative arts into the hierarchy of fine art was a monumental achievement on American soil.
By 1875, the world was dramatically smaller than in 1775, due to advances in communication, education and transportation. Americans no longer waited three months for ships to arrive from London nor were they solely reliant on England for cultural tutoring. The American Arts and Crafts movement coincided with some of the greatest leaps in technology which welcomed the 20th century. Characterized by the artistic value of everyday objects, handcraftsmanship, quality construction, solid materials and design dedicated to function and environmental harmony, the best arts and crafts objects pass muster as artwork because of their superior design. These objects illustrate a unity of form and function that celebrates the nature of the materials and the concept of their construction as decoration.
The giants of the American Arts and Crafts movement span the continent. Louis Comfort Tiffany (New York) created mosaic stained glass windows
and lighting to perfectly complement the illumination thrown off by both the sun and Thomas Edison's electric light! Gustav Stickley, another New Yorker who moved to Grand Rapids Michigan, designed furniture which was an extreme departure from the overdecorated styles that had been produced for the middle class market. The Chicagoan, Louis Henry Sullivan, tutor to the most prominent prairie architects of the 20th century including Frank Lloyd Wright, integrated form, structure and ornament, primarily in the form of ironwork. And of course, the art of earthenware pottery for dishes and household objects was beautifully expressed across the country - including Chelsea Keramic Art Works of Massachusetts, George Edgar Ohr of Biloxi Missipi, Newcomb Pottery of New Orleans, Van Briggle Pottery of Colorado Spriings and Alexander William Robertson's pottery throughout California. All beautiful, all functional and all American!
The American Arts and Crafts Movement - A Declaration of Independence and Design.
Hope George is doing well.
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