Art and Money
January 24th, 2009 | by Conrad Walton |The New and Native Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene
I visited “The New and Native Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene and Greene” at the Huntington Library today. It was a rainy day, but the exhibit closes in 2 days, so this was our last chance. The rain kept the riff raff out, so it was not crowded and it was a pleasant experience.
Greene and Greene
The thing that struck me about what I saw today was how their ideas and ideals were forced upon their clients. They had the audacity to believe that they were artists and that their clients should appreciate that. Is the customer always right? Uummm…yeah, kind of.
When they were building the Pratt house in Ojai, the owner complained about missed schedules and cost overruns. Anyone who’s built a web site knows how that works. Their response was that even though they appreciated the frustration of the owner, what he was getting was not just house, but a work of art, which takes time and effort to complete properly and would be well worth it in the end. I’ve seen the house and it’s magnificent. I’m not sure Mr Pratt was satisfied.
During the depression, they still made magnificent houses, but not as many. They still charged the same high prices. They were creating art and it could not be achieved with shortcuts.
The balance between the business and the creative process was a delicate one. In their case, the business suffered in service to the art, finally being dissolved in 1922. What they achieved has stood the test of critics and time and is as amazing today as it was then. They created a whole new way of building houses, with a new attitude behind how life should be lived in these houses.
Is it worth it to sacrifice business for art? I don’t know. I need to pay the mortgage and eat, but beyond that, maybe art is the greater calling. Were they self indulgent, self centered, and egomaniacal? Maybe. So is Steve Jobs and I love my iPhone. He’s a billionaire.
As much as our users need to be considered in our web design, we, as the developers, the creators of the web site, need to instill our passion, our vision, our knowledge of how things SHOULD be into every web site. As much as I love SEO and Wordpress and AdSense and marketing, our one true goal, our pure artistic vision, needs to be embodied in our web sites. Maybe there’s art in SEO. Maybe marketing is an art too.
Gamble House, Pasadena, CA
I think that as we lose the need for money, as we let that go and accept being poor, in the pursuit of artistic vision, in the pursuit of our passion, of what we love and know is the best, I think that then, and only then, does the money seem to come back in response. As we push it away and turn towards the artistic ideal, somehow, the money seems to be attracted back to that ideal. Maybe that’s a little too idealistic, too simplistic, I mean there’s always the lottery, but it does seem to be a tendency in life.
Don’t let the pursuit of money ruin your passion. Don’t let worry cloud your vision. Be who you are and the money will follow.
In 1943, in retirement, Charles Sumner Greene said “I did not always give them what they wanted, but always what they liked.
Tags: content, design, development, web development
Interesting post. Friday, I was at the LA county museum of modern art, yes in the rain. On permanent display is what I would describe as a dining room hanging light. Design my the Greens. Why it stuck me, was the “cloud lift” design. I was not sure if that was from the Gamble house or another work, one of those Pasadena houses had the “cloud lift” motif (I visited that house some 20+ years ago). But it was strange for you post and I to see similar work in the same week.
Today they are heroes. Back then, they were self indulgent.
Wow. That is strange that you and I would both see G&G stuff on display. Me and you man, we’re like “that”.