The Legacy of Robert Judson Clark Lives On

Teacher, mentor, friend and pioneer of the Arts & Crafts revival, Robert Judson Clark passed away at his home, surrounded by his family, on Tuesday, January 4th, after a lengthy illness.

Robert was best known to the Arts & Crafts world as the driving force behind the landmark 1972 exhibition "The Arts & Crafts Movement in America: 1876-1916," which debuted at Princeton University before traveling to the Art Institute of Chicago and then to the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC.

For more than two decades afterwards, the famous green exhibition catalog by the same name, which Robert wrote and edited, served as the most comprehensive and reliable source of information for the budding crowd of Arts & Crafts collectors.

Robert Judson Clark's exhibition and accompanying catalog opened an entire generation's eyes to the scope of the Arts & Crafts movement. While even in 1972 many had at least heard of the names of Gustav Stickley, Frank Lloyd Wright and Elbert Hubbard, the Princeton exhibition showcased for the first time individuals who had been overlooked and nearly forgotten: Charles Rohlfs, the Kalo Silver Shop, Ernest Batchelder, the Shop of the Crafters, Robert Jarvie and the Rose Valley Association, just to name a few.

Robert received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University, where he taught from 1968 to 1996. Since then he had served as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton.

Robert had also published extensively on architecture and the decorative arts in Germany, Austria and England, and contributed to several other works, including Towards A Simple Way of Life: The Arts and Crafts Architecture of California.

He was always a renowned scholar, a determined researcher and dedicated teacher, as he continued to write, lecture and share his information and research with audiences from Princeton University to the Grove Park Inn to Berkeley, California.

Robert Judson Clark has left his mark on all of us, including those who, until today, may not have known about him.

A memorial service will be held this Saturday, January 8th, at 11:00am at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints Chapel, 3776 Via Granada, Moraga, CA. Visitors may meet the family beginning at 10 o'clock that morning.

- Bruce Johnson

- To read about plans for a tribute for Robert Judson Clark at the Grove Park Inn Arts & Crafts Conference next month, please see my Little Journeys column at the bottom of the Home Page.