The Arts and Crafts Movement in California: Living the Good Life - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1558593934 ISBN 13: 9781558593930

Publisher: Abbeville Press, 1993

Synopsis

This work focuses on the rich artistic and social history of the arts and crafts movement in California, as well as describing the highly collectable objects which the movement has produced. The period covered ranges from about 1895 to 1930. Artists include Julia Morgan and Dick van Erp.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"The best work in Arts and Crafts in America is already being produced on the Pacific Coast", proclaimed the English designer Charles R. Ashbee during a visit to the Bay Area in 1909. The accuracy of his praise is made vividly clear by this handsome publication, whiCh celebrates the beauty, skill, variety, and exuberance of the Arts and Crafts objects and architecture created in California during a brief but intensely prolific period between about 1895 and 1930. Inspired by the state's spectacular scenery, by its distinctive flora and fauna, and by its romantic past, the artists and artisans of California produced a unique variant of the Arts and Crafts movement. This ground-breaking book - which accompanies a major exhibition organized by The Oakland Museum - takes as its starting point the movement's ideal of "the good life", in which the virtues of simple living and high thinking were complemented by material well-being. Enlightening and entertaining essays by eight astute scholars present new information and insights about Arts and Crafts architecture and urban planning, garden design, interiors and resorts, tiles, pottery, metalwork, and furniture. Thoughtful introductory and closing essays analyze the movement and its visual and conceptual legacies in the context of that beguilingly idealistic era. Concluding the book are information-rich endnotes and a carefully focused bibliography, plus extensive artists' biographies and company histories that will be of particular interest to both scholars and collectors.

From Library Journal:

Developed in Britain in the second half of the 19th century, the Arts and Crafts Movement flourished in a unique regional variant in California from about 1895 to 1930. Rich in inspiration, artists reflected the climate, landscape, and the region's Spanish and Mexican heritage in their subjects and in decorative designs in pottery, furniture, and metalwork. In this volume, scholars chronicle this regional development and offer insights into the movement in nine essays that detail garden and interior designs; architecture; tiles; the movement in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Southland, and San Diego; and its eventual decline. Notes, artists' biographies, company histories, and a bibliography complete this focused study of a prolific period in the visual arts of California. Recommended for scholars and collectors as well as academic, museum, and large public library collections.
- Judith Yankielun Lind, Roseland Free P.L., N.J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Abbeville Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1558593934
• ISBN 13: 9781558593930
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328
• Editor: Trapp Kenneth R