Review: The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene

Abstract

The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene ; Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California; 18 October 2008––26 January 2009; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; 13 March––7 June 2009; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; 14 July––18 October 2009 The reputation of the Greene brothers (Charles Sumner, 1868––1957, and Henry Mather, 1870––1954) rides very high among American architectural historians and Arts and Crafts enthusiasts, but with the larger public, even those interested in the visual arts, a general ignorance reigns. The furniture of the Greenes played a role in several of the major Arts and Crafts exhibits of the 1970s and '80s, but their work as a totality can only be seen in one building open to the public (the Gamble House, Pasadena, California), at several removes through the numerous books devoted to them, and a stray piece of furniture in a museum's collection. This exhibition was an attempt to develop a larger public awareness of their work. Composed of more than 120 objects (which varied depending on venue), a number of photographs, and several videos of the architecture and furniture, The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene was curated by the Gamble House's director, Edward R. Bosley, and its curator, Anne Mallek (Figure 1). Shown were student, working, detail, and landscape drawings; books, furniture, watercolors, lamps, windows, stained glass, metalwork, and other objects. The differences between the two brothers and their roles, with Charles (the eldest and the more creative) usually the design …