ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT

1880 and 1910

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• One of the most influential of modern art movements, the
Arts and Crafts Movement was established in Britain about
1862 by the artist and medievalist William Morris (1834-
96), in response to the negative social and aesthetic
consequences of the Industrial Revolution

• The Arts and Crafts movement was an international

movement in the decorative and fine arts that flourished in
Europe and North America between 1880 and 1910

• It emerged in Japan in the 1920s.

• It stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms .

• It often used medieval, romantic or folk styles of

decoration.

• It advocated economic and social reform and has been said

to be essentially anti-industrial.
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• Its influence was felt in Europe until it was

displaced by Modernism in the 1930s and
continued among craft makers, designers and
town planners long afterward

• The term was first used by T. J. Cobden-

Sanderson at a meeting of the Arts and Crafts
Exhibition Society in 1887.

• The principles and style on which it was based

had been developing in England for at least
twenty years.

• It was inspired by the writings of the architect

Augustus Pugin (1812–1852), the writer John
Ruskin (1819–1900) and the artist William Morris
(1834–1896).
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Design principles

• 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.

• Basic need in creating patterns, the integrity of the surface.

• Dislike of excessive ornament and badly made things.

• Thought process like a healthy and moral society required independent workers who

designed the things they made.

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Design principles

• His followers in the Arts and Crafts movement favoured craft production over industrial

• Decorative objects for homes, including wallpaper, textiles, furniture and stained glass.

• Some designers used bold forms and strong colours.

• simple in form, without superfluous or excessive decoration, and in order to express

the beauty of craft some products were deliberately left slightly unfinished, expressing

the qualities of the materials

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Design principles
• 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.

• 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.

• It later influence the international Art Nouveau, in which designers would develop the look
without its social program.

• 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.
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• RED HOUSE