Lofty aims achieved

International Arts and Crafts
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Through Jan. 22

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is working hard to elevate its public reputation to an international one, which is to say, a cosmopolitan one. That particular goal tucks nicely into the larger envelope of the city’s higher cultural aspirations, spearheaded in large part by the Arts Council of Indianapolis and its offshoot, the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission, who look to any large effort on the part of cultural institutions as a means to that end. The IMA is certainly in a mode to make a name for itself, but it does so by making the most of its strengths rather than riding on the laurels of any publicity effort on the part of the city.

These Mackintosh panels are part of the International Arts and Crafts exhibit at IMA.

The IMA’s first large-scale exhibition since its reopening last June, International Arts and Crafts, does much to move the city up a notch in that regard. While the “new” IMA building itself is smart-looking if awkward in places, the overall feel of the museum is a more urban one — odd, in a sense, given the museum’s pastoral campus; but on the other end, it sends a message to the city’s visitors that the museum sees itself on a par with other larger urban-based art institutions. And indeed it is, in many important respects. The museum’s strengths happen to include, to a great degree, its decorative arts collection — including quite notably its Asian works and textiles — and its beautiful Olmstead-envisioned campus and restored Oldfields country estate.

That said, it’s an interesting parallel to make between the museum’s importing for a time International Arts and Crafts, originating from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London — and marking the first of only two U.S. stops for the exhibition — and the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts Movement, which speaks to a marriage of simplicity of design, beauty and hand-crafted individualism in the functional arts. International Arts and Crafts is, in a word, stunning. And certainly, it fits the bill as a blockbuster, which could be loosely defined as a generally accessible exhibition of artwork that has categorically wide name recognition — and whose ultimate intention is to achieve commercial success.

But International Arts and Crafts goes deeper. It’s a collection of beautiful things, to be sure; but it also speaks to a changing worldview at the turn of the 19th century into the 20th, and is a fine example of art having merit at face value and at more substantive levels, if one chooses to go there.

On the day I visited with family members, the special exhibition galleries were bustling with visitors, who were clearly enjoying the fruits of this hard-won effort. From large pieces of period furniture to hand-sewn and hand-embossed books and manuscripts, plus ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewelry, paintings, drawings and textiles in great supply, the exhibition is an intoxicating example of design artistry that is borne of a thoughtful philosophical approach.

The Arts and Crafts Movement, begun in the 1880s in Great Britain, was a response to the machine-dominated Industrial Revolution. John Ruskin, now known primarily for his writings, was one of its leading theorists, alongside William Morris, more known for his designs. The movement reinvigorated the values of fine craftsmanship and individualism, integrating the making of art into everyday life — another way of saying that one’s surroundings are equally important to one’s quality of life, on a spiritual as well as functional level.

International Arts and Crafts gives a thorough overview, moving through the works of originators such as Ruskin and Morris and others in Great Britain, and on into the United States, where the movement flourished in the Midwest, upstate New York, Boston and California. The movement also felt its influence in Scandinavia, Austria, Russia and Germany, where it led to a revival of nationalism. The exhibition flows seamlessly from its geographical beginnings through its international counterparts, including Japan, which saw its own decorative arts movement.

Does the exhibition stand up to its lofty aims? Absolutely. From stunning examples such as C. R. Ashbee’s “Lovelace” (escritoire, or writing desk), simply and beautifully designed and stained in deep green and painted red with an overlay of design and text, to Joseph Maria Olbrich’s relatively small jewelry box in ebonized sycamore, ivory, abalone, silvered brass and copper (Germany, c. 1901), and a generous sampling of the larger pieces by well-known designers Gustav Stickley and even Frank Lloyd Wright, the exhibition shows how the movement was exemplified by far more than the notion of “form meets function.” In other words, it’s in the details — the loving details.

International Arts and Crafts is on view through Jan. 22, 2006, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road. Call the museum at 923-1331 or visit www.ima-art.org for hours and admission details.