Arts and Crafts Movement

The Arts and Crafts movement came out during the late Victorian period in England,  which was the hit of industrialization of that time. The industrial life gave a strong and positive revaluation of hand-craftsmanship and extensive capital forms of culture and society.

Arts and Crafts designers were improving their liberated decorative designs into mechanism to create beautiful environments of fine results. 

The three important reformers of that time were A.W.N Pugin (1812-52) whose a designer and wrote the provided of the foundation of the later development of the Arts and Crafts (Gothic Revival), then there's John Ruskin (1819-1900) whose a theorist and art critic, which also urged on medieval architecture models and the last is William Morris (1834-1896) who wanted to reform the society by dividing the industrialization between a designer and the manufacturer until he will unite the arts into more simplicity forms and emphasize on nature.

Pugin rejected the early Victorian Vogue for Classical Architecture in favour of a revival of Medieval Gothic.

This documentary clearly explains how the Industrial Revolution evolved to the style of the Gothic Revival of people's palaces. It also describes the three important reformers, which one them is Pugin. It explains into more depth in their developments (sketches of Architecture) and other targets for the revival. (It's 1 from 4 documentaries).

 


The pictures below are works of Architecture and Designs dedicated to different places, made by Pugin. Their style is all based on the Gothic style, with  decorative forms, pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses, in fact the main elements of Gothic Architecture are the Buttress, the Pointed Arch and the gargoyles. 

Pugin's drawing of a transverse section of a church

Gatehouse in Gothic Revival Style using Vertical Lines and Pointed Arches

Four designs by A.W.N Pugin for the houses of Parliament

Church Tiles designed by Pugin (hand-drawn and coloured cherubim)

The picture below is representing the architecture ''St. Patrick's Cathedral'' of James Renwick, Jr. whose one of the designers that based on the Gothic Revival. The building took eight year to be built, as they started working in 1859. As one can see it's all designed with pointed arches meeting each other from one side to another, it also has the straight Corinthian columns with straight long pipes designed on it around and those classic medieval gothic furniture.

St. Patrick's Cathedral -New York by J. Renwick, Jr.

Another designer such as Owen Jones whose a designer, architect and a writer he publish the manual book called 'The Grammar of Ornament' 1856, has popularized exotic designs with his patterns in the catalogue and are used on wallpaper fabrics and furniture designs.

'The Grammar of Ornament' -Owen Jones

This for example is one of his interior designs that he created for Osler's Gallery, Oxford St, London 1859. The structure of the roof is designed in a classic medival gothic style taken from the tracery design, decorated with mirrors and vector chandeliers coming down from the roof, also with bright lights coming in from the squared painted glass.   

Owen Jones Interior Design 1859

The things that were invented at that time are; the blast furnace which is used for smelting and produce industrial metals, print works, textile mills, elevator, cash register, type writer, roller coaster

Medieval Blast Furnace

Print Works

The First Roller Coaster called the 'Switchback Railway' (made in wood) in 1884

In that stream, middle classes were expanding (Business men) and style started being eclectic, for example Gothic-Rococo-Imitations and Reproduction were being common.

John Ruskin is also another architecture who wanted to re-unite the designer and craftsman. European design was concerned with ornamentation harking back to the Renaissance. As American designs was mass produced more functional better made simple designs to everyday objects. 

John Ruskin

This is one of the books that John Ruskin wrote -'The Stones of Venice (1874),
it bases on the column designs he created through out sketches and studies,
a variety of different arches,  decorations coming out from stone, different patterns
engraved, a lot of Gothic traceries and so much other information that he included.

 'The Stones of Venice' (1874) by J. Ruskin 

Ruskin started taking revolutionary ideas in the form of metaphors, nature was one of the main subjects. He started developing his studies from paintings like the ones of the Pre Raphaelites revolution which base on designs with flourish designs and showing different types of leaves together with repetitive pattern.   

These are some examples of sketches and patterns that Ruskin based on:

Different type of patterns coming from the leaves
at the top/bottom of a column

Different styles of Gothic Traceries

Different patterns taken from the book of -'The Gothic Architecture' (1854)

Explanation of A, B, C

A, Greek: Architecture of Lintel
B, Romanesque: Architecture of the Round Arch
C, Gothic: Architecture of the Gabel

The architects and designers of the Gothic period enjoyed complete freedom of expression in their work.

Condemned the machine oriented society of Victorian Britain. Machinery destroyed creativity. Ornaments made by hand believed that they were the genuine articles which possessed the real beauty of craftsman ship and not the machines that made mass production of counterparts.

Ruskin believed that any building or object must be created with enjoyment to be of value. There was individuality in artistic creations.

There was a drop in the quality of the product as nothing of the designs were being made by the artists or craftsmen but with machines, although the prices were more affordable.





 The structure of the Great Exhibition was designed by Joseph Paxton that was prefabricated with glass and iron. It was nicknamed the 'Crystal Palace'. The US then emerged in the industrial mass production which was created with assembly lines. The mass production was all made with stylistic variety that the machine produced with same designs. 

The Great Exhibition (1851)

 The purpose of this Exhibition was to bring together exhibits from all over the world.



William Morris is an educationist, theorist, writer and lecturer. His main target was to produce beautiful things. He didn't like the modern civilization, fought against the 'inhuman' conditions mass production and founded the Art and Crafts Movement.

William Morris

He is best known for his pattern designs, particularly on fabrics and wallpapers. He used to link art to the industry by applying his fine art to the production of commercial designs. His sources were plants themselves, observed in his garden or on country walks, also images of plants from different centuries including herbals. He had his own company called Morris & co. that produces his designs worked handmade that cost a lot of money. He created these effects of wallpaper and fabrics with textiles incorporated.

Cray Furnishing Fabric (1885)

Decorative Design for Trellis Wallpaper (1862) inpired from the Pre Raphaelites style by W. Morris

Artichoke embroidery (1890) by William Morris

Morris has designed over 50 wallpapers for decorations and luxurious wall covering. He has designed more formal and didactic designs for patterns with stylized coloured organic forms and motifs from nature that Jones and Pugin never did.

William Morris was also inspired by Medieval Art, natural motifs and colours, figuration and high pattern. He can be considered as the pioneer of Modern Graphics.




 The House of Emanuel Ungaro (1965) opened up his creative talents. As he moved to Paris at the age of 22 and started his apprenticeship there. After he experienced and learned the rigor and perfectionism, he opened his own label with elegant and provocative feminine looks.

Fashion Designer -Emanuel Ungaro

'Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things' is the name of an exhibition that shows everyday objects. Fashion was considered as an '' everyday objects''. The exhibition shows it through the outfits that fashion collector, Jill Ritblat, donated them to the Museum.

Fashion

Silk Dress (1986) by Emanuel Ungaro

These designs are created by Emanuel Ungaro in 1986. The design he created (in the photo on the right) is very colourful, patterned with flourish designs, decorated with small black buttons and pleated effect, reminded me of the wallpapers and fabric designs that William Morris created in a very colourful and patterned style. As also Emanuel Ungaro used an unexpected combination of sensual clashes of bright colours and prints on beautiful drapes.       





In 1891, Morris founded the Kelmscott Press. The Kelmscott Press produced a high quality hand-printed books. Morris designed and cut typefaces, ornamental borders, and title pages which were based on the style of medieval manuscripts, as the illustrations were being created by the Pre-Raphaelites artist, Edward Burne-Jones. Books were being printed on handmade paper and bounded in vellum. 

'The Nature of Gothic' by W. Morris, Printed by Kelmscott Press (1892- 1898)

The book of 'The Nature in Gothic' by William Morris has been inspired by Ruskin whose writing influenced the Arts and Crafts movement by encouraging the revival of Gothic art and architecture. After the death of Morris a revival of a private press has inspired them across Europe and America that had influences and developed the typography and graphic design in the early 20th century.



Reference:
M.Obniski, 2008.''The Arts and Crafts Movement in America'' In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. [Online] Available at:<http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/acam/hd_acam.htm> [Accessed 13th March 2014]

Art Documentaries, 2010. 1/4 People Places: The Gothic Revival. [Video Online] Availabe at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg9e-KAyLmg> [Accessed 13th March 2014]

St. Louis Public Library, 2005. Gothic Revival - Revitalizing Medieval Forms. [Online] Available at: <http://exhibits.slpl.org/steedman/data/Steedman240089156.asp?thread=240091126> [Accessed 13th March 2014]

Leland A.Cook, 1994-2014. St.Patrick's Cathedral. [Online] Available at: <http://www.ny.com/holiday/stpatricks/cathedral.html> [Accessed 13th March 2014]

. Coney Island- Historic Roller Coaster. [Online] Available at: <http://www.westland.net/coneyisland/articles/coasterlist.htm> [Accessed 13th March 2014]

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013. Owen Jones. [Online] Available at: <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/305960/Owen-Jones> [Accessed 13th March 2014]

J.Ruskin, 2009. The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Stones Of Venice, Volume II (of 3), by John Ruskin . [Online] Available at: <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30755/30755-h/30755-h.htm> [Accessed 13th March 2014]

Visit Bedford Country, 2012. 3 - Gothic Revival - The Architecture Tour. [Video Online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KMcR-I-uFo> [Accessed 13th March 2014]

P.Webb, 2012.William Morris Wallpaper and Textile. Art and Artists, [Blog] 30 January. Available at: <http://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2012/01/william-morris-wallpaper-textiles.html> [Accessed 13th March 2014]

ArtyFactory, 2014. William Morris - Arts and Crafts Movement. [Online] Available at: <http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/graphic_designers/william_morris.html> [Accessed 13th March 2014]

Goosebumbs team, 2013. Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things -The Design Museum Collection.  [Online] Available at: <http://goosebumpsmag.com/2013/01/30/extraordinary-stories-about-ordinary-things/> [Accessed 13th March 2014]