LEADING "THE SIMPLE LIFE": THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN, 1880-1910 October 6, 1999-August 1, 2000 Overview Leading "The Simple Life" was the first U.S. exhibition to explore the turn-of-the-century British Arts and Crafts movement. "Although it was one of the most significant and far-reaching movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Arts and Crafts movement continues to be one of the least understood," explained Wendy Kaplan, exhibition curator and associate director of exhibitions and curatorial affairs for The Wolfsonian. "It transformed not only how objects looked but also how people looked at objects. It changed the public's attitudes toward design and the home, and compelled them to think about the relationship of art to everyday life." The exhibition examined the most important aspects of the Arts and Crafts movement; specifically, how a group of reformers, passionately committed to righting the ills they saw in an increasingly industrial and urban society, chose the arts as their medium of expression. Arts and Crafts leaders such as the critic John Ruskin and the designer William Morris believed that if objects were reconceived by the craftsperson and made by hand, "joy in labor" would be restored and shoddy work would disappear. As Morris put it, "It is the allowing of machines to be our masters, and not our servants, that so injures the beauty of life nowadays." The exhibition provided a rare opportunity to display the superb quality of the Wolfsonian's Arts and Crafts collection and to interpret these materials. Visitors explored the wide range of British Arts and Crafts production - from unique, commissioned pieces to factory-made examples intended for dissemination to a broad audience. The centerpiece of the exhibition was part of the living room of "Glencrutchery," a house on the Isle of Man renovated in 1897-98 by M. H. Baillie Scott. This fireplace surround and bench, known as an inglenook, is the only interior architectural work of this important British architect preserved in a United States museum. The Wolfsonian used period photographs to meticulously reconstruct this portion of the room: reproduction wallpaper was made from the original patterns, William De Morgan tiles replaced similar ones that were originally installed around the fireplace, and an artist was commissioned to carefully reproduce the stenciled frieze that adorned the upper portion of the wall. In addition to the Glencrutchery inglenook, other furniture and architectural elements demonstrated the ideals of the movement. Ruskin's theory of "the simple life" - in which the degradation of the human spirit caused by industrialization was rejected by retreating to the countryside - was demonstrated, for example, by interpretations of the furniture of Ernest Gimson and the metalwork of C. R. Ashbee. Both architects abandoned the perceived evils of urban life in London for the bucolic peace of the Cotswolds - Gimson to establish a furniture workshop in Sapperton, and Ashbee to found a utopian community in Chipping Campden. Ashbee saw his Guild of Handicraft as the way to provide a socialist alternative to capitalism, a path also sought by political radicals such as Walter Crane and William Morris. The attitudes of these socialist protagonists were included in the exhibition through The Wolfsonian's unusually extensive collections of rare books, prints, and pamphlets. An important goal of the exhibition was to show the relationship, or lack thereof, between ideals for social change and manifestations of style. Remarkable examples of metalwork by J. Paul Cooper, ceramics by William De Morgan, and textiles by C. F. A. Voysey helped to explain the wide variety of both conservative and progressive styles that created a distinctly Arts and Crafts aesthetic. One particular focus here was the celebration of regional traditions and native materials for architecture and furnishings. The exhibition provided a new appreciation for the movement's achievements. Although it did not succeed in its aim of cultural regeneration, the Arts and Crafts movement provided a framework for recognizing the contribution of the individual in an increasingly "mass" society. As the computer-dominated twenty-first century takes hold, the concerns of the Arts and Crafts practitioners seem increasingly relevant. The exhibition was organized by Kaplan, who is a leading authority on the Arts and Crafts movement and has written several award-winning books on the subject. A catalog was produced in conjunction with the exhibition, which is available in the Wolfsonian's museum shop (The Wolfsonian-Florida International University; 55 pages, $18). The exhibition was sponsored by the State of Florida, State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, Florida Arts Council, Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Council, Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners, City of Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council, City of Miami Beach, American Express Company, Continental Airlines, and the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation. Back to Past Exhibitions Main