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History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

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How the Arts and Crafts Movement made the societyappreciate craftsmanship

Term Paper for History of Architecture (AP131)

Nalin Bhatia

Roll Number: 21

Sushant School of Art and Architecture

ABSTRACTThe Arts and Crafts Movement began primarily as a search for authentic and

meaningful styles for the nineteenth century and as a reaction to the machine-made

production as a consequence of the technological shift brought on by the Industrial

Revolution. Its members feared that industrialization was destroying the

environment in which traditional skills and crafts could prosper, as machine

production had taken the pride, skill and design out of the quality of goods being

manufactured.

The objective of this paper is to identify how this movement promoted appreciation

of craftsmanship within the society. During the nineteenth century, mass

production was prevalent and advocated as it produced goods that were cheaper

and long-lasting. Therefore, in order to overcome this trend promote its vision, the

movement adopted a number of steps.

Following the lead of English authors and theorists such as John Ruskin and William

Morris, practitioners of the arts and crafts reform movement in sought a return to

the ideal conditions of pre-industrial life. They sought to reunite the designer and


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craftsman, and took joy in the creation of honest, simple objects, rejecting what

was seen as the overblown, over-ornamented travesty of factory-produced objects.

William Morris, the well-known English author, attempted to reform society through

craftsmanship. In 1861, in league with several artists, he founded Morris, Marshall,

Faulkner, and Co., which created furniture, metalwork, printed chintzes,

embroidery, wallpaper, stained glass, and painted tiles. Morris delivered lectures on

the arts in many British towns and cities in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s; these

were published as Hopes and Fears for Art and later as a volume of his collected

works. The movement codified and publicized its practices through various

societies and organizations like the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society and Charles

Ashbee's Guild and School of Handicraft, each producing its own literature, which

ranged from practical handbooks to political exhortations.

The Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, was incorporated in 1897 in order to br ing

Designers and Workmen into mutually helpful relations, and to encourage workmen

to execute designs of their own. The success of the Exhibition inspired the

formation of more craftsman guilds and societies. Gustav Stickley set out to

improve American taste through "craftsman" or "mission" furniture with designs

governed by honest construction, simple lines, and quality material ).Publications,

including The Craftsman, House Beautiful, and Ladies Home Journal, disseminated

ideas about design and interiors. Articles and illustrations presented decorating

suggestions, including the use of colours, type of furniture, and decorative

accessories, such as rugs and pottery. Architects like Frank Lloyd Wright (1867

1959) shaped a new way of living through his completely designed environments,

encompassing architecture and all elements of interiors. He ushered in a style of

architecture that became known as the Prairie School, characterized by low-pitched

roofs, open interiors, and horizontal lines that reflected the prairie landscape.


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PAPER

IntroductionThe Arts and Crafts Movement aimed to promote a return to hand-craftsmanship

and to assert the creative independence of individual craftspeople. It was a reaction

against the industrialised society that had boomed in Britain in the Victorian period,

and aimed for social as well as artistic reform. With its division of labour, the

Industrial Revolution had devalued the work of a craftsman. The movement

therefore aimed to re-establish a harmony between the architect, designer and

craftsman and to bring handcraftsmanship to the production of well-designed as

well as affordable items. Its example was followed in other countries, particularly

the U.S.A.

Influence in BritainIndustrial production of consumer goods developed in Britain in the eighteenth

century, increased massively in the nineteenth, and inevitably aroused some

opposition. The Gothic Revival, the principle artistic trend in nineteenth-century

architecture and art, can itself be seen as a reaction against industrialisation. Its

early exponent, A.W.N. Pugin (1812-52), contrasted the iniquities of modern

industrial society with a highly romanticised view of the Middle Ages. Through his

books Shewing the Present Decay of Taste(1836); The True Principles of Pointed or

Christian Architecture(1841)and others provided the foundation from which other

moral aesthetics of Arts and Crafts evolved during the second half of the nineteenth

century.


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Ruskin and MorrisPugins dream of reuniting the designer and craftsman, and in broader terms, the

spiritual with the everyday, was taken up by John Ruskin (1819-1900) and William

Morris (1834-1896), the two main founder of the movement. Ruskin pleaded for

individuality in artistic creation, at a time when industrialization was soaring and

increasingly isolating the designer from the maker. A general desire to improve

design standards for manufacture became to be widely felt in Britain. The Great

Exhibition held in London in 1851 played a role in demonstrating the poor quality

of British design. It influenced government schemes, led by Exhibition director,

Henry Cole to introduce new design museums with historic collections and visiting

exhibitions that would inspire contemporary work. In addition, schools were

founded to teach new methods of ornamentation in design.

Figure 1: The Crystal Palace was a temporary

structure where the 1851 exhibition was held.

Ref: http://kenbaker.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/

crstal-palace.jpg


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Ruskin in his book, The Two Paths (1859) wrote that decorative art was not a

separate or a degraded kind of art and supported freedom of expression of the

designer and the direct study of nature as a source for both artist and designer.

Most importantly, he re-introduced morality to art and design, arguing that the way

to improve society was to reform its art and support indigenous historical sources

for design. Ruskins Lectures to students and workers in Oxford, London and other

British cities drew large audiences, and his writings were widely read and admired

on both sides of the Atlantic.

Although Ruskins ideas were widely appreciated and admired, it was William Morris

whose ideas exerted the longest and the most powerful influence. Whereas Ruskin

stood clear of politics and the work he advocated, Morris reaching maturity during a

period of greater democracy, became not only an active socialist but craftsman and

designer much admired by his peers. Morris delivered lectures on the arts in many

British towns and cities in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s; these were published as

Hopes and Fears for Art and later as a volume of his collected works. The movement

codified and publicized its practices through various societies and organizations

like the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society and Charles Ashbee's Guild and School of

Handicraft, each producing its own literature, which ranged from practical

handbooks to political exhortations. The creative approach that William Morris

employed in his designs was revealed in a lecture from 1874: 'first, diligent study of

Nature and secondly, study of the work of the ages of Art'. Later, William Lethaby's

lectures, often to organizations that were part of the movement, were published as

Form in Civilisation. To that extent, then, a Morrisian or Arts and Crafts aesthetic

theory has to be constructed from sources that were necessarily rhetorical, as well

as being practical and theoretic. Morris and Lethaby were explicitly aiming to

influence current artistic practice through their lectures to audiences usually

composed of artists, architects, civic leaders, and so on. Likewise the 'study of the


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work of the ages of Art', a reference to the appreciation of art history, was equally

important as Morris encouraged artists to look to the past for their inspiration

believing that the art of his own age was inferior. Morris' solution was for a return

to the values of the Gothic art of the middle Ages, where artists and craftsmen had

worked together with a common purpose: to glorify God through the practice of

their skills. The model for this solution was the medieval crafts guilds which he saw

as a type of socialist brotherhood where everybody fulfilled themselves according to

their level of ability.

Figure 2: Acanthus wallpaper Figure 3: Membland Figure 4: Trellis design by

By Morris, 1875 tile panel designed Morris, 1862.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/ designed by Morris Ref: http://www.artyfactory.com/art_

wiki/File:Morris_Acanthus_ and Co. appreciation/graphic_designers/

Wallpaper_1875.jpg Ref: http:// william_morris.html

www.williammorristile.com/

morris_arts_and_crafts.html

Morris and the Arts & Crafts Movement emphasised the importance of pride in the

value of work to the labourer, the producer and even the consumer. The printed

word was important to Arts & Crafts designers because they were involved in an

ideas movement as well as an art movement. The Kelmscott Press set up by Morris


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in 1891 was named after his cherished home, Kelmscott Manor, near Lechlade on

the southern edge of the Cotswolds. It was the beginning of the private press

revival which spread to continental Europe and North America. As well as producing

some high quality hand-printed books, it also led to a major reform of lettering,

graphic design and printing. Altogether Kelmscott published 53 titles (18,000

copies in all), including 'The Nature of Gothic', a chapter from 'The Stones of Venice'

by the art critic, John Ruskin. Morris, who wrote the preface praising the book, had

been greatly inspired by Ruskin whose writings influenced the Arts and Crafts

movement by encouraging the revival of Gothic art and architecture. Kelmscott only

ran for seven years and closed in 1898, two years after the death of Morris.

However, the high standard of their output inspired a revival of the private press

across Europe and America and influenced the development of typography and

graphic design in the early 20th century.

Figure 5: The first page of The Nature Figure 6: Kelmscott fonts designed by

of Gothic by John Ruskin, printed by William Morris.

William Morris at the Kelmscott Press Ref: http://www.williammorristile.com/

in 1892. morris_arts_and_crafts.html

Ref: http://www.williammorristile.com/

morris_arts_and_crafts.html


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Formation of GuildsThe medieval crafts guilds were groups of artists, architects, and craftsmen who

formed an alliance to maintain high standards of workmanship, regulate trade and

competition, and protect the secrets of their crafts. The guilds were usually

composed of smaller workshops of associated crafts from the same town who

banded together into larger groups for their own protection and prosperity. In

imitation of medieval craft guilds, Ruskin started the St Georges Guild. Though this

was more concerned with communal living than with art practice, it surely inspired

adherents of the movement to band together in guilds. Sometimes these were small

co-operative production units, sometimes broader confederations dedicated to

publicising the cause. One of the earliest was the Century Guild (1882-8), founded

by A.H. Mackmurdo, who was regarded as a pioneer of the Art Nouveau style. While

this guild was chiefly concerned with production, its stylish magazine, the Hobby

Horse (1886-92), projected an alluring image of the Arts and Crafts lifestyle. A

greater, more enduring association (which survives today) was the Art Workers

Guild, founded in 1884, chiefly by a group of architects from the architectural office

of Richard Norman Shaw. Meeting every month, this guild aimed primarily to

succour its members, functioning as a spiritual oasis in the wilderness of modern

life. A more outgoing, missionary agency was the Arts and Crafts Exhibition

Society, founded in 1887. This arranged exhibitions and lectures, which were widely

influential. It functioned as the public face of the movement, and introduced the

term Arts and Crafts.

Reform in EducationArt schools and technical colleges particularly in London, Glasgow, and Birmingham

played an important role in developing the movement. In return the Arts & Crafts

ideas influenced the teaching of art, craft and design in Britain through to the


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1950s and later. As the movements views became known in the 1890s, they

secured a foothold in art education. Two designers were especially influential from

the earliest days of the movement. Walter Crane (1845-1915), who first made his

way as a book illustrator, worked within the educational system at the Manchester

School of Art (1893-8), and as Principal of the Royal College of Art (briefly but

effectively, 1898-9); he wrote widely; and he had a high reputation throughout

Europe. Lewis Foreman Day (1845-1910) was another practical freelance designer

(specialising in flat pattern), who wrote prolifically and taught at the Art Schools at

South Kensington. Most of the existing British art schools were influenced by the

movement, and an important newcomer was the London County Councils Central

School of Arts and Crafts, founded in 1896 with architect W R Lethaby as principal.

The Home Arts and Industries Association (1888) supported non-professional

craftspeople (including members of the royal family), organising classes and

exhibitions throughout the country. Although the movement promoted the

individualism of the craftsman, it had some influence on commercial firms, such as

Heal and Son, and Liberty, which retailed and commissioned goods in the Arts and

Crafts spirit.

For the first time women took a leading role in a major art movement as designers,

makers and consumers. Both the home and women's role in it were elevated

bringing a subversive freshness to architecture and interior decoration. The Arts &

Crafts Movement encouraged the involvement of amateurs and students as well as

professionals through organisations such as the Home Arts and Industries

Association.

C R Ashbee wrote that 'the proper place for the Arts and Crafts is in the country'. An

element of the movement included both the romanticising of rural life and an

attempt to preserve its surviving heritage. There were significant Arts & Crafts


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communities in the Cotswolds, in Cornwall around Newlyn, and at Ditchling in

Sussex.

Music and drama played a significant part in the movement. Composers such as

Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst shared the Arts & Crafts love of the

countryside and folk traditions. As part of the movement, Arnold Dolmetch

pioneered the revival of early English music while Cecil Sharp and others collected

traditional folk songs and dances. Theatrical entertainments were an important

social aspect of the movement involving both amateurs and professionals such as

Bernard Shaw and John Masefield.

Influence in AmericaUnlike in England, the undercurrent of socialism of the Arts and Crafts movement in

the United States did not spread much beyond the formation of a few Utopian

communities. Rose Valley was one of these artistic and social experiments. William

Lightfoot Price (18611916), a Philadelphia architect, founded Rose Valley in 1901

near Moylan, Pennsylvania. The Rose Valley shops, like other Arts and Crafts

communities, were committed to producing artistic handicraft, which included

furnishings, pottery, metalwork, and bookbinding. The Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts

Colony was another Utopian Arts and Crafts community. Outside of Woodstock,

New York, Englishman Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead (18541929) and his wife Jane

Byrd McCall Whitehead (18611955) founded Byrdcliffe, which was completed and

operating by 1903. There craftspeople worked in various media, including

woodwork, pottery, textiles, and metalwork. In harmony with the principles of the

Arts and Crafts movement, Byrdcliffe furniture is a study in recti-linearity, simply

treated materials, and minimal decoration.


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In urban centres, socialist experiments were undertaken on a community level,

frequently in the form of educating young women. Ideas of craftwork and simplicity

manifested themselves in decorative work, including the metalwork and pottery of

the Arts and Crafts movement. Schools and training programs taught quality

design, a cornerstone of the Arts and Crafts movement. In Boston, the Saturday

Evening Girls Club, established in 1899 as a reading group for immigrant girls,

founded the Paul Revere Pottery, which began producing pottery in 1908 and

offered the girls the ability to earn good wages within the community. Newcomb

Pottery was formed in New Orleans in the winter of 189495 under the auspices of

the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, an educational institution for women

The Society of Arts and Crafts, BostonArts and Crafts ideals disseminated in America through journal and newspaper

writing were supplemented by societies that sponsored lectures and programs. The

first was organized in Boston in the late 1890s, when a group of influential

architects, designers, and educators determined to bring to America the design

reforms begun in Britain by William Morris; they met to organize an exhibition of

contemporary craft objects. The first meeting was held on January 4, 1897, at the

Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston to organize an exhibition of contemporary

crafts. When craftsmen, consumers, and manufacturers realised the aesthetic and

technical potential of the applied arts, the process of design reform in Boston

started.

The first American Arts and Crafts Exhibition began on April 5, 1897, at Copley

Hall, Boston featuring more than 1000 objects made by 160 craftsmen, half of

whom were women. Some of the advocates of the exhibit were Langford Warren,

founder of Harvard's School of Architecture; Mrs Richard Morris Hunt; Arthur Astor

Carey and Edwin Mead, social reformers; and Will H. Bradley, graphic designer. The


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success of this exhibition resulted in the incorporation of The Society of Arts and

Crafts (SAC), on June 28, 1897, with a mandate to "develop and encourage higher

standards in the handicrafts." The 21 founders claimed to be interested in more

than sales, and emphasized encouragement of artists to produce work with the best

quality of workmanship and design. This mandate was soon expanded into a credo,

possibly written by the SAC's first president, Charles Eliot Norton, which read:

This Society was incorporated for the purpose of promoting artistic work in all

branches of handicraft. It hopes to bring Designers and Workmen into mutually

helpful relations, and to encourage workmen to execute designs of their own. It

endeavours to stimulate in workmen an appreciation of the dignity and value of

good design; to counteract the popular impatience of Law and Form, and the desire

for over-ornamentation and specious originality. It will insist upon the necessity of

sobriety and restraint, or ordered arrangement, of due regard for the relation

between the form of an object and its use, and of harmony and fitness in the

decoration put upon it.

Figure 7: Carved Oak Bookcase designed by Figure 8: Armchair designed by H.H.

H.H. Richardson, Boston, MA, 1880. Richardson; manufactured by A.H.

Ref: http://www.fourcenturies.org/timeline/arts Davenport and Co., Boston, MA, 1878.

-and-crafts-movement/ Ref: http://www.fourcenturies.org/timeline/arts

-and-crafts-movement/


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The success of the Exhibition and the press coverage of the manufacturers and

designs inspired the formation of still more craftsman guilds and societies the next

year. 1898 also heralded the founding of Gustav Stickley & Co., in Syracuse, NY,

Charles Rohlfs Furniture Company in Buffalo, NY, and Henry Chapman Mercer's

Moravian Pottery, in Doylestown, PA. All three companies were to become major

players in the years to come, but it was the simple, geometric designs of Gustav

Stickley that truly defined the American Arts and Crafts Movement in the early 20th

century.

Stickley and WrightStickley was an ambitious man and a firm believer in the Movement's ideals. Not

only did he design furniture, but homes as well. And to showcase his designs he

began publishing his own monthly guide to better living. When Stickley began

publication of Craftsman magazine in 1901, he had a complete vision of the perfect

Arts and Crafts world. Each month, Craftsman would feature furniture and

architectural plans for the ideal craftsman life. The magazine not only influenced

the public at large, but the design world as well. It is no coincidence that the years

1901-1916 are often referred to as the Craftsman Movement for Craftsman

magazine was the chief spokesman for a generation of designers who followed the

ideas of Stickley.


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Figure 9: A Morris Plains house designed and built by Gustav Stickley for

William C. Parker in 1913.

Ref: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/realestate/09NJZO.html?_r=0

Frank Lloyd Wright (18671959) shaped a new way of living through his completely

designed environments, encompassing architecture and all elements of interiors. He

ushered in a style of architecture that became known as the Prairie School,

characterized by low-pitched roofs, open interiors, and horizontal lines that

reflected the prairie landscape. This architecture, which utilized natural materials

such as wood, clay, and stone, sparked a revolutionary shift in the American

interiors. Wright's "organic" architecture was indebted to nature.

Figure 10: Typical Prairie School features

Ref: http://gowright.org/MoodleWright/mod/book/view.php?id=59&chapterid=16


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Figure 11: The Prairie Style Darwin D. Martin House by Frank Lloyd Wright, Buffalo, NY

Ref: http://0.tqn.com/d/architecture/1/0/Y/x/DarwinDMartinHouse.jpg

Therefore, we conclude that the movement adopted a number of methodologies,

from the formation of societies to educational institutions to delivering lectures to

promote the appreciation of craftsmanship. However, the rise of urban centres and

the inevitability of technology presaged the end of the Arts and Crafts movement.

By the 1920s, machine-age modernity and the pursuit of a national identity had

captured the attention of designers and consumers, bringing an end to the

handcrafted nature of the Arts and Crafts movement in America.


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Bibliography1. Petts, Jeffrey. Good Work and Aesthetic Education: William Morris, the Arts andCrafts Movement, and Beyond. The Journal of Aesthetic Education . 1, 2008, Vol. 42,

pp.30-45.

2. Brooks, H. Allen.Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School, Braziller. New York :Braziller, 1984. ISBN 0-8076-1084-4.

3. Levine, Ruth Ellen. The Influence of the Arts-and-Crafts Movement on theProfessional Status of Occupational Therapy. 4, Philadelphia : The American

Occupational Therapy, April 1987. Vol. 41. ISSN: 1943-7676.

4. Element9527. Passage 08: Arts and Crafts Movement. WordPress.com. [Online]31 March 2010. [Cited: 10 October 2013.]

http://element9527.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/passage-08-arts-and-crafts-

movement/.

5. Oshinsky, Sara J. Design Reform. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. 2000.6. Martin, Antoinette. Stickley Home Seeks to Stay That Way. The New York Times. 9September 2007.

7. Cumming, Elizabeth and Kaplan, Wendy.The Arts and Crafts Movement. London :Thames and Hudson, 1991. ISBN 0-500-20248-6.


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