Susan Vreeland -- Clara and Mr. Tiffany
=========================================

A delightful read with lots of meaty issues.

It reads like fiction, but it's based on letters and other factual
sources.  So, you will learn plenty, but you will also need to take
any particular "fact" in this book as speculation of how things
might have been.  If you are a skeptic like me, then you will even
be suspicious about it's portrayal of conditions in New York city
and the description of the process of producing stained glass
lampshades and windows, as interesting as those may be.

For me, however, the real value in this book are the issues it
raises and the thoughts that they stimulate.  Some of those themes
are:

- Labor, labor unions, workers rights and benefits -- There are some
  serious labor issues in this book.  From the point of view of the
  labor union, which is striking against the Tiffany company during
  the book, Clara and the women who work under her are scabs and are
  being used by Tiffany's management to reduce the value of union
  workers' labor and to break their walk-out.  From the point of
  view of Clara and her female cohorts, the union, which will not
  allow women to be members, is blocking them from the pay and
  recognition that they deserve. You will find plenty to stimulate
  you to think about women's right to work and women's status and
  value in the workplace.

- Love and passion and personal relationships -- Clara has an
  artist's sensitivities and is capable of suffering more over her
  personal relationships than many of us.  There are several very
  dramatic love-lost stories in the book, so the reading can be
  gripping.

- Glass, stained glass, stained glass windows and lampshades -- As
  you might expect, there is quite a bit about stained glass and
  about how to design and produce the pieces that contain it.

- Business values vs. artistic values -- Louis Tiffany, as the joke
  goes, knew how to make a small fortune in the art business, in
  particular by starting with a *large* fortune.  So, there is a
  reasonable amount of conflict over whether to produce exquisite
  works of art or art that sells, and whether to run the company as
  business or as a hot-bed of artistic development. And, this leads
  to conflicts over whether to produce individual works of art or to
  design pieces that can be produced in quantity from the same or
  similar design for sale at a lower price.

- An inside look at the company and the family and the money and the
  workers that built art and an art tradition.

And, some additional issues:

- Assigning credit for works of art -- If you are a woman, you can
  expect to grind your teeth and mutter under you breath while
  reading.  I felt that women got little recognition for the work
  they did nor for the art they created.

- Content in art -- The art that is at the center of this book is in
  that cross-over area between fine art and pieces produced by the
  arts and crafts movement, which made it especially interesting for
  me.  The art in these windows and lamp shades is not intended to
  be particularly representational.  As Tiffany himself says, the
  people at the center of this book are not botanists; they are
  artists.  They produce stylized representations that show
  structure and form, color and mood.

The book is a bit long for a slow reader like me.  But, I believe
that you will find plenty to appreciate in it.  I certainly did.

05/07/2011

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