at Home with Gustav Stickley: Arts And Crafts from The Stephen Gray Collection

• Museum: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

• Visit Date: December, 2008

• Review Completed:

• Description:

  More than a chance to see rare early Stickley furniture from a renowned collector, Stephen Gray, who’s been gathering and researching the work of Gustav Stickley and other Arts and Craftsmen since the 1970s, the rack card for “At Home with Gustav Stickley” indicated that this exhibition might be an interesting take on the traditional decorative arts exhibition. The exhibition title was a nod to how the collector lives with his collection…in the rooms of his home in upstate New York, the pieces arranged to be used; lamps, garbage cans, wall art, sharing space with chairs, tables and rugs, arranged to suit his decorating taste. The idea behind this exhibition was to show these pieces as they are being used now, and might have been used in the past. Grey was quoted describing his collection as a work of art, consciously assembled over the years, and he wanted to share this with visitors.

  The exhibit seemed like it would have the potential to open conversation about the creative work that collectors do, and the idea that collections are a form of art, as well as offer some beautiful arts and crafts furniture on view. This sounded promising so on a cold day in December I went to the Wadsworth to see the exhibit.

  I entered the exhibition gallery, a fairly empty space with one text panel on the wall. The entranceway to the rest of the exhibit was defined by an arts and crafts styled portico with the typical square columns. With a brown carpet underneath foot, low lighting, and a cool color on the walls, the room and the portico seemed a little spare and cold.

  This spare feeling persisted throughout the exhibit. The labels were simple, black text on brown, no graphic treatment, limited to object identifications and quotes from Stickley. Perhaps the labels were designed to not detract from viewing the objects themselves, but the lack of any embellishment set a somewhat institutional tone that worked against the idea of being “at home” with these objects. And, while many of the objects were arranged in groupings to suggest their placement in a home, these weren’t quite object vignettes evoking the feeling of lived in rooms designed to personal taste. There was no wall paper, or textiles on floor or table, none of the casually left objects that surround us in daily life. Arts and Crafts homes were supposed to be alive with texture and rich with color. Publicity images from Stephen Gray’s home, featuring his collection, show this same attention to light, color, and warmth. This mood was missing from the space at the Wadsworth.

  I wondered if this lack of “hominess” was the result of was a tension in this exhibition between different ways of looking at these beautiful objects. On the one hand, the “At Home” model intended to get visitors thinking about how people actually live with these objects, and how art (hanging on the wall or the arrangements of our furnishings) is a part of our lives. The exhibition organizers tried to accommodate this way of looking, through furniture grouping and using some architectural embellishments such as the arts and crafts style portico at the beginning of the exhibit, and a few drop down ceilings to create the sense of a cosy space. But, without real vignettes only the very minimal sense of home was evoked. Having comments from Stephen Gray, scattered through-out that might have illuminated some of his aesthetic choices, his collecting ideas, his search for different aspects of Arts and Crafts furniture to fulfill a vision would have contributed here.

  On the other hand, I also saw that not having all these embellishments left the objects to be seen as objects, without distractions, without mediation or too much interpretation, encouraging the kind of looking that many people seek in any art exhibition. This sensibility called for a more spare approach that seems to have won the day. However, this was not entirely successful either as the exhibit design did not facilitate close viewing. Although there were no barriers around the object platforms, the pieces were placed in such a way that visitors couldn’t walk around objects or see details up close.

  In short I love the idea behind this exhibition, however, I felt like the execution didn’t quite live up to the possibilities in the premise. The idea that a collection is a work of art, essentially a creative endeavor, the art of gathering found things together in patterns and juxtapositions, the art of finding rhythm and rhyme or simply beauty in the objects of the world around us, is wonderful way to think about this activity that so many people engage in. Indeed, reflecting on this activity that spans collecting arts and crafts furniture to old cars to Barbie dolls, and recognizing the artist or creative soul in us all would be a great way to link this exhibit to the wider world, and perhaps to make us all feel at home with this rarified collection.

• Latest comments (1)

• by Kathleen McLean - 01/07/2009

  Hi Jessica, it would be great if you could add an image of the exhibition, even if you have to get it from the museum. Kathy

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