Organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, this is the first nationally touring exhibition to focus on the career of Gustav Stickley (1858–1942), one of the leading figures of the American Arts and Crafts movement. The exhibition examines Stickley’s contributions to the history of American design and architecture during his most productive and creative period, from 1900 to 1913.
From The Craftsman magazine to his own stores in New York, Washington and Boston, Stickley offered customers a complete lifestyle based on his philosophy of simple design and quality materials. Ranging from furniture to metalware and embroidered textiles to architectural designs, the majority of the more than 100 objects in the exhibition are from private collections and have never been seen before by the public.
One of the exhibition’s highlights is the re-creation of the dining room first displayed in the 1903 Arts and Crafts Exhibition organized by Stickley and exhibited in his Syracuse Craftsman Building. Other highlights include an armoire, ca. 1907-1912, which Stickley kept for his private use in the decades after he sold his business, and works showcasing his experimentation with different varnishes, which can still be seen as a patchwork of colors on the undersides of the drawers. Also on view is a rare armchair, c. 1903, with copper and wood inlay reflecting Stickley's brief foray into decorated Arts and Crafts furniture influenced by the work of progressive British and Scottish designers.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 272-page catalogue, Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement, by Kevin W. Tucker, curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Dallas Museum of Art, with essays and contributions by Beverly K. Brandt, David Cathers, Joseph Cunningham, and Beth Ann and Tommy McPherson and an introduction by Bonnie Pitman.
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