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Arts and Crafts movement that flourished between
1860 and 1910, especially in the second half of that
period, continuing its influence until the 1930s.
One of the most influential modern art movement by
the artist and medievalist William Morris (1834-96), in
response to the negative social and aesthetic
consequences of the Industrial Revolution.
Arts and Crafts movement began in England. It was first developed
in the 1850s by Birmingham set. Their importance as a group was
largely within the visual arts, where they played a significant role in
the birth of the Arts and Crafts Movement: The Set were intimately
involved in the murals painted on the Oxford Union Society in 1857
The movement took its
name from the Arts and
Crafts Exhibition Society,
set up in 1888, although
its origins went back to
the negative sentiment
generated by the Great
Exhibition of 1851,
which was ably
articulated by the art
critic John Ruskin (1819-
1900).
Aims, Aesthetics and Ideals
• Its adherents - artists, architects, designers, writers,
craftsmen and philanthropists - were united by a
common set of aesthetics, that sought to reassert the
importance of design and craftsmanship in all the arts
in the face of increasing industrialization, which they
felt was sacrificing quality in the pursuit of quantity. Its
supporters and practitioners were united not so much
by a style than by a common goal - a desire to break
down the hierarchy of the arts (which elevated fine
art like painting and sculpture, but looked down
on applied art), to revive and restore dignity to
traditional handicrafts and to make art that could be
affordable for all.
The Arts and Crafts Movement was primarily
concerned with architecture and several of
the decorative arts, including stained glass,
wallpaper, textiles, furnishings, printed fabrics
(chintzes), tapestry art, furniture, wood
carving, metalwork, ceramics, jewelery
and mosaic art.
Ruskin’s ideas on the need to preserve
individual craftsmanship and design had a
major impact on William Morris, who founded
the design firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner
& Co to recreate manual craftsmanship in the
era of mass production.
Although Morris's firm was a commercial
success, only rich people could afford his
designs. Even so, his ideas had a strong impact
on designers and some manufacturers, and
led to the creation of several organizations to
promote Arts and Crafts ideas, such as the Art
Workers Guild (1884).
A passionate Socialist, Morris
proclaimed, "I do not want art for
a few, any more than I want
freedom for a few.“
Red house
The Red House (1859), Morris's home in Bexley Heath, Kent, marked the
emblematic start of the movement.
The red brick house, with its free-flowing design, the
absence of pretentious facades, the concern for
structure and sensitivity to local materials, traditional
building methods and the particularities of location, is
a landmark in the domestic revival movement.
Morris himself designed the garden, and the interior
was fitted and decorated by Webb, the Morrises,
Rossetti and Burne-Jones, resulting in what Rossetti
described as 'more a poem than a house'.
It is, in fact, the earliest example of the concept of a
'total work of art' (gesamtkunstwerk) that would
become central not only to the Arts and Crafts
philosophy, but to many other movements, among
them Art Nouveau, the Bauhaus and Art Deco.
Ideology - Not Design
The major innovation of the Arts and Craft movement was
in their ideology, not in their style or design, which harked
back to medieval architecture and tapestries, illuminated
manuscripts and rustic styles of decoration and furniture.
Tellingly, their themes and subjects were often drawn from
Arthurian legend or the poetry of 14th-century poet
Geoffrey Chaucer.
Moreover, though the movement was successful in raising
the status of the craftsman and promoting respect for
native materials and traditions, it failed to produce art for
the masses: its handmade products were expensive.
Ideology - Not Design
By the 1880s one could live in a house designed by Webb,
decorated with Morris wallpaper, with ceramics by William de
Morgan and paintings by Burne-Jones, while wearing clothing based
on Pre-Raphaelite dress - but only if one was wealthy.
Morris himself is best known for his use of flat, formal pattern
designs for wallpaper and tiles characterized by a richness of colour
and complexity of design.
Architecture
• The architecture of the Arts and Crafts Movement was its
most radical and influential aspect, and architects such as
Webb, Voysey, M. H. Baillie Scott (1865-1945), Norman
Shaw (1831-1912) and Charles Rennie Mackintosh,
developed principles which not only influenced 19th
century architecture but would later become the
touchstones of twentieth-century architects.
• These included the belief that design should be dictated by
function, that vernacular styles of architecture and local
materials should be respected, that new buildings should
integrate with the surrounding landscape, and that
freedom from historicist styles was essential.
Architecture
• The result was a number of buildings -
especially houses for the middle class - that
architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner called
'fresher and more aesthetically adventurous
than anything done at the same time abroad'.
These architectural canons fed the growing
Garden City movement in Britain in the early
twentieth century, which brought together on
a large scale Arts and Crafts design and
Morris's social reform ideals.
Mary Ward’s house
Black frair Pub
Hampstead Garden Suburb
• The Garden City movement was based on the
theories of Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928), as
put forward in his highly influential
book,Tomorrow: a Peaceful Path to Real
Reform, 1898 (later revised as Garden Cities of
Tomorrow in 1902). Howard's social policies
advocated the creation of small, economically
self-sufficient cities throughout the country,
with the aim of halting urban sprawl and
overcrowding. Numerous such cities were built,
with varying degrees of success, and the
ordinary home became the focal point of
progressive architects throughout the country.