Gustav Stickley Exhibition Coming to Newark

 

We’re less than two months out from the launch of our major fall exhibition—Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement. The Dallas Museum of Art organized it, and we’re getting the honor of premiering it here in Newark. 

'Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement' opens September 15, 2010 at the Newark Museum. Photo captions below.

 

It is a large show, with a wide range of unique objects in it—but it’s largely devoted to the remarkable modern-looking furniture designed and produced by Gustav Stickley’s operation in the first part of the 20th century. No one has ever attempted an exhibition like this, and the pieces in the show have been gathered from museums and private collections from all over the U.S. Most of the pieces in the show have never been seen publicly before. 

What I love about this show (aside from the fact that furniture is one of my passions—just look at my permanent galleries here!) is that it taps perfectly into our roots as a museum. It is exactly 100 years since our first decorative arts exhibition (Modern American pottery, 1910) and I can’t think of a better way to mark that centennial. Stickley and his family were living in New Jersey when the Newark Museum was founded (Craftsman Farms, their estate in Parsippany, is now a museum, and is a collaborator for the exhibition); and Stickley furniture was being marketed in Newark by the city’s major art gallery, Frederick Keer’s Sons.  

To watch the exhibition being installed, visit the Newark Museum’s Web site weekly at  www.newarkmuseum.org. 

photo captions: front (clockwise from left): Side Chair, Designed c. 1903, Oak, pewter, copper, various woods, rush (replaced), 47 ¼ × 18 ½ × 16 ½ in., The Estate of Dr. Edgar G. McKee. Three-Fold Screen No. 81 (detail), Designed c. 1905, Oak, linen, burlap, silk, Crab Tree Farm. Electric Lantern No. 777, Designed c. 1908, Copper, glass. 15 × 10 ¼ × 10 ¼ in., Crab Tree Farm. All photos © Dallas Museum of Art.