Apostles of beauty: arts and crafts from Britain to Chicago / edited by Judith A. Barter ; with essays by Judith A. Barter ... [et al.]

Chicago, Ill. New Haven [Conn.]: Art Institute of Chicago; Yale University Press [distributor], 2009. 1st edition. Hardcover. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust-wrapper. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Literally as new. Physical description; 207 p.: ill. (some col.); 32 cm. Notes; ""Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title organized by and presented at the Art Institute of Chicago from November 7, 2009 to January 31, 2010"" -- T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references (p. [204]-207) and index. Contents; British historicism and the road to modernism / Judith A. Barter -- The spell of Japan was upon them: Japanism and the arts and crafts movement / Ellen E. Roberts -- ""To promote and to extend the principles established by Morris"": Elbert Hubbard, Gustav Stickley, and the redefinition of American arts and crafts / Brandon K. Ruud -- ""A new and living spirit"": pictorialist principles and the arts and crafts movement / Sarah E. Kelly -- Chicago: a bridge to the future / Judith A. Barter and Monica Obniski -- Illustrated checklist. Summary; The Arts and Crafts movement in architecture, interior design, and decorative arts reached its peak between 1880 and 1910 in Britain and North America. The movement's emphasis on aesthetic quality and a high level of craftsmanship, promoted as an antidote to the ubiquity and uninspired appearance of machine-produced products, remains much admired today. Arts and Crafts enjoyed special resonance in Chicago, the home of Jane Addams's Hull House, where immigrants and women received training in handicraft skills not only to beautify domestic life but also to provide them with viable, honorable work. Apostles of Beauty presents outstanding examples by the movement's British originators, such as William Morris and Charles Robert Ashbee, as well as its greatest American practitioners, such as Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright. The volume highlights a wide range of objects, including ceramics, furniture, metalwork, paintings, photographs, and textiles. It focuses on Chicago's absorption and interpretation of the movement, featuring works from the Art Institute, the University of Chicago, the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Crab Tree Farm, and private collections. Contributors to the book explore the complex influences of the Arts and Crafts style and provide a thematic history of the movement, including a section on design and collecting in Chicago. Subjects; Arts and crafts movement - Great Britain - Exhibitions. Arts and crafts movement - United States - Exhibitions. Arts and crafts movement - Exhibitions. Decorative arts - 19th century - Exhibitions. Decorative arts - 20th century - Exhibitions. Art objects - Chicago - Exhibitions. Decorative arts - History - 19th century - Exhibitions. Decorative arts - History - 20th century - Exhibitions. Arts & crafts design. Illinois; United Kingdom, Great Britain; c 1800 to c 1900. ART / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945).