Designed for living

Andrew Lambirth finds plenty to enjoy at the V&A’s Arts and Crafts show, despite the gloom

International Arts and Crafts is the third of the V&A’s major 19th/20th century ‘lifestyle’ themed exhibitions, following on from the successes of Art Nouveau (2000) and Art Deco (2003). Both those shows were ingenious and loving tributes to their subjects, and spectacles of the highest order. Before that, in 1996, there was the justly famed celebration of William Morris. What the current show (until 24 July and sponsored by Heal’s) proves beyond doubt is the danger of establishing a pattern and expecting every cultural development to rise to the occasion and create a similar star turn in exhibition terms. Sometimes the raw material simply isn’t suitable. In the case of International Arts and Crafts, despite a luminously beautiful book that accompanies the show (V&A Publications, £40 in hardback), the actual experience of walking through the galleries is somewhat dispiriting.

It must be said that this impression is not helped by the forlorn aspect of the supposedly ‘permanent’ collection galleries through which the visitor has to pass — they’re denuded and scruffy. Where are the exhibits? What’s happened to the Pisanos and the other denizens of the sculpture court? (Surely one of the reasons why museums exist is so that a permanent collection may be readily consulted.) Why is the garden being dug up yet again? Is the V&A the only museum where they search you on the way out (not on the way in) to ensure you haven’t pocketed something from its shamefully unguarded galleries? Inevitably, these thoughts are carried into the Arts and Crafts exhibition, which is unfair. Thankfully, the first few rooms — packed as they are with period treasures — do much to dispel the prevailing gloom.