Karl Blossfeldt
(1865-1932)
Blossfeldt was born in Germany in 1865. His early apprenticeship was at an
ironworks, where he developed a responsiveness to curving, attenuated forms. His
early art training at the Royal Academy of Decorative Arts in Berlin, from 1881 to 1884,
coincided with his first experiments with the relatively new medium of photography.
Traveling through Italy, Greece and North Africa, Blossfeldt photographed the plant forms
he found growing there in precise detail and often at high magnification.
Originally intended as visual models for his own ironwork, they became teaching aids for
his classes at his old school in Berlin, where he became a professor in the early
1890's. At this time, many of these striking images existed only as large-format
lantern slides.
In 1928, however, Blossfeldt published his photographs in a
volume of high-quality photogravures under the
title Urformen der Kunst (Archetypes of Art), reproducing in print form the
images from the 1880's that had proved so influential in the development of the German and
Austrian Jugenstil movement. The book
created an immediate sensation in the photographic, architectural and design world,
(Alfonso Iannelli, who often collaborated with Frank Lloyd Wright, owned a copy) and an
English version, Art Forms in Nature, was published in New York in 1929.
In contrast to the soft-focus, hazy effects favored by other
turn-of-the-century photographers, Blossfeldt's sharp, detailed images present not only
his sublime sense of composition and style, but also look forward to the work of later
masters of photography such as Paul Strand, Aaron Siskind and Robert Mapplethorpe.
The modernity of Blossfeldt's images is all the more striking when one realizes that they
were taken in the late 1880's. However, Blossfeldt's work also raises a question
that is wider that the history of photography alone. That is, did Jugenstil
design, which grew out of a study of the underlying structure of plant forms and
manifested itself primarily in the realm of architecture and the decorative arts, develop
a kind of abstract ornament and help to create a receptive climate for other forms of
abstraction? A study of Blossfeldt's photographs provides at least a partial answer
when one considers these images against the backdrop of forms found in the paintings of
many of European and American painters of the 1930's and 1940's. Compare
Blossfeldt's spare and monumental images to the work of painters like Georgia O'Keefe or
Arthur Dove, and a sympathy of spirit and intent is immediately apparent, stemming
ultimately from a commonly shared modern aesthetic. One last interesting fact to
consider is that Blossfeldt attended the first progressive "kindergarten"
established by the pioneer in early childhood education, Friedrich Froebel, whose theories
of education were to prove one of the cornerstones of the career of Frank Lloyd Wright. Click
here for books on Blossfeldt
Oscar B Erickson
(1883-1970)
Oscar Erickson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied
painting and printmaking at the Milwaukee Art League and later at the Art Institute of
Chicago. He also attended the Woodstock, NY summer school for artists, a popular
artists' colony at the turn of the century, where he apprenticed under John F
Carlson. He was an active member of the Palette & Chisel Club in Chicago as well
as the Hoosier Salon in Brown County, Indiana. His work is characterized by a rich,
jewel-like color palette and a remarkable ability to capture the effects of light and air
on the landscape.
Dirk van Erp
Arriving from the Netherlands in
1885 Dirk Van Erp already carried the knowledge acquired working in his family’s
hardware business. He found work in the shipyards of San Francisco, fashioning brass shell
casings into art wares on the side. He left the shipyards to open a retail store in
Oakland, CA in 1908, and in 1910 Van Erp moved his business back to San Francisco. The
studio produced a vast array of handwrought metalwork, including lamps, vases,
candlesticks, bookends and desk and table accessories. Most of Van Erp’s work was in
copper, although some exists in brass and iron as well.
Van Erp’s lamps, easily his most important creations, were only
done on special commission and comprised about 25% of the firm’s output. The lamps
retailed anywhere from about twenty to one hundred and fifty dollars.
At its height Van Erp’s studio employed up to 5 craftspeople. His
daughter Agatha and a designer Thomas Arnold McGlynn formed the decorating department,
where all non-hammered decoration such as stenciling and piercing was done. A brief
partnership with Eleanor D’Arcy Gaw in 1910 left Van Erp with more sophisticated
designs to build on for the future.
Charles P. Limbert
The American furniture industry was
quick to follow the success of Gustav Stickley’s Arts & Crafts line. At the Grand
Rapids furniture fair of 1900, Limbert's "Holland Dutch Arts and Crafts" was
introduced. Limbert apparently chose the name of the line due to the large Dutch
population in his area. Although sales and literature boasted a Dutch heritage for the
company’s designs, many designs were actually derived from British and Austrian
sources.
John Modesitt (b.1955)
In his earlier years Modesitt was moved by many
European Impressionists' paintings around the world. He then studied in many notable
institutions, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, as well as the Art
Institute of Chicago. Modesitt has only painted natural scenery thus far in his
life, to " rekindle an awareness of the natural world". Using
only the best quality archival materials, with hand ground quality oil paints, Modesitt's
art has fulfilled his goal of depicting the beauty and creation and the ideal of life.
Philip Gregory Needell (1886-1974)
Philip Gregory Needell was an English
woodcut artist who produced delicately colored prints of scenes in both England and
France. Needell exhibited at the SGPIC from 1927-1936.
Charles Rohlfs
Charles Rohlfs was one of the American Arts
& Crafts Movement’s most creative artist/craftsmen. He strayed from the simple
lines that Gustav Stickley so religiously used, instead employing a style rich in carvings
and wonderful ornament from both other cultures and other styles, including Chinese,
medieval and art nouveau.
Rohlfs started his career in woodworking in the 1880’s,
abandoning a promising theatrical career as a condition of marriage. He opened his first
commercial workshops in 1898, and the Marshall Field’s Department Store held an
exhibition of his work in 1900. His furniture was well received world wide. After an
exhibition in Turin in 1902 Rohlfs was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in
London and commissioned to provide a set of chairs for Buckingham Palace.
Rohlfs’ works can be compared favorably to that of many European
designers of the time, such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh and C.F. A. Voysey. Despite the
highly decorative nature of his furniture, Rohlfs’ work is still considered part of
the Arts & Crafts movement due to his highly-individualistic, sophisticated design
vocabulary as well as his use of quartersawn white oak, fully-expressed joinery and
relatively direct approach to forms.
Micah Schwaberow
Micah Schwaberow lives in Santa Rosa, California. He studied for one year
with the master printmaker Toshi Yoshida. With extraordinary patience and respectfulness,
he observed "the ballet" of the printmaking process and applied to his own work.
His woodblock prints, which are small treasures, consist mainly of subtle landscapes and
line drawings of the female figure. By working small, Micah says he is forced to condense
what he is trying to say. He thinks of his work as "color haiku, large places
compressed. Intimate glimpses through small windows." Micah hopes that his reverence
for his subject matter comes through to the viewer and "acts as a kind of medicine,
or like a little piece of healing." Micah explains, "I'm interested in honoring
a small event or an event that isn't Mt. Fuji, in hopes that it will help people see that
they're surrounded by these small magical events in their lives, but maybe they forgot to
notice."
Albert Stickley(1851-1954)-Stickley
Brothers
The Stickley Brothers Company was founded by Albert
Stickley and brother Leopold in Grand Rapids, Michigan in1891. The firm also had a
showroom and factories in England around this time, and it is felt that they were the
first of the Stickley-owned companies to introduce Arts & Crafts furniture to the
United States.
Along with most of the major furniture manufacturers from the US and
abroad, Stickley Brothers Company participated in the annual furniture trade fairs which
took place in Grand Rapids in the fall. Their most interesting furniture designs had an
English look about them, and it is likely that the company both manufactured for the
English market and imported those same designs into the United States to appeal to an
increasingly sophisticated clientele. Stickley Brothers introduced inlaid furniture in
about 1901, two years before Harvey Ellis introduced it to older brother Gustav
Stickley’s line, but it appears that the Stickley Brother’s inlay work was
sub-contracted to another Grand Rapids firm, T.A. Conti & Company, who’s senior
member won medals worldwide for his work. He remained with Stickley Brothers from
1895-1903.
Gustav Stickley (1858-1942)
Perhaps the best known of the five Stickley brothers,
Gustav, the eldest, was born in Wisconsin to German immigrants. In 8th grade
Gustav left school to join his father in stonemasonry to help support his family, a trade
which Gustav was none too fond of. In mid 1870 the family moved to Brandt, PA where Gustav
set to work in his Uncle Jacob Schlaeger’s chair factory. Fourteen years later Gustav
would leave this factory to start a business with his brothers Charles and Albert in
Binghampton, N.Y.
Lacking sophisticated machinery, Gustav produced work which was very
simple and more vernacular in design as early as the late 1880’s. His full conversion
to Arts and Crafts began after a trip to England in 1898. When Gustav returned from this
trip he established United Crafts, the forerunner of Craftsman Workshops.
Although credited for starting the Arts and Crafts movement in the
U.S., it was already evident in domestic and international journals, and utopian
work/communities like the Roycrofters, where already producing Arts & Crafts style
furniture.
In 1901 Stickley published The Craftsman magazine, a monthly
journal devoted to the Arts and Crafts style with articles on everything from home
decorating and gardening to house plans and poetry.
In 1903 Gustav hired Harvey Ellis (1852-1904) to provide designs for The
Craftsman. Eventually Ellis worked his way into Gustav’s workshop and managed to
add his design skills to Gustav’s still simple approach to furniture making. With a
British style similar to that of Scottish designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh or English
architect MH Baillie-Scott, Ellis transformed the bulky furniture of Gustav Stickley into
a more lyrical creature, still keeping a good balance of simplicity and beauty.
In 1915 Gustav declared bankruptcy and in 1918 his workshops were taken
over by his brothers Leopold and John George, co-owners of the L&JG Stickley Company.
Leopold (1869-1957) and
John George Stickley(1871-1921)
Leopold and John George Stickley modeled their company
and products after the work of their brother Gustav. Leopold had worked for Gustav’s
Craftsman Workshops and was familiar with the designs as well as the business.
While much of the firm’s work is reminiscent of that of their
older brother’s company, the best of L&JG Stickley’s output can be seen as
an individual expression of talented craftsmen and designers creating their own pieces.
When Gustav declared bankruptcy in 1918, his younger brothers absorbed his debts and
obligations, bought out his remaining inventory, and for a short time continued to produce
some of his designs under a conjoined label.
When the demand for arts and crafts waned after the First World War,
L&JG introduced alternative styles, such as colonial revival designs.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
Frank Lloyd Wright is believed to be one of the most
influential figures to come out of the Arts & Crafts movement. As a member of
Chicago’s turn of the century Prairie School, Wright promoted architecture and
furnishings consistent with site and functionality, constructed of natural materials
relieved of unnecessary ornament and derived from nature.
Wright once worked in the architectural firm of Louis Sullivan, but
left in 1893 to begin independent practice. In his work, Wright stressed organic
conception, which "emphasized the geometric relationships underlying all
structures." Wright was also strongly influenced by Japanese art, and visited Japan
in 1905.
Wright founded the Chicago Arts & Crafts Society in 1897. Though
most of his beliefs in the movement were strong he often spoke out against the
movement’s opposition to machinery. Wright argued that machinery made pieces more
affordable while freeing the mind of the artisan from the drudgery of repetitive tasks. He
warned that we should never underestimate the possibilities inherent in mechanization,
declaring in one manifesto that his "god is the machine."