ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT

 
Origin:
United Kingdom
 
Key Characteristics:
Simplicity of form, plain linear shapes

First phase: inspired by natural plants and animal forms

Second phase: more abstract, inspired by movement and

mythical creatures.
 
 Key Facts:
 Believed in the superiority of handcrafted objects
over machine made, machine production regarded as
being degrading to both creator and consumer.
 Advocates of the Arts and Crafts ideal formed
guilds and crafts societies, each with their own
style, specialization, and leaders, to discuss and share
ideas.

 Belief that good design could reform society and

improve the quality of life of the creator and
consumer alike.
Key people / figures:

 William Morris
 A W N Pugin
 John Ruskin
 Arthur Mackmurdo
 Charles R Ashbee
 The Arts and Crafts Movement
 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.

 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 reminiscent 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.“

 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
Stickle 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.
 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.
 Yet, while the Arts&Crafts movement was in large part a reaction to
industrialization, if looked at on the European whole, it was neither anti-
industrial nor antimodern. Some of the European factions believed that
machines were in fact necessary, but they should only be used to relieve the
tedium of mundane, repetitive tasks. At the same time, some Art & Craft
leaders felt that objects could also be affordable. The conflict between quality
production and 'demo' design, and the attempt to reconcile the two, dominated
design debate at the turn of the last century.

 Those who sought compromise between the efficiency of the machine and the
skill of the craftsman thought it a useful Endeavour to seek the means through
which a true craftsman could master a machine to do his bidding, in opposition
to the reality which was much more prevalent during he Industrial Age; humans
had become slaves to the industrial machine.
 The Arts and Crafts Movement began primarily as a search for authentic and
meaningful styles for the 19th century and as a reaction against the eclectic revival
of historic styles of the Victorian era and the "soulless" machine-production of the
Industrial Revolution.

 Its practitioners advocated the equality of all the arts and the importance and
pleasure of work. Considering the machine to be the root of many social ills, some
turned entirely towards handcraft, which made their products expensive and
affordable only by the rich.
 The appearance of Arts and Crafts objects
 resulted from the principles involved in their making. One of their hallmarks was
simplicity of form, without superfluous decoration, often exposing their
construction. Another was truth to material, preserving and emphasizing the
qualities of the materials used. Arts and Crafts designers often used patterns inspired
by British flora and fauna and drew on the vernacular, or domestic, traditions of the
British countryside.

 Many set up workshops in rural areas and revived old techniques. They were
influenced by the Gothic Revival(1830-1880) and were interested in all things
medieval, using bold forms and strong colors based on medieval designs
 Great Britain
 William Morris's Red House in London.
 William Morris (1834-1896) was the central figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris's
ideas emerged from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which he had been a part, and were
influenced by Ruskin's books The Stones of Venice and Unto this Last, which sought to relate
the moral and social health of a nation to the qualities of its architecture and designs. In 1861
he founded a company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., which produced decorative objects
for the home including wallpaper, textiles, furniture and stained glass, designed and made by
Morris and his colleagues. In 1890 Morris set up the Kelmscott Press, for which he designed a
typeface based on Nicolas Jenson's letter forms of the fifteenth century.[7]
 Red House, Bexleyheath, London (1859), designed for Morris by architect Philip Webb,
exemplifies the early Arts and Crafts style, with its well-proportioned solid forms, deep
porches, steep roof, pointed window arches, brick fireplaces and wooden fittings. Webb
rejected the grand classical style, found inspiration in British vernacular architecture and
attempted to express the texture of ordinary materials, such as stone and tiles, with an
asymmetrical and quaint building composition.[2]
 Morris's ideas spread in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, spawning many
associations and craft communities, although Morris himself was not involved in them during
the mid 1880s because of his preoccupation with spreading socialism. A hundred and thirty
Arts and Crafts organizations were formed in Britain, most between 1895 and 1905
 Morris wanted a home for himself and his new wife, Jane. He also desired
to have a "Palace of Art" in which he and his friends could enjoy
producing works of art. The house is of warm red brick with a steep tiled
roof and an emphasis on natural materials. Red House forms an early
essay in a romantically-massed, non-historical, brick-and-tile domestic
vernacular style; it has diverse windows and a beautiful stairway.
 The garden is also significant, being an early example of the idea of a
garden as a series of exterior "rooms". Morris wanted the garden to be an
integral part of the house, providing a seamless experience. The "rooms"
consisted of a herb garden, a vegetable garden, and two rooms full of old-
fashioned flowers — jasmine lavender, quinces, and an abundance of
fruit trees — apple, pear and cherry.
 John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was an English art critic and
social thinker, also remembered as a poet and artist.

 His essays on art and architecture were extremely influential in the Victorian
and Edwardian eras.

Ruskin first came to widespread attention for his support for the work of J. M. W.
Turner and his defence of naturalism in art. He subsequently put his weight
behind the Pre-Raphaelite movement. His later writings turned increasingly to
complex and personal explorations of the interconnection of cultural social and
moral issues, and were influential on the development of Christian socialism He
set forth his theory about the relationship between art and morality in the first
volume of Modern Painters.
Ruskin believed that individual
craftsmen produced the most
beautiful and unique work.

These craftsman, if given the

freedom to design, were
capable of producing beautiful
works of art befitting religious
structures
 Ruskin's contributions included his avowed dislike for classical works in
buildings & art and his substitution of the Gothic with its asymmetry and
roughness as the ideal for new art. Along with William Morris, he was critical
of the new industrialization taking place in Europe and America. Ruskin's most
radical idea was his total rejection of any machine produced products. He
characterized all machine made objects as "dishonest." He believed, along with
Morris, that handwork and craftsmanship brought dignity to labor. He further
felt that the factory/industrial work of the age disrupted the natural rhythms of
life by imposing artificial hours and conditions on workers. To this end he
founded a utopian Arts & Crafts community in 1871.

 Ruskin is most famous for his two books; "The Seven Lamps of Architecture"
(1849) and "The Stones of Venice" (1853). These works established the criteria
for judging the value of art(s) for several generations in both Britain and
America
 Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was the first architect to deplore
industrialism and exalt gothic architecture and medieval furniture.
 After a series of deaths in his family, including his young wife, his father and
mother, and his aunt, who left him a small inheritance, he decided to turn his
talents to architecture, became a Catholic, and spent time travelling in England
and abroad, studying Gothic architecture and design

 . He published "Contrasts" (1836), which argued that since gothic was an

expression of a Roman Catholic society, only such a society could produce true
gothic. He continued to expound this position in True Principles of Pointed
Architecture (1841) which John Ruskin used as a foundation for his criticism
of Victorian excess.

 From 1837 until his death, he designed some hundred or so buildings,

mainly churches and his work includes several Roman Catholic cathedrals,
including St. Ostwald's in Liverpool, St. George's in Southwark and St. Chad's
in Birmingham.
 He attempted to create entire coherent, consistent architectural and interior
environments "to express entire schemes of design in Gothic terms, rather than
employ Gothic architectural details as means of decorations." He was a prolific
designer of stained glass, metalwork, furniture, textiles, wallpapers,
embroideries, ceramics, and jewellery.

 In 1836 and 1837 and again in 1844 and 1852 he worked with Charles Barry on
the designs for the new Houses of Parliament with responsibility for designing
all the ornamental detail, and probably also the execution of the working
drawings.
 n 1813 Thomas Scarisbrick had employed Thomas Rickman to do alterations to the hall.
In 1836 his younger brother Charles employed A.W.N.Pugin to produce designs for his
alterations. On his death in 1860 his sister inherited the building and she engaged E.W.
Pugin for her alterations and later still her successor employed Peter Paul Pugin.
 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.
 In the United States, it should be noted, the term
Arts and Crafts movement is often used to denote
the style of interior design that prevailed between
the dominant eras of Art Nouveau and Art Deco ,
or roughly the period from 1910 to 1925
 ART NOUVEAU
  
 Origin:Europe

 Key Features:
 Curvilinear: organic foliage forms, sinuous lines, nongeomertic whiplash curves
 Rectilinear: geometric forms, severe silhouettes
  
 Key Facts:
 Rejected historicism and, for this reason, is often described as the first truly modern,
international style
 The introduction of new forms, the embracement of mass production, and the focus of
the natural as the source of inspiration
 In Spain, France, England, Vienna, and the USA, the designs were dominated by
curvilinear whiplash motifs, while Vienna, Scotland, and Germany, they were
predominantly rectilinear
  
 Key people / figures:

 Charles Rennie Mackintosh

 Hector Guimard
 Èmile Gallè
 Henri de Toulouse Lautrec
 Victor Horta
 Henri van de Velde
 Louis Comfort Tiffany
 Antoni Gaudi
  
 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 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 jewelry
and glass design of Lalique, as well as the stained glass and other designs of
Louis Comfort Tiffany and Emile Galle 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 was known in France as style Guimard, after French designer
Hector Guimard; in Italy as the stile Floreale (floral style); stile Liberty, after
British Art Nouveau designer Arthur Lasenby Liberty; in Spain as
Modernisme; in Austria as Sezessionstil (Vienna Secession); and in Germany
as Jugendstil.

Art Nouveau had its deepest influence on a variety of art and design
movements that continued to explore integrated design, including De Stijl, a
Dutch design movement in the 1920s, and the German Bauhaus school in the
1920s and 1930s