The Arts and Crafts movement was a movement of decorative arts reform inspired by the ideas of William Morris (1834 - 1896) and others in the second half of the 19th century. It had a significant impact on the development of 20th century decorative arts and design. The Arts and Crafts movement, which criticized mechanized mass-production and instead found its ideal in medieval craftsmanship, was embraced by a new generation of British architects and artists, who spread its influence to continental Europe, North America and even Japan. The influence of the Arts and Crafts movement on furniture design, ceramics and other decorative arts was particularly pronounced from the 1890s onward in the United States, where Arts and Crafts exhibition societies sprung up in major cities across the country, and practitioners of ceramics and other crafts set up numerous art colonies.

This exhibition looked at approx. 150 works including those by Morris and the British Arts and Crafts artists and designers, the Glasgow School artists and designers led by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and American artists and designers such as Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Exhibits :

• 147 pieces (wallpaper, textile, furniture, lamp, book, vase and others)

Concept :

• Michael Whitemay

Catalogue texts :

• Peter Cormack
• Wendy Kaplan
• Hiroaki Kimura

Lenders :

• William Morris Gallery
• Crab Tree Farm Foundation
• The De Morgan Foundation
• Private lenders
• Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
• Museum Meiji-Mura