MOHAI show on how the Northwest embraced Arts and Crafts movement

Art, craft, history and lifestyle all intersect in this multifaceted exhibit at Seattle's Museum of History & Industry.

Curated by Lawrence Kreisman, of Historic Seattle, and Glenn Mason, co-owner of Cultural Images, a consulting firm to museums and historical societies, "The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest" encompasses painting, photography, stained glass, tilework, jewelry, ceramics, furniture, architecture and more.

The exhibit drives home the point that the late 19th-century design movement was about life philosophy as much as aesthetics and that it found a particularly warm reception in the Pacific Northwest, where its influence lingered far longer than in other parts of the country.

Kreisman and Mason view the Arts and Crafts ethos as a reaction against "ornate Victorian style and growing mass production." They trace its beginnings to late Victorian England, where William Morris and John Ruskin were among its advocates.

In its American incarnation, it drew on Japanese and Native-American aesthetics and Spanish Colonial design of California and the Southwest. By the first decade of the 20th century, thanks to improvements in transportation, postal and library services, it was flourishing in the Pacific Northwest.

The exhibit, based on Kreisman and Mason's 2007 book of the same name, includes a bit of everything, from a striking pewter tea service by Archibald Knox, dating from 1903 and showing a marked Asian influence, to a beautiful 1918 vase with a "vellum finished birch trees scene" painted on it by Edward Timothy Hurley for Rookwood Pottery, a Cincinnati maker of tiles and ceramics that penetrated the Pacific Northwest market through high-end retailers such as Frederick & Nelson.

The most beguiling parts of the exhibit aren't necessarily the art objects on display, but its documentation of key Arts-and-Craft figures — for instance, Elbert Hubbard, the New York founder-editor of the magazines Fra (a self-described "Journal of Affirmation") and The Philistine ("A Periodical of Protest").

Hubbard could be a bit full of himself. "Your city is getting more intelligent," he told The Spokesman-Review when he visited Spokane in 1909. "There were 200 more people at my lecture tonight than when I was here before and if they were not intelligent, you know they would not attend."

Seattle and Portland also figure prominently. There's a sampling of work by Portland book-cover designer Bertha Stuart and Seattle camerawoman Ella McBride.

The Oregon Chair Company's King Craft furniture is well represented, as is Craftsman architecture. Local periodicals (Bungalow Craftsman) and books ("The Seattle Home Builder and Home Keeper") make clear just how enthusiastically this design revolution was embraced in the Northwest.

The exhibition's smaller details are among its most seductive, including a display of poster stamps created between 1909 and 1925 to "promote places, business, products, events and tourism."

One celebrates Eugene as "The City of Radiation" (a radiant sun and spokes-like rail network converge on the town) while another characterizes "Mount Tacoma" (Mount Rainier) as the place "where Santa Claus spends his summers."

The exhibit concludes with contemporary works — nested glass "baskets" by Dale Chihuly, a block print by Yoshiko Yamamoto — that illustrate the continuing influence of Arts and Crafts sensibilities in the present day.

Well organized and briskly informative, "The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest," which continues through Jan. 18, is a satisfying survey that may prompt visitors to explore further.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com