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ARTS & CRAFTS MO

VEMENT
Origins, History, Members

One of the most influential of modern art movements.

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 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).
John Ruskin ideas on the need to preserve individual craftsmanship
and design had a major impact on William Morris.
William Morris founded the design firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co to
recreate manual craftsmanship in the era of mass production.
Origins, History, Members

His ideas had a strong impact on numerous designers, manufacturers and

practitioners of Victorian art, and led to the creation of several organizations to
promote Arts and Crafts ideas, such as the Art Workers Guild (1884).
The Arts and Crafts Movement was primarily concerned with architecture and
the decorative arts, including stained glass, wallpaper, textiles, furnishings,
printed fabrics (chintzes), tapestry art, furniture, wood carving,
metalwork, ceramics, jewelry and mosaic art.
Other artists and designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement:
The painters Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82)
Ford Madox Brown (1821-93)
Scottish muralist John Duncan (1866-1945)
The ceramicist William de Morgan (1839-1917)
Origins, History, Members

Other artists and designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement:
The illustrator Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98)
The designers Philip Webb (1831-1915)
Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1857-1941) and Charles Ashbee (1863-1942)
The architects Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912)
Edward William Godwin (1833-86), and WR Lethaby (1857-1931)

The Arts & Crafts Movement opened the door for Art Nouveau in Europe
(1890-1905), the modernist designs of Swiss architect Le Corbusier (1887-
1965), Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and his Bauhaus Design School in
Germany (1919-33) and the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) in France. It
also influenced C.R.Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Painting: 1880-
1915.
Aims, Aesthetics and Ideals

The Arts and Crafts movement was a social/artistic movement of modern art.
Means works produced during the approximate period
1870-1970

The Arts and Crafts movement - began in Britain in the second half of
the nineteenth century and continued into the twentieth, spreading to
continental Europe and the USA.

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 application of design and aesthetics to objects of

function and everyday use. Examples: design and creative
ideals to objects of utility, such as a cup, magazine or
decorative park bench
William Morris

The leading champion of the Arts and Crafts movement

was the designer, painter, poet and social reformer.
A passionate Socialist, Morris proclaimed, "I do not want
art for a few, any more than I want freedom for a few."

Who proselytized the moral superiority

of the art of the Middle Ages, and the
art critic and writer John Ruskin (1819-
1900)

who denounced the greed and self-interest of

contemporary capitalist society.
 Developed the view that art should be both beautiful and
functional. His ideal, the pure and simple beauty of medieval
craftsmanship, was further strengthened by his friendships with members of
the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel
Rossetti, who also looked to the Middle Ages (hence the term 'Pre-
Raphaelite') for aesthetic inspiration and moral guidance.
The Red House (1859)
Morris's home in Bexley Heath, Kent
Marked the emblematic start of the
movement.
Morris commissioned it from his
friend, the architect Philip Webb,
for himself and his new bride.
The red brick house (hence the
name), with its free-flowing design,
the absence of pretentious facades,
the concern for structure and
sensitivity to local materials,
Is a landmark in the domestic revival traditional building methods and the
movement in Victorian particularities of location
architecture (1840-1900).
Queen Victoria
The Red House (1859)
Ornamental style of art that
flourished between about 1890 and
1910 throughout Europe and the
United States.
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'
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.
Almost the same period, but they are two
different design styles. Art Deco focused on
the meticulous decoration products, But
Bauhaus emphasis on simple and practical.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co

In 1861 Morris, Webb, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, painter Ford Madox Brown,

surveyor P P Marshall and accountant Charles Faulkner founded the
manufacturing and decorating firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner &
Co (later Morris & Co.).

The anti-industrial structure of the firm was based on the concept of medieval
guilds, in which craftsmen both designed and executed the work. Its aim was to
create beautiful, useful, affordable, applied-art objects, so that art would
be a lived experience for all, not just the affluent.

The members of the company turned their hands to designing and producing
domestic objects, including furniture, tapestry, stained glass, jewelry, furnishing
fabrics, carpets, tiles and wallpaper.
Ideology Not Design

The major innovation of the Arts and Craft movement.

A form of social or political philosophy in which practical elements are as
prominent as theoretical ones. It is a system of ideas that aspires both to
explain the world and to change it.

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.
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.
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.