arts and craft movement

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The Arts and Crafts MovementRamaa Narayanan

2009

Arts and Crafts Movement

Arts and Crafts Movement: An England based movement; came about prompted by theoverriding importance that the mass-produced goods received at the cost of

craftsmanship.

It germinated about 1850 and dominated by the theories of William Morris. It strove to

raise the artistic level of industrial design and to integrate high aesthetic principles with

fine workmanship.

Arts and Crafts Movement was an Englishbased movement, begun about 1850and dominated by the theories of William Morris.

It strove to raise the artistic level of industrial design and to integrate high

aesthetic principles with fine workmanship.

founded in 1882

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The enormous expansion of machine production during the later eighteenth and the

nineteenth centuries required development of mass consumption for the new or more

cheaply manufactured products. From this need for a mass market there arose in the early

nineteenth century the credo (of much modern advertising), that only the most ornate, themost unoriginal, and the most vulgar products would sell. By the time of London

Exposition of 1851, the vast array of manufactured objects exhibited in Crystal palace

represented and even flaunted the degeneration of taste brought on by the emergence of amachine economy.

Many causes had been denoted to this degenerated situation; probably no single

explanation was entirely adequate. The critical position that the British Arts and CraftsMovement took was highly significant in this regard. The cause was simple. It was the

curse of the machine, destroying the values of individual craftsmanship on which highlevels of past artistic achievements rested. However, the machine of the nineteenth

century could not exist and function independent of human control.

The gradual introduction of mechanization, enabled faster, cheaper production, inquantity and to a standardized uniformity factors which meant that the individual was

no longer required to know all parts of a process providing one part could be repeated

competently, nor to develop and contribute personal creative skills. Mass production andmechanization necessitated the reorganization of the workforce under the factory system.

This led in turn to the growth of industrialization, and appalling social conditions forthose who laboured to produce wealth , but were given little share of it.

Ultimately, the machines gave rise to a society of wealthy manufacturers and humble

customers. The Arts and Crafts Movement fought a rear-guard action against the rising

tide of commercial vulgarization, by trying to turn back the clock. These were positivereactions against mass-produced designs in the late nineteenth century, articulated by

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William Morris, John Ruskin and others. These were reflected in the works produced by

the Arts and Crafts / Aesthetic Movement.

The Arts and Crafts Movement is a movement promoting craftsmanship and a

reform of industrial design. It was named after the Arts and Crafts Exhibition

Society founded in England in 1882. It had its roots in, John Ruskins and William

Morriss attempts to reform the decorative arts, emphasizing the potential for good

social and moral influence.

Fundamental to the various activities of William Morris - lectures, poetry, art work, etc. -was the belief that art and society are inextricably linked art for Morris meant not

only the fine arts of architecture, sculpture and painting but that great body of art by

means of which men have at all times striven to beautify the familiar matter ofeveryday life. He believed that such art arose from a basic human instinct to create,

and was a joy to the maker and user alike in that it satisfied personal creative

talent and at the same time enriched society as a whole. But the tradition upon whichsuch art rested the skills of the artist-craftsman, which Morris saw exemplified in

medieval workshop practice and guild system had been eroded. Since the Renaissance

the concept of the artist as a unique and special genius had led to a diminution in status ofthe craftsman and an inevitable division between the fine and decorative arts*. Thedistinction had a particularly adverse effect on applied art** especially during the

eighteenth century when the rise of an affluent middle class of then industrial society led

to an increased demand for furniture and furnishings.

Morris pointed out that the Industrialization had produced a society which denied tothe mass of its members the means and opportunity both of creative work and

quality of life. These fundamental rights, he believed, could only be restored by an

equally radical reorganization through socialism. That would bring about a society in

which the public, having control of all resources, would have the power to decide how

these could best be used for good of all.

The Arts and Crafts Movement

- stood for aesthetic standards of simplicity, fitness and propriety.- It was a crusade launched by John Ruskin and William Morris to create an

art made by the people, and for the people, a joy to the maker and the user

- It was an explicit and almost vehement crusade against machine made

objects.

- One of the aims of the Arts and Crafts Movement was to recreate thevernacular tradition which had been submerged by the Industrial

Revolution.

In a nutshell, the tenets of Arts and Crafts Movement are :

Fitness to use

Honesty of expression

Joy of making

These values originated to a great extent from William Morris, who had established

Morris and Company in 1888. As a designer Morriss ideas were embodied in the work

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of the firm Morris & Co., which produced stained glass, ceramics, metalwork, furniture,

wallpapers, and textiles.

The Arts and Crafts Movement spread from England to the United States; and alsoaffected the decorative arts in Germany and Austria.

Criticism against the Arts and Crafts Movement :The fallacy of the crusade was described by Hermann Muthesius as Wherever today

handicraft is elevated to an ideal, one has to assume that unnatural economic conditionconditions prevail. And immediately there comes to mind the peculiar cultural image that

William Morris and the English artists socialists have given us of an art of the peoplefor the people which, in the end, produced such expensive things that at the very most

only the upper ten thousand could consider buying them.

It should be remembered that Morriss solutions concerned with taste,

discrimination and a sense of quality.

The last word on the ideas and ideals of decorative arts as enshrined in The Arts andCrafts Movement may be cited in the words of William Morris

We ought to get to understand the value of intelligent work, the work of mens hands

guided by their brains, and to take that though it may be rough, rather than unintelligentwork of machines and slaves, though it may be delicate; to refuse altogether to usemachinemade work unless where the nature of thing made compels it, or where the

machine does what mere human suffering would otherwise have to do; to have a high

standard of excellence in wares and not to accept makeshifts for the real things, but ratherto go without it; to have no ornament merely for fashions sake, but only because we

really think it beautiful cited by Norah Gillow ; Keeper, Willaim Morris Gallery,

London 1987

William Morris Morris & Co. Founded 1888

Examples :

Wall papersTextiles : Chintze , woven textiles,

Embroidery

Carpet, rug and tapestryTiles.

Morriss first wallpapers were designed in the early 1860s. They had noticeablygeometric pattern structures. These were wood cut prints.These early papers required

twelve blocks to print the complete pattern.His wall papers were cut in pear wood and

printed on paper using distemper colours.

By the late 1860s, Morriss attention turned to textiles printing followed by weavingand embroideries.

The early patterns were predominantly, meandering lines flowing across the surface in a

loose informal pattern which deliberately concealed the structure of the repeats.By 1876,

Morriss interest in weaving led to a more formalized framework for his designs manywere based on a vertical turn-over structure adopted from weaving patterns. Naturalistic

elements like flowers and leaves became more conventionalized; and elements like

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flowers and leaves were trained to fit shapes like scrolls, ogees, and ovals. In the last

phase, from 1890 to 1896, saw a return to more flowing , less rigid patterns, often with an

upward movement swaying from side to side. The same naturalistic elements flowerslike daisies, violets, blackthorn sprays etc. were carefully arranged in a symmetrical

structure, combining formal design with loose bower like effect.

Structure was a crucial element of pattern designing, achieved by means of definite formbounded by firm outline. His pattern structure was marked by the universal acceptance

of continuous growth.

* decorative art : Any of the applied art like furniture, ceramics, glass, enamel, textiles,metalwork, etc., when found in a domestic context or contributing to

interior decoration.

**applied art :Art which is essentially functional, but which is also designed to beaesthetically pleasing. (for example, furniture, metalwork, clocks, textiles,

typography, etc.)

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