‘A Brass Menagerie’ At

 Bard Graduate Center

 

Photos e-m by hollis 7-9

 

1 col parkertable.jpg

Brass and earthenware, table, circa 1880–85, by Bradley & Hubbard Mfg Co. Collection of Munson-Williams-Proctor-Arts Institute Museum of Art, Utica, N.Y.

1½ col clock

Clock, 1880, patinated copper, silver, brass, other metals, fiber rope; attributed to Reed & Barton. Collection of Muson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, Utica, N.Y.

1½ col escutcheons

Escutcheons, circa 1880, bronze; Russell & Erwin Mfg Co.; designed by Rololphe Christensen. Collection of Robert Tuggle and Paul Jeromack

Article was typeset

 

 

 

MUST RUN 7-13

‘A BRASS MENAGERIE’ AT BARD GRADUATE CENTER, w/3 cuts

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NEW YORK CITY — “A Brass Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement” is on view at The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture through October 14.

Organized and curated by Anna Tobin D’Ambrosio, curator of decorative arts at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art in Utica, N.Y., where the exhibition originated, it contains more than 75 pieces of brass and mixed-metal furniture as well as accessories ranging from chandeliers and andirons to door hardware, hanging shelves and clocks.

The exhibition continues the Bard Graduate Center’s examination of the Aesthetic Movement, this time with the focus on the United States. It is the first in-depth examination of this multifaceted aspect of the Aesthetic Movement in America.

The Aesthetic Movement was a late Nineteenth Century artistic movement in England and America. Formed in reaction to the perceived philistine tastes of the middle class, it espoused art for art’s sake while denying any social or moral value in art. (Both James McNeill Whistler and Oscar Wilde were advocates, and were thoroughly lampooned in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience.)

In America the movement was introduced at the Centennial celebration in Philadelphia in 1876. It remained popular in this country through the 1880s and was particularly evident in the decorative arts, as manufacturers created innovative and artistic applications of industrial metals that were visually and materially complex and called “art brass” or “artistic bronze goods.”

Most of the pioneering manufacturers of aesthetic-style metals — such as The Charles Parker Company and Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Co, both of Meriden, Conn., — are represented in the exhibition by numerous objects that show the range and diversity of their products.

Among the imaginative objects in the exhibition are Parker Company hanging shelves, tables and a lamp, all with silver -plated surfaces outlined in brass and embellished by gold and silver plated, three-dimensional decoration. The furniture design is a mixture of Anglo Japanesque and Modern Gothic forms executed in interchangeable elements with Japanesque surface finish and ornamentation.

Many motifs found on aesthetic metals are derived from Japanese art, such as the dragonlike creatures and butterflies that adorn a table by Ansonia Copper & Brass Company of Ansonia, Conn., or the stylized Japanese crest images that embellish other tables.

The crane motif, also derived from Japanese art and culture, where it symbolizes longevity, pervaded the ornamentation of art brass goods. R. Hollings & Co. of Boston incorporated this theme into an exotic-looking floor lamp made about 1886 and accented by earthenware tiles patented by J. and J.G. Low Art Tile Works of Chelsea, Mass.

Japonisme is even more dominant in the door hardware made during the same period. Richly decorated doorknobs, escutcheons and hinges that feature fully articulated Japanese figures and architecture highlight “A Brass Menagerie.”

Vibrant polychrome ceramics and exotic flourishes drawn from Moorish and Persian designs accent other wares, such as tables made by Bradley & Hubbard and lamps by a host of other companies. Art brass maximized mass production techniques and helped to set the stage for Twentieth Century decorative arts that would also utilize tubular metals and other industrial materials in the creation of decorative household goods.

A full illustrated, 96-page catalog, accompanies the exhibition.

An array of lectures, panels and other offerings will be presented in conjunction with “A Brass Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement.”

The Bard Graduate Center is at 18 West 86 Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. For information, www.bgc.bard.edu or 212-501-3011.