OUGD603 - Guidebook - The Arts and Crafts Movement

"Arts and crafts was a design movement initiated by William Morris in 1861 which aimed to improve the quality of design and make it available to the widest possible audience".
"A style that urged for a return to craftsmanship and which rebelled against industrialisation".
(Start: 1860 - End: 1920).

A movement of the late 19th Century, which attempted to re-establish the skills of craftsmanship threatened by mass production and industrialisation. William Morris - the main protagonist - was inspired by writings of art critic John Ruskin, in particular, 'The Nature of Gothic' essay from the book 'The Stones and Venice'. Morris sought to put Ruskin's ideas into practice, by reviving medieval standards and methods of making artefacts, being true to materials, traditional constructional methods and function to the essence of design - Medieval past and architecture with its rich variety of ornament, embodying those individual craft skills being lost through the copying of standard forms.

Architecture was also reformed through traditional building crafts, the use of local materials, and be free of any imposed style. Function, need and simplicity (without spurious ornament) were to inform design, encapsulated in the work of Philip Webb, Richard Lethaby, and Charles Voysey.

What to look for in an arts and crafts building:
- Clarity of form and structure.
- Variety of materials.
- Asymmetry.
- Traditional construction.
- Craftsmanship.

The Arts and Crafts Movement:
An international movement in the decorative and fine arts that begun in Britain and flourished in Europe and North America between 1880 and 1920. It stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms, and often used medieval, romantic, or folk styles of decoration, and advocated economic and social reform and was essentially anti-industrial.

William Morris:
- In 1861, Morris began making furniture and decorative objects commercially, modelling is designs on medieval styles and using bold forms and strong colours. His patterns were based on flora and fauna and his products were inspire by the vernacular or domestic traditions of the British countryside. In order to display the beauty of the materials and the work of the craftsman, some were deliberately left unfinished, creating a rustic appearance. Truth to materials, structure and function became characteristics of the Arts and Crafts movement.
(weaving, dying, printing, calligraphy, embroidery).

"If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful" - William Morris.