Flawed history of decorative arts

Press, 19 November 1988, Page 27

Flawed history of decorative arts

The Encyclopedia of Decorative Styles 1850-1935. By William Hardy, Steven Adams and Arie Van De Lemme. Macdonald New Burlington Books, 1988. 352 pp. Illustrations. $49.99.

(Reviewed by

Fiona Ciaran)

This book covers the enormously productive periods of the Arts & Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco. It features a different type-face, border motif, and end-paper for each of the three sections — an idea which divides the material well. Among the fields included are ceramics, glass, jewellery, furniture, architecture, metalwork, textiles, tableware, fashion, and graphic design. Visually very appealing with a high standard of photography this is an attractive introduction for the general reader to browse through. Most of the

illustrations are of well-known artworks and buildings selected precisely because they represent the design ethos of the art movement discussed. Any book featuring stunningly beautiful vases by Lalique, furniture by Galle, textiles by Morris, and sculpture by Chiparus cannot fail to impress. The Arts & Crafts Movement is dealt with sensibly, describing the setting up of the crafts guilds in the United Kingdom and the United States. Issues of individual design and fabrication versus the mass-production and marketing required to make a liv.'ng are thoughtfully argued. Particularly good are the illustrations of rooms furnished with art works of the same period which give some idea of how a wealthy aesthete may have lived in the Victorian era. The section on Art Nouveau

highlights the fantastical side of the movement and the sources of iconography that resulted in, for instance, bizarre, but breathtaking jewellery redolent of fin de siecle decadence. The contrasting simplicity of line that characterises Art Deco work is clearly demonstrated and the machine aesthetic discussed. Art Deco style in Weimar Germany and postrevolutionary Russia, so often overlooked, is included. However, as an encyclopaedia in the comprehensive sense, this volume is deficient. Some dates are spurious and many works are not dated or even approximated. The index has misspelt names. While furniture and ceramics are relatively generously covered sections such as jewellery and fashion are scant. A major problem is the woeful under-representation or even mention of women artists and their work. Candace Wheeler, Clarice Cliff, Maria Nichols, Natalia Goncharova, and Margaret Macdonald make it, but where are such luminaries as Ernestine Mills and Veronica Whall? We are told (none are depicted), that Sonia Delaunay’s avant-garde textile designs are “adaptations of her husband’s serious high art.” The fact that Delaunay was and is a recognised artist in her own right has eluded the author. Such treatment of art movements and the “decorative arts” in which women were not only very active, but also particularly encouraged to participate, is restrictive. The seductive illustrations in this book belie a retrograde style of art history.