A review on Arts and Crafts movement, Art

Nouveau and Art Deco

Arts and crafts
The Arts and Crafts movement initially developed in England during the latter half of the 19th
century. Subsequently this style was taken up by American designers, with somewhat different
results. In the United States, the Arts and Crafts style was also known as Mission style. This
movement, which challenged the tastes of the Victorian era, was inspired by the social reform
concerns of thinkers such as Walter Crane and John Ruskin, together with the ideals of reformer
and designer, William Morris. (This link will take you to a less visual site that provides William
Morris historical background).
Their notions of good design were linked to their notions of a good society. This was a vision
of a society in which the worker was not brutalized by the working conditions found in factories,
but rather could take pride in his craftsmanship and skill. The rise of a consumer class coincided
with the rise of manufactured consumer goods. In this period, manufactured goods were often
poor in design and quality. Ruskin, Morris, and others proposed that it would be better for all if
individual craftsmanship could be revived-- the worker could then produce beautiful objects that
exhibited the result of fine craftsmanship, as
opposed to the shoddy products of
mass production.
 Thus the goal was to create design that was... “For the people and by the people, and a source
of pleasure to the maker and the user." Workers could produce beautiful objects that would
enhance the lives of ordinary people, and at the same time provide decent employment for the
craftsman.
Medieval Guilds provided a model for the ideal craft production system. Aesthetic ideas were
also borrowed from Medieval European and Islamic sources. Japanese ideas were also
incorporated early Arts and Crafts forms. The forms of Arts and Crafts style were typically
rectilinear and angular, with stylized decorative motifs remeniscent of medieval and Islamic
design. In addition to William Morris, Charles Voysey was another important innovator in this
style. One designer of this period, Owen Jones, published a book entitled The Grammar of
Ornament, which was a sourcebook of historic decorative design elements, largely taken from
medieval and Islamic sources. This work in turn inspired the use of such historic sources by
other designers.
However, in time the English Arts and Crafts movement came to stress craftsmanship at the
expense of mass market pricing. The result was exquisitely made and decorated pieces that could
only be afforded by the very wealthy. Thus the idea of art for the people was lost, and only
relatively few craftsman could be employed making these fine pieces. This evolved English Arts
and Crafts style came to be known as "Aesthetic Style." It shared some characteristics with the
French/Belgian Art Nouveau movement, to be discussed below.
However in the United States, the Arts and Crafts ideal of design for the masses was more
fully realized, though at the expense of the fine individualized craftsmanship typical of the
English style. In New York, Gustav Stickley was trying to serve a burgeoning market of middle
class consumers who wanted affordable, decent looking furniture. By using factory methods to
produce basic components, and utilizing craftsmen to finish and assemble, he was able to
produce sturdy, serviceable furniture which was sold in vast quantities, and still survives. The
rectilinear, simpler American Arts and Crafts forms came to dominate American architecture,
interiors, and furnishings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Today Stickley's furniture is prized by collectors, and the Stickley Company still exists,
producing reproductions of the original Stickley designs.
The term Mission style was also used to describe Arts and Crafts Furniture and design in the
United States. The use of this term reflects the influence of traditional furnishings and interiors
from the American Southwest, which had many features in common with the earlier British Arts
and Crafts forms. Charles and Henry Greene were important Mission style architects working in
California. Southwestern style also incorporated Hispanic elements associated with the early
Mission and Spanish architecture, and Native American design. The result was a blending of the
arts and crafts rectilinear forms with traditional Spanish colonial architecture and furnishings.
Mission Style interiors were often embellished with Native American patterns, or actual
Southwestern Native American artifacts such as rugs, pottery, and baskets. The collecting of
Southwestern artifacts became very popular in the first quarter of the twentieth century.

Art Nouveau
This style, which was more or less concurrent with the Arts and Crafts style, was not at all
concerned with the social reform movements of the day. Instead, it addressed the clutter and
eclecticism of mid-19th century European taste. Originating in Belgium and France, this
movement advocated nature as the true source of all good design. Art Nouveau designers
objected to the borrowing of design ideas from the past, and even from other cultures, although
the Japanese approach to nature was much admired and emulated.
The origins of Art Nouveau are found in the resistance of William Morris to the cluttered
compositions and the revival tendencies of the Victorian era and his theoretical approaches that
helped initiate the Arts and crafts movement. However, Arthur Mackmurdo's book-cover for
Wren's City Churches (1883), with its rhythmic floral patterns, is often considered the first
realisation of Art Nouveau. Around the same time, the flat perspective and strong colors of
Japanese woodcuts, especially those of Katsushika Hokusai, had a strong effect on the
formulation of Art Nouveau's formal language. The wave of Japonisme that swept through
Europe in the 1880s and 1890s was particularly influential on many artists with its organic
forms, references to the natural world, and clear designs that contrasted strongly with the
reigning taste. Besides being adopted by artists like Emile Gallé and James Abbott McNeill
Whistler, Japanese-inspired art and design was championed by the businessmen Siegfried Bing
and Arthur Lasenby Liberty at their stores in Paris and London, respectively.
Although Art Nouveau took on distinctly localised tendencies as its geographic spread
increased—discussed below—some general characteristics are indicative of the form. A
description published in Pan magazine of Hermann Obrist's wall-hanging Cyclamen (1894)
described it as "sudden violent curves generated by the crack of a whip", which became well
known during the early spread of Art Nouveau. Subsequently, not only did the work itself
become better known as The Whiplash, but the term "whiplash" is frequently applied to the
characteristic curves employed by Art Nouveau artists. Such decorative "whiplash" motifs,
formed by dynamic, undulating, and flowing lines in a syncopated rhythm, are found throughout
the architecture, painting, sculpture, and other forms of Art Nouveau design.

The characteristics of the style included above all the use of the sinuous curved line, together
with asymmetrical arrangement of forms and patterns. The forms from nature most popular with
Art Nouveau designers were characterized by flowing curves-- grasses, lilies, vines, and the like.
Other, more unusual natural forms were also used, such as peacock feathers, butterflies, and
insects.
Architects and designers who contributed to the development of this style included Victor
Horta , Hector Guimard, and Henry van de Velde. The glass and jewelry design of Lalique, as
well as the stained glass and other designs of Louis Comfort Tiffany and Emile Galle (nice video
at bottom of page) were important examples of Art Nouveau style. A distinctive graphic design
style developed, which included typography styles as well as a distinctive manner of drawing the
female figure. The prints of Aubrey Beardsley and Alphonse Mucha are typical of this style.
 Art nouveau represents the beginning of modernism in design. It occurred at a time when
mass-produced consumer goods began to fill the marketplace, and designers, architects, and
artists began to understand that the handcrafted work of centuries past could be lost. While
reclaiming this craft tradition, art nouveau designers simultaneously rejected traditional styles in
favour of new, organic forms that emphasized humanity's connection to nature. 

Art deco
Art Deco belongs to a world of luxury and decadence, the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s.
The very term conjures up a multitude of romantic images; huge ocean liners gliding effortlessly
across moonlit seas; the sound of clinking cocktail glasses and the sound of a raucous jazz band
emanating from a sumptuously decorated ballroom.
Despite this Utopian emphasis on luxury; Art Deco emerged in an era of economic slumps
and depressions, social strife, hunger marches and the political battle between Communism and
Fascism. It was against this troubled and traumatic background that Art Deco forged it’s own
identity. Art Deco was essentially an eclectic style; it’s artists and designers plundering a
diversity of historic sources. Simultaneously, however, it emphasised modernity, employing the
latest industrial materials and techniques. It was this fusion of history and modernity that gave
Art Deco its unique character. Ultimately, this world of exuberance, vitality and beauty was a
world of fantasy, a world as escapist as any of the Hollywood musicals of the same era. It’s
legacy, however, is one of great beauty, craft and imagination. It was a style used primarily in
the design of buildings, furniture, jewellery, and interior decor. 
Art deco is characterized by sleek, streamlined forms; geometric patterns; and experiments
with industrial materials such as metals, plastics, and glass. The term art deco is a shortening of
the title of a major Paris design exhibition held in 1925, Exposition Internationale des Arts
Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Industrial and
Decorative Arts), where the style first became evident. Art deco quickly gained hold in the
United States, where it reached the height of its achievement in architecture, especially in New
York City's soaring skyscrapers of the late 1920s and early 1930s such as the Chrysler, Daily
News, and Empire State buildings. Because many art deco buildings went up during a period of
economic collapse known as the Great Depression, the style is sometimes known as depression
moderne.
Art deco was also a product of the fertile artistic exchange between Paris, France, and New
York City that occurred after World War I (1914-1918). American artists, writers, and musicians
flocked to Paris after the war and brought with them a fresh approach to creative work. The
French, who grounded their art in a firm grasp of tradition, absorbed something of the American
spirit of improvisation. Later, American architects who had trained at Paris's École des Beaux
Arts (School of Fine Arts) brought European influence to the design of New York's many art
deco skyscrapers.

1. Bauhaus
Bauhaus the famous German school of design that had inestimable influence on modern
architecture, the industrial and graphic arts, and theatre design. It was founded in 1919 by the
architect Walter Gropius in Weimar as a merger of an art academy and an arts and crafts school.
The Bauhaus was based on the principles of the 19th-century English designer William Morris
and the Arts and Crafts movement that art should meet the needs of society and that no
distinction should be made between fine arts and practical crafts. It also depended on the more
forward-looking principles that modern art and architecture must be responsive to the needs and
influences of the modern industrial world and that good designs must pass the test of both
aesthetic standards and sound engineering. Thus, classes were offered in crafts, typography, and
commercial and industrial design, as well as in sculpture, painting, and architecture. The
Bauhaus style, later also known as the International Style, was marked by the absence of
ornament and ostentatious facades and by harmony between function and the artistic and
technical means employed
.
In 1930 the Bauhaus came under the direction of the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who
moved it to Berlin in 1932. By 1933, when the school was closed by the Nazis, its principles
and work were known worldwide. Many of its faculty immigrated to the United States, where
the Bauhaus teachings came to dominate art and architecture for decades.

2.DecorativeArts
The first designers to contribute to the creation of art deco were French fashion designer Paul
Poiret and French jewelry and glass designer René Lalique. Echoing the experimental glass of
American designer Louis Comfort Tiffany, Lalique's glass designs of the 1910s featured
continuous, flowing lines and subtle, unusual colours. The colorful and original designs created
by artists Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso for the Ballets Russes dance company in Paris were
an additional influence on the emerging art deco style. Art deco designers also admired and
borrowed from ancient art that was being unearthed by archaeologists at the time, especially the
treasures of the ancient Egyptian king Tutankhamun (exhibited in Paris in 1922) and Maya and
other Mesoamerican art.

At the 1925 exposition several French masters unveiled work that created an international stir.
Elegant inlaid wood furniture by Jacques Émile Ruhlmann, functional lacquerwork by Jean
Dunand, silver jewellery by Jean Puiforcat, and glass vases by Lalique were hailed for their
modernity and original lines. Ruhlmann designed a series of rooms for the exposition that had a
far-reaching effect on American and European taste. Lalique later created a similarly
streamlined decorative scheme for the luxurious French ocean liner Normandie. Both designs
displayed clean abstract lines in metal, porcelain, enamel, and exotic woods, evoking what was
viewed at the time as the speed and grace of machinery in motion.

3.Architecture
In architecture, the crowning achievements of art deco occurred not in Europe but in the
United States. A trio of New York City skyscraper specialists set the stage for an explosion
of creative activity during the 1920s and early 1930s. Architects Raymond M. Hood, Ralph
Walker, and Ely Jacques Kahn produced many of the city's landmark tall buildings and
inspired other designers with their innovations in form, materials, and decoration. A major
influence on their work was a never-executed design by Finnish-born American architect
Eliel Saarinen that he entered in the 1922 Chicago Tribune Building competition. Although
his proposal did not win, it helped popularise the use of setbacks, the stepped building profile
that became associated with so many art deco skyscrapers. New York's 1916 building and
zoning ordinances also encouraged the use of setbacks in tall buildings to enable sunlight to
penetrate to the canyonlike streets of the city.
American designer Donald Deskey created interior furnishings and fixtures using new
materials such as Bakelite (a type of plastic), chrome-plated metal, linoleum, and glass
bricks. American designer Raymond Loewy brought art deco into people's homes with his
streamlined design for the Coldspot refrigerator. Hollywood added to the style's popularity
by featuring glamorous moderne interiors in motion pictures of the 1930s
The art deco style remained influential well into the 1940s. Like many design styles that
are now considered classic, art deco reflected a key moment in modern cultural history—the
age of jazz, streamlined cars, elegant costumes, and those classic early skyscrapers.
Yet the greatest evidence of the enduring fascination with Art Deco resides in the
influence the movement has had upon contemporary artists, designers and architects. A
classic example of Art Deco revivalism can be seen in the M16 headquarters Building in
London. With its slick, decorative and highly detailed façade it rises from the river Thames
like the fantasy stage set to a 1930s Hollywood spectacular. This paean to the decadence and
romance of the Deco period provides evidence of the endurance and popularity of the style
that was Art Deco.

. ARTS AND CRAFTS

Arts and Crafts" was a movement founded in England in 19th century by William Morris.
Morris' main aim was to promote an approach between art and industry to create high artistic
quality products emphasizing handmade experience.
The movement found its inspiration in the working way of medieval and Renaissance period
and it had a decisive part in minor and decorative arts' development, also thanks to the
numerous exhibitions starting from 1888 and bearing the same name.
It was the Art Nouveau, that's to say a block of architecture, furniture and objects featured by
the employment of curvy shapes clearly inspired by nature world, it was seen as the way to
carry out a global ambient renewal. Arts and Crafts creations (conceived by architects and
designers) always needed expert craftsmen's intervention to be produced.

Arts and Crafts movement had different names in the various western countries: Jugendstil in
Germany, Sezession in Austria, Modernism in Spain, Liberty in Italy. The major
representatives were: Virctor Horta and Henry Van de Velde in Belgium, Charles Rennie
Mackintosh in Glasgow , Otto Wagner and Joseph Hoffmann in Vienna, Antoni Gaudì in
Barcelona.