The Arts and Crafts Movement

The Arts and Crafts Movement originated in Britain around the late nineteenth century. The men that lead this movement, such as William Morris worked towards uniting the arts. They believed that all creative work was equal of value. In addition to reforming design, they wanted to give quality to the work process. The aim of this Movement was to establish harmony amongst architects, designers and craftsman, and everyday objects were to be produced by handcraftsmanship and be affordable. 

The concept of individual expression of design was shared between its leaders. Furniture, was honest and simple. It was even left unpainted in order to allow the way that it was built to be illustrated and the true nature of the wood would be celebrated when left unpolished.

The improvement towards commercial design was also another goal of this Movement. It was William Morris, who was among the first who realized that the only method to ascertain a bigger availability to his products was with the use of commercial co-operation.

New links were made between the craft and the industry and in fact, the machine became accepted as a manufacturing need.  For a few, the Arts and Crafts was part of a bigger spectrum of social reformation. Meanwhile, there were those who thought that reform was needed in regards to the working conditions rather than to the design aesthetic.

Ironically enough though, the only way the Movement could develop was through industrial achievement. The ideal against industry; that a single person could create an object from start to finish, was not achieved often, and to such extent there was a dependence upon multiple production.

The four values that were combined by the Arts and Crafts are; design unity, joy in labour, individualism, and regionalism.

The Movement, was set up by theorists, who wished to be able to make a new code to the harshness the industrialization brought with it. In Britain, there was not any particular style adopted. W.R Lethaby, in his book ‘Architecture, Mysticism and Myth’, wrote: ‘the message will be of nature and man, of order and beauty, but all will be sweetness, simplicity, freedom, confidence and light’.

Amongst those who left London and moved into the countryside to seek particularly for what Lethaby said, included; C.R Ashbee, Ernest Gimson and Eric Gill.

Many British Arts and Crafts leaders, like Lethaby, were socialists. These people were eager to eliminate divisions between art and industry and between art and craft, and this was to be achieved through artistic intervention.  

                                                                                              

The Arts and Crafts movement however, was not a reaction to the industrial society; it was progressed from the strict design morality of the Gothic Revival in early Victorian Britain.

A. W. N. Pugin Metropolitan Cathedral of St.Chad, Birmingham, 1839-41. Interior

However, not all theorists agreed. Pugin, for instance, was not in conformity with the early Victorian vogue for classical architecture. In fact, it was the preindustrial England that gave him inspiration. In ‘Contrasts’ he stated for the first time that architectural beauty depended on ‘the fitness of the design to the purpose for which it is intended’.

John Ruskin and William Morris continued Pugin’s belief of re-uniting the designer and the craftsman. These are the two main founders of the Arts and Crafts Movement. In ‘The Seven Lamps of Architecture’, Ruskin highlighted the beauty of architectural ornament carved by hand, which reflected ‘the sense of human labour and care spent upon it’.

Owen Jones, 'Egyptian No.1' The Grammar of Ornament 1856

British design reformers did not collaborate with the technically more difficult, naturalistic qualities of the foreign designs. Instead they supported geometric formality. Owen Jones for instance, took a mathematical approach to colour and design instead of the imitations of nature.

Christopher Dresser Electroplate teapot

Ruskin opened to what Jones believed in and he was in favour of freedom of expression and the taking nature as a direct source. Ruskin was the one to introduce morality to art and design. He used to say that by reforming the arts, society would be improved. Christopher Dresser, lead a counter-attack on Ruskin. While Ruskin wanted to represent nature’s appearance, Dresser wanted design to represent the laws of natural growth. Dressers scientific approach and qualifications, gained him respect. His designs reflecting his theory, were simplified, angular and cheap to manufacture.

Ruskin demanded too, a design that used a natural scale, form and materials in order to express ‘man’s delight in God’s work’.

However, even though Ruskin’s lectures were popular, and his writings were widely read and admired, it was William Morris whose ideas employed the longest and most powerful influence.

Morris’ said; ‘apart from my desire, to produce beautiful things, the leading passion of my life is hatred of modern civilization’. He took Ruskin’s love of the handwork and the roughness of the craft and he longed for this application towards commerce. He wanted most to be able to challenge manufacturers to simplify their design. He wanted so raise the standards and to maintain the unit costs at an affordable level, capturing together both the designer and the craftsman.

Morris followed Ruskin’s footsteps in accordance to nature used as an inspiration, but he used this also as a part of a new design movement. Morris had also an interest in textiles that emerged from his time as an Oxford apprentice to the G.E. Street.

Morris also looked at Oxfordshire vernacular architecture with Street’s senior draughtsman, Philip Webb. He and Webb were especially committed to honesty in architectural thinking. This made them different from most high Victorian architects. They considered for instance, that an architect’s design should be a reflection both of its site and purpose.

In 1859 Morris commissioned Webb to design a house for him and his bride; the Red House, in Bexleyheath, Kent that took its name from its construction material, red brick. The Red House, was the very first Arts and Crafts building. It was also the most significant over the next half century. This was the first house that resulted from a new partnership between the architect and the artist. This is illustrated in its concept and its furnishings. One may notice an agreement with the Gothic that is found in the simple and pointed arches that are found inside the house. In addition, the building was planned from the inside out to meet the needs of everyday family life. The house was also designed to fit into the local building traditio

This House was not designed according to any particular rule regarding a style; it was the actual arrangement of the rooms that was what shaped it. Webb’s design was a line of rooms and these were placed along a corridor forming an L shape. This gave a sense of intimacy and created an informal environment to those who visited. His ideas, which were interpreted in a lot of designs, could be recognized due to its common principles rather than a style. For the next half century, function was given the priority, and structures were related to their landscapes.

They continued on what Pugin dictated:  ‘There should be no features about a building which are not necessary for convenience, construction or propriety’, published in ‘True Principles’. A building should be honest, reflecting the materials and carefully in context to its site. He had practiced what he preached in the house he made for himself in Ramsgate, Kent 1843-44.

Morris designed the garden of the Red House. It encompasses both a romantic notion and practicality. This was combined with a medieval mixture of orchards and garden plots. The type of decoration used for the furnishing of the house, has a medieval Gothic alternative to the dramatic, medieval designs of the 1860’s by the London ‘art-architect’ William Burgess.

Many were those American designers who were inspired by the British Arts and Crafts Movement and what it demonstrated. William Morris’ and Charles R. Ashbee’s support of rural artistic communities appealed to American designers such as Gustav Stickley, Charles P.Limbert and Elbert G.Hubbard who were in search of refuge from the increasing industrialization of their country.

However, the American Arts and Crafts designs were in general less complicated with regards to construction, it was also less decorated than their British equals. This was so because it was the fundamental, social and democratic aspects of the Movement rather than its emphasis on best craftsmanship that appealed to designers in the United States. 

Bibliography:

Charlotte and Peter Fiell. Design of the 20^th Century 

Elizabeth Cumming, Wendy Kaplan. The Arts and Crafts Movement