FROM ARCHITECTURE TO OBJECT: Masterworks of the...

FROM ARCHITECTURE TO OBJECT: Masterworks of the American Arts & Crafts Movement by Michael Fitzsimmons, Ann Yaffe Phillips, James L. Reinish (Dutton: $22.50) . The Arts and Crafts Movement in England and America was largely a revolt against the shoddy mass-produced products of the later 19th Century. Although William Morris, the apostle of the movement, spoke eloquently of democratizing good taste and recreating the sense of communal effort that produced the great medieval cathedrals, the resulting products were far too expensive for mass consumption. Many of the beautifully designed and detailed objects in this catalogue from an exhibit held at Hirschl & Adler Galleries in New York and the Struve Gallery in Chicago remain extraordinarily handsome, although the preponderance of dark wood and heavy metalwork seems a bit oppressive at times. The elegantly functional tables, vases, chairs and stained-glass windows appear doubly striking in an era saturated with post-modernist chatchkis and ‘50s retro kitsch.