What is California Design?
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Alternative lifestyles so fashionable in the 60's have been quietly pursued ever since by independent artists determined to survive outside of the mainstream. California is home to many of these makers of fine contemporary furniture and functional objects whose work is now recognized and accepted as part of contemporary culture. California's contemporary craft movement actually began after WW II when the flower children were still in diapers. Its roots go still further back to the Bauhaus in pre-WW ll Germany and the Arts and Crafts Movement in late nineteenth century England.

Now recognized and documented in books, museum exhibitions and galleries across the country, the furniture and objects in clay, glass, fiber and metal made by California's independent craft artists have their place in collections and private homes. California Design 2002 is the latest phase in a long line of exhibitions, articles, and books attempting to define and record the development of this lively movement.

Of course, there is an East Coast complement, and contemporary craft artists live and work in every state, but Californians have created a genre that is specific to the West Coast. The work reflects the mystique that has prevailed since the gold rush, attracting adventurers, entrepreneurs and artists to the land of infinite possibilities. It is imaginative and experimental. Rules are often broken. Offbeat forms and materials are combined and, of necessity, new methods of fabrication are developed.

The functional furniture and objects shown in California Design exhibitions since the 50's were not produced by chance. The work reflects the lifestyles of both the artists and consumers, the natural environment, the political and economic climate in the state.
Over time, we can trace the development of these elements through the objects made by and for Californians.

Eleven California Design shows were held in Pasadena from 1954 to 1976. These exhibitions that included hundreds of objects designed for industry as well as individual works by craft artists did a great deal to increase public awareness and understanding of contemporary design and the value of hand made objects. The catalogs with inventive photography principally by Richard Gross, carried the message to the East Coast and beyond.

In 1989 Eudora Moore, curator of the last three California Design Exhibitions held in Pasadena, entrusted the title to the Baulines Craft Guild. The BCG, founded in 1972 by a group of artists around furniture maker Art Espenet Carpenter is an organization of craft artists working in all media and devoted to the preservation of California's fine craft legacy. In addition to California Design, the organization sponsors exhibitions and an apprentice program. An exhibition of BCG members' work at the Bolinas Museum and Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael will be held in May/June 2002 to mark the organization's 30th anniversary.

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