Cover image of the review
Installation view of Truth, Beauty & Utility: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Heidelberg, Heidelberg Historical Society

Truth, Beauty and Utility: the Arts and Crafts Movement in Heidelberg


9 Apr 2022
Heidelberg Historical Society Museum 1 Oct - 1 Dec 2022

The Arts and Crafts Movement can be somewhat difficult to appreciate as a precursor to the modernism of the early twentieth century given its “return to tradition” ethos. Although it sought to clear the clutter of the eclectic Victorian style, it ended up with the air of an antique store, another historicism albeit more refined. This latent antiqueness makes the headquarters of the Heidelberg Historical Society a perfect location for the exhibition Truth, Beauty & Utility: the Arts and Crafts Movement in Heidelberg, curated by Steven Barlow. The society is housed in a nineteenth-century courthouse, with the exhibition beneath the dark wood dome of the courtroom. The society’s archive bleeds out onto the edge of the exhibition space as plastic boxes, bags and bound volumes peek out from beneath what was originally a magistrate’s bench.

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