: Just open at the newly expanded Indianapolis Museum of Art is
"International Arts and Crafts," a comprehensive explication of
the Arts and Crafts movement as it expanded throughout England,
in Europe, the United States, Japan and Russia.
The exhibition, organized in London at the Victoria and Albert
Museum, features 300 objects, many of which are from the museum's
own collections. Other pieces are culled from museums and
collections around the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States,
Russia and Japan. The vast range of objects on view is
illustrative of the similarities and disparities of the movement
as it developed in various countries of the northern hemisphere.
Widely considered the first modern artistic movement, Arts and
Crafts was based on the classical ideal of balancing design and
function - of dulce et utile. Simplicity was the keynote.
It was also a reform movement.
