| The arts and
crafts movement in America was a time of great design experimentation and
innovation in the "craftsman style." Architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright,
Gustav Stickley, and Greene & Greene embraced the clean lines and simplicity
of design emblematic of the arts and crafts style. The arts & crafts
movement really began in Europe in the latter half of the 1800s alongside
the eroticism and floral themes of art nouveau and the German Jugendstil
movement. In the latter years of the 19th century, artists and architects
began to rebel against the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and
return to more hand crafted decorative items. Artist colonies were founded
to explore individual craftsmanship and creativity.
One of the early results of the movement
in America was Mission furniture, first popularized by Gustav
Stickley (1858-1942). Stickley's designs were rustic in design and
used thick, bold framing with a very angular design. Stickley and his contemporaries
in mission furniture used thick planks of oak with large, exposed joints
which were often pegged to give the furniture extraordinary strength and
stability. Rather than the gloss of the art nouveau movement, arts &
crafts designs were intentionally rustic and weatherbeaten in appearance.
Special finishes were developed by Stickley and others to age the look
of the wood in their production of mission furniture. Stickley also produced
homes and began publishing Craftsman Magazine in 1901. Stickley designed
homes to fit the furniture he created. Simple "Craftsman-style" homes --
often no more than a few spacious rooms whose only ornamentation consisted
of beautiful natural woodwork and room dividers along with a stone or brick
hearth. An abundance of windows to let in natural light was also important
since sunlight cast an entirely different light than gas and electric lights.
Stickley designs never compromised quality and were expensive to manufacture,
and the firm went bankrupt in 1917 as World War I was ending.
Arts and crafts pottery
also exploded onto the American scene at the turn of the century,
led by manufacturers such as Grueby,
Weller,
Fulper,
and others. Metalwork also experienced a design renaissance,
as homeowners sought hand forged metalware for use around the
home and in their furniture designs. Copper became a very popular
design material, especially the "hand hammered" look which revealed
the individual blows of the hammer. Arts and crafts lighting
used bronze, metal, and mica shades to create a new design aesthetic
in lamps. Best known for lamps is Dirk
van Erp, whose hammered copper lamp bases which were patinated
with rich reds and browns were very popular and expensive even
at the time. Roycroft produced many copper bookends, vases,
and other household items, and even Tiffany
produced desk sets and other items in the arts and crafts style.
When Elbert Hubbard, the founder of Roycroft, died in 1915 on
the Lusitania, the American arts & crafts movement began
a slow decline. Modernism and Art
Deco was on the rise, maintaining the streamlined design
aesthetic but returning to the use of luxury materials and design
extravagance.
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