A Review on Arts and Crafts Movement

8/8/2019 A Review on Arts and Crafts Movement

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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... ³For 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 theexpense 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

increased²discussed below²some 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¶slegacy, 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 Americanspirit 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 moreforward-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.DecorativeArtsThe 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 similarlystreamlined 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 explosionof 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 history²the

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 andromance 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 periodand it had a decisive part in minor and decorative arts' development, also thanks to thenumerous 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 wayto carry out a global ambient renewal. Arts and Crafts creations (conceived by architects anddesigners) always needed expert craftsmen's intervention to be produced.

Arts and Crafts movement had different names in the various western countries: Jugendstilin Germany, Sezession in Austria, Modernism in Spain, Liberty in Italy. The major

representatives were: Virctor Horta and Henry Van de Velde in Belgium, Charles RennieMackintosh in Glasgow , Otto Wagner and Joseph Hoffmann in Vienna, Antoni Gaudì inBarcelona.

A Review on Arts and Crafts Movement

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