Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement

GSL Reviews NOTE: This exhibit closes January 2, 2011 so go visit it now! Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement Exhibition: Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement The Newark Museum 49 Washington Street Newark, NJ 07102 Closes January 2, 2011 Tel.: 973-596-6550 Admission: $10 adults; Children, Seniors & Students with Valid I.D. $6 Parking: +++ Kid-Friendly: + Handicapped Accessible: +++ Exhibit: ++++ Review by Gordon Bond & Stephanie M. Hoagland Can a chair change the world? At first blush, that might seem like a silly question. Yet, for a school of thought that emerged in England between 1880 and 1910, the philosophy behind the design of such everyday things was envisioned as the instrument of social change. Called “The Arts & Crafts Movement,” it was a reaction countering what was seen as an increasing impoverishment of the decorative arts, buried beneath the superfluous ornamentation popular to Book & Exhibit Reviews • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 10 • December 2010 Victorian Era sensibilities. But American apostle of Arts & EXHIBIT PARKING more than that, the movement Crafts would be Gustav Stickley, RATING SYSTEM was also a social response to the the subject of an exhibition dehumanizing mechanization of organized by the Dallas Museum + Not enough parking. industrial production methods of Art and nationally premiering ++ Not many spaces but that kept the working class in at the Newark Museum. enough for a small dismal poverty. As a style, it Born March 9, 1858, Stickley museum/site. was one of eleven children born +++ Plenty of parking. to Leopold and Barbara Stoeckel who had come to America from EXHIBIT Germany, settling in Osceola, KID-FRIENDLY Wisconsin. He dropped out of RATING SYSTEM school in 1870 to follow his father as a stonemason to help + Not really something support the family. When his young children will widowed mother moved them enjoy. to Brandt, Pennsylvania, in 1876, ++ Older children may Gustav found employment in his find interesting. uncle's chair factory, where he +++ Children of all ages will enjoy. learned woodworking and cabinetry. In 1883, he formed Some exhibits may not be for children but institutions may offer programs specifically Stickley Brothers & Company, for interpreting the displays for kids and with siblings Charles and Albert, school groups. Contact the museum or site. reached back to a somewhat but it dissolved five years later romanticized vision of folk art, when he partnered with EXHIBIT featuring simple lines, subtle furniture salesman Elgin HANDICAP ACCESS ornamentation, and natural Simonds, creating Stickley & RATING SYSTEM materials. The joinery in a piece Simonds of Binghampton, New + Not accessible. of furniture, for example, wasn't York. The idea of handcrafts as ++ Partially accessible or something to be hidden, but a tool for reform may have requires advance embraced as part of the design. entered his mind when he arrangements. The hammer marks in a piece of worked on the side with brother +++ Fully accessible. copper were badges of honor— Leopold as foreman of a the result of a dignified human furniture-making shop at Auburn being's honest toil. It was that State Prison. EXHIBIT celebration of craftsmanship as a The furniture coming from RATING SYSTEM social statement that imparted Gustav Stickley's shop was + Very amateurish; factual the broader agendas of mostly in the Shaker and errors; poorly displayed. economic and social reform. If Windsor style. While he was at ++ Factually correct but only civilization would return to least aware of the Arts & Crafts poorly displayed. those more noble, uplifting Movement through the writings +++ Interesting but nothing roots, so the thinking went, the of its English founders, John new or insightful. world would be a better place. Ruskin and William Morris, it ++++ Strong scholarship, well The same sorts of social was the full exposure of a trip to displayed. changes were taking place in the Europe in the late 1890s that +++++ Excellent in scholarship United States, making it ripe to transformed him. He returned and display quality. embrace the style and, to some with a dramatic shift in direction To submit a review or suggest a book degree, the lifestyle the and, after dropping his or exhibit for review, please email movement embodied. The association with Simonds in [email protected] Book & Exhibit Reviews • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 10 • December 2010 Originally envisioned as a central clubhouse for his Craftsman Farms school for boys in Parsippany, New Jersey, Stickley moved his family into the home when financial troubles forced him into bankruptcy. Today, it is home to the The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. Photo courtesy Janet W. Foster 1898, created the Gustave to the masses. He took on Irene Stickley announced his Stickley Company. (His given Sargent as the author of his new “Craftsman Home Builders name was “Gustave,” he but catalog and by 1901 introduced Club,” which provided dropped the “e” in 1903.) the first issue of The Craftsman architectural plans to The By the summer of 1900, he as both a magazine to promote Craftsman's subscribers. They had begun creating experimental the social movement while included everything from lines called the “New Furniture” simultaneously promoting his. It farmhouses to bungalows; from and the following year named told homemakers how to make townhouses to cottages. All his business United Crafts. His a better life for their families featured natural materials, use of native woods and the through the design of their stained woods that permitted the greenish patina of ammonia- furnishings—furnishings, of grain to come through, soft fumed white oak became a course, that could be bought colors and simplified moldings. trademark feature. He sought to from Gustav Stickley—and Built-in cabinets, fireplaces and combine the social philosophy included furniture of all types, inglenooks kept the floor plans of the Arts & Crafts Movement lamps and textiles. His ideal open, facilitating an “economy with modern business practices. “American style” embodied an of function.” His workers—who were better honest simplicity. He wasn't just In an effort to merge a paid than most—merged selling furniture, but a lifestyle. commercial enterprise with a traditional materials and The next logical step would be larger social agenda, he moved methods with modern power to design the physical house his headquarters to a twelve- tools. This combination of hand itself, creating a space in which story building in Manhattan in craft and machinery allowed his the furnishings could transform 1913, featuring retail furniture to be more affordable the resident. In late 1903, showrooms, workshops for Book & Exhibit Reviews • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 10 • December 2010 production, design and design world again, dying poor not merely the archetypal publishing space, craft in 1942. examples, but include some exhibitions and a restaurant. The evolution of Gustav oddities and even designs that But Stickley envisioned a Stickley can be traced through proved commercially larger, progressive, social the things he designed and the unsuccessful. While this exhibit experiment. The very act of exhibit that's finishing up at the specifically focuses on a making things was restorative to Newark Museum follows that particular period, Stephanie felt the individual as well as the path, with an emphasis on the what came before might have society as a whole. He was peak of his influence between been expanded on for better always passionate about 1900 and 1913. The visitor enters context in understanding why education, but felt learning the exhibit space faced by a Stickley and the Arts & Crafts wasn't solely the provence of complete dining room Movement were as important as books. The urban landscape was ensemble—everything from the they were. This was all a also seen as an unhealthy place tables and chairs to the table response to the manufactured to raise children—the November scarves, from the dishes and conspicuous consumption by 1906 issue of The Craftsman candlesticks to sideboards and providing a simpler, more included an article about “The cabinets to the rug on the floor. “honest” alternative—a legitimate value of Country Life and animal This was all from a concept style that would still be within pets for children.” So, the next floor display his company set up reach of the middle class. logical step still was the creation as part of exhibitions in Nevertheless, for the period it of a boarding school for boys Syracuse, NY in 1903 as a sort of focuses on, we both thought the out in Morris Plains, New Jersey, debut of the Craftsman form in diversity of the objects presented in what is now Parsippany. America. It shows the Stickley told the story well and provided Craftsman Farms was designed ideal as it was envisioned on the a unique opportunity to see a to have vegetable gardens, cusp of his emergence as an broad range of his designs at orchards, dairy cows and early 20th century tastemaker. one place. Many of the pieces chickens. The goal was what he The remainder of the exhibit came from private collections saw as a wholesome, well- primarily features individual and had not previously been on rounded education founded on, pieces of furniture, pottery, public display. and as an extension of, the Arts metalwork, lighting and textiles, As someone with less & Crafts Movement. The main grouped to demonstrate the exposure to Stickley's work, house, intended as a clubhouse evolution of his design sense Gordon could easily see its for his students, was constructed over the next decade and half. evolution. Early pieces tended using timber and stone already The reviewers each approached towards thick, stout wood found on the property. the exhibit from very different members that used heavy By 1913, however, styles had starting points. Architectural hardware as ornamentation. The changed and the Arts & Crafts historian and conservator, thick iron strap hinges on doors Movement began to fade.

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