the arts and crafts movement - rise and decline

History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

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The Arts and Crafts Movement - Rise and Decline

Term Paper for History of Architecture (AP131)

Varsha Mallya

Roll Number: 29

Sushant School of Art and Architecture

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses how the advent of machinery and industrialisation changes the

method of production, hence changing the relationship between the worker and the

products made, and how the Arts and Crafts Movement rose and what led to its

decline.

The arts and crafts movement was a rebellion against the era of mass production. It

was a return to production of crafts by hand, restabilising the relationship between

the worker and the product. The assembly line production was abandoned; Products

were manufactured by individuals or guilds.

The patrons of the Arts and Crafts movement were: William Morris (1834 - 1896),

John Ruskin (1819 – 1900). As the movement grew in influence, architecture,

furniture making and the decorative arts, such as interior design, started to display

the simplicity and craft approach.


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PAPER

Industrial Revolution and the advent of Machinery

The Industrial revolution that began in the mid-18th century completely changed

the social and economic conditions. It started with the use of machines powered by

steam in industries that completely changed the process of production of goods-

mass production. For a product to be produced, the artesian and craftsman took a

long time crafting it by hand. Thus, making the product very expensive; only the

people from the upper class society were able to afford the product. But, due to

industrial revolution and the advent of machinery the very same object could not

only be made faster but also be replicated. This reduced the cost of the product by

a large extent. The same product was now was available to the common people.

With this, the standard of living improved for the middle class (2)

According to Thomas Carlyle- “New Era ' there has been such prophesying’s of;

here we are, arrived at last; and it is by no means the land flowing with milk and

honey we were led to expect." (5)

The capitalists started setting up factories and they were able to obtain the raw

materials by trading with other countries and from the colonized countries such as

India for raw materials like Indigo. The entire city scape changed. Many architects

and artists-craftsmen such as C.R Ashbee and Eric Gill abandoned London to

escape the metropolitan way of life. There was a downside to the industrial

revolution; the workers were exploited by the capitalists. They had to work in the

factories for long hours in poor working conditions for small wages. The workers

continued to suffer; life and work disconnected from each other. Many socialists

such as Lethaby desired to unite not only life and work but art and industry.

Arts and Crafts Movement (1850-1900)

Rise of the Arts and Crafts Movement

The Arts and Crafts Movement was a response to the industrial revolution.

Assembly line production was followed in factories, where every worker performs a

specific task repeatedly along the line to assemble a product. “ It is not labour that

is divided but the men – divided into mere segments and crumbs of life”- John

Ruskin . According to him it was a social wrong to the both the producers and


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consumers as the worker as producers are degraded to a mechanism where he

exercises but a single set of facilites, and dissassociates him from the completed

product The worker is not only completely cut off from the designing process of the

product but also he doesn’t know what he is assembling and how it’s assembled to

form the final product. Though the quantity of production is high, the quality of the

products have been compromised, the consumers do not get quality products. (5)

Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson was the first person to coin the word arts and

craft movement. According to him, this movement can be associated with the

movement of ideas which have characteristics of the past and be defined by art

where “human activity of all kinds expresses itself at its highest and best.”(4)

The main aim of the Arts and Crafts movement was to re-establish the harmony

between architect, designer and crafts man and bring hand craftsmanship to the

production of well-designed everyday objects. According to Ruskin all good

architecture rose out of domestic work, and the main business of art was its actual

uses of daily life and the beginning of art was in getting the country clean and

people beautiful. (1)

Arts and Crafts Movement was promoted simple items manufactured through good

craft techniques. It was a rebellion against the age of mass production. It is actually

a return to traditional craft methods and ‘romantic’ forms of decoration.

Ornamental objects, floral fabrics, book making, weaving, jewellery, metalwork and

ceramics, were all influenced by the Art and Crafts movement.

Like John Ruskin, William Morris (1834 - 1896) was one of the most important

figures whose works and ideas brought about the Arts and Crafts Movement. He

was a poet and artist, who believed in a combination simplicity, good design and

craft work. Morris worked under architect G.E. Street who was experienced in

traditional building crafts. G.E Street believed that architect should not only be a

designer but also a painter, a blacksmith and a designer of stained glass. (1)

Philip Webb’s Red house commissioned by William Morris in 1859 was the first Arts

and Crafts Movement building The house abandoned the classical architecture and

was built to meet the with the needs of the family. This house was an example

where artist and the architect have worked together. The garden being designed by

Morris and the house being decorated with murals and embroidered

Hangings using motifs derived from nature by Rossetti. The furniture designed by

Webb was pained by Burne Jones and Rossetti with scenes from medieval

romanticized. (1)


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Figure 1: Rear View of the Red House

Ref: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rear_of_Red_House,_Bexleyheath_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1192324.jpg

Figure 2: Stained Glass window

Ref: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_House_window_detail.JPG

William Morris condemned the use of machinery and also the excessive division of

labour it entailed. (4) Morris said "I myself have boundless faith in their capacity. I

believe machines can do everything except make works of art." Morris advised

workers not to be made into machines and to set themselves against machine work

as much as possible (5)) He felt that the division of labour led to the worker doing

only a particular task repeatedly and not allowed to think or do anything else.

“He must be allowed to think of what he is doing and to vary his work as the

circumstances of it vary and his own moods”. (5) Morris felt that an artist should be


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able to enjoy his own work and be “forever striving to make the piece he is at work

at better than the last.” The artesian must be given the freedom to refuse to put out

works which are “indifferent” at the whimsical tastes of the public. (5)

“The arts of cabinet-making and upholstery had at this time reached the lowest

point. It was this state of things which drove Morris to start designing objects of

common use” (5), This led to the formation of a firm - Morris and Co, that

consisted of 7 members whose purpose was to design and manufacture of fine art

fabrics. Their main aim was to “create a harmony between various parts of

successful work”. The Trellis wallpaper was the first to be designed by the firm. As

the movement grew in influence, architecture, furniture making and the decorative

arts, such as interior design, started to display the simplicity and craft approach.

The Arts and Crafts Exhibition society held in the year 1899 had a memorial

exhibition which displayed the works of William Morris. The Collections of his more

intimate and personal work, which comprised over one hundred and fifty of his

original drawings for fabrics wallpaper, stained glass and the products of the

Kelmscott Press were displayed.

Elizabeth Cummings states in her book -“The idea that every country should have

an architecture that reflected its own particular history, geography and climate was

central to the Arts and Crafts Movement.” (1) She further explained how the

designers, influenced by William Morris and John Ruskin, interpreted the British

concept of vernacular architecture in two ways in America. One way, the designers

tried to break away from classical architecture and ostentatious decorations and

make buildings that used local materials and design in response to the American

landscape and past and the other way they tried to adapt indigenous British styles.

Decline of the Arts and Crafts Movement

Despite its high ideals, the Arts and Crafts Movement was essentially flawed. The

main reason why the traditional guilds were replaced by the factories is the fact that

the products were made faster and cheaper. Though Morris wanted his products to

be available to the ordinary people the labour-intensive products could only be

afforded by the privileged classes. Throughout the arts and crafts movement,

machinery was considered evil, Charles Robert Ashbee toured America professing

the “Evils of Machinery”. Ashbee said that the individuality had gone out of the

industry due to machinery. He felt that the poor standard of work lowers the

standards of a man and “in destroying production we destroy the producers”. (5)

Some artists started to reject the limitations of the Arts and Crafts ideals and

positively embrace the techniques of industrial manufacturing. This led to the rise

of Art Nouveau movement. It was mainly due to William Morris and Ruskin that the


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Art Nouveau came up. William Morris was the one, who challenged the mid Victorian

aesthetic values and how it affects the society as a whole. (4)

The interiors in the 19th century were a complete mix of styles to characterize the

homeownership in the Victorian age. The machines were used to manufacture’ the

period castoffs to meet the decorating whims of the upper-class and the expanding

bourgeoisie’. “What do we see on every side? Wallpapers which wound the eye;

against them , ornate furniture that wounds the eye ; at intervals gaudily draped bay

which wounds the eye ; and every spare and nook and cranny is hung with plates of

spinach with decorative borders which wound the eye, let the eye come to terms

with all this as best it can”. (4)

Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo (1851-1942) was an English architect; craftsman was

one of the few people who initiated the Art Nouveau Movement. His designs had

linear simplicity and asymmetrical compositions which were rendered in contrasting

colours.

This Movement would eventually come together and lead to the foundation of the

Bauhaus School of Art and Design built by Walter Gropius. Walter Gropius wanted to

alter art, crafts and architecture to meet the needs of an industrial society where

arts and craft unify with technology.

Bibliography

1. Cumming, Elizabeth and Kaplan, Wendy. The Arts and Crafts Movement. London :

Thames and Hudson, 1991. ISBN 0-500-20248-6.

2. Rao, B.V. World History from Early times to AD, 2003.

3. Duncan, Alastair. Art Nouveau. London : Thames and Hudson, 1999. ISBN 0-500-

20273-7.

4. Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson. The Arts and Crafts Movement.

5. L. T, Oscar. Chapters in the History of Arts and Crafts Movement. 1902.

the arts and crafts movement - rise and decline

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