‘Beauty In Simplicity’ Honors Arts and Crafts Movement

Virginia Jones Maher’s name is already recognizable in the Door County art world as an art historian with many ties to local arts organizations. Now she’s published a new art book, Beauty in Simplicity, that’s an homage to the pottery – and ideals – of the Arts and Crafts movement of the 1880s-1920s.

The book pairs photographs of pottery vases, bowls and jardinieres taken by Maher with quotations from renowned practitioners of the movement, including William Morris, Louis Sullivan, Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright. The quotations highlight the tenets of a movement that celebrated simple lines, utility and nature; and eschewed industrialization, mass production, frills and extravagance.

Maher will read excerpts from the book Oct. 7 at Write On, Door County. Beauty in Simplicity is available at sandbeachpress.com and at local outlets.