ART NOUVEAU/ARTS & CRAFTS MOVEMENT

The Arts and Crafts movement initially developed in England during the latter half of the 19th
century. Subsequently this style was taken up by American designers, with different results. In
October of 1888, a small group of English philosophers, artists and architects established the
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, and thus named a maturing movement that would spread
throughout England, Europe and America over the next few decades and effectively unite social
reform, architecture, art and craftsmanship. The Society exhibited at New Gallery in London
during October and November of 1888, displaying tapestries, wallpapers, tiles, stained glass
and other decorative arts. The crux of the Society's mission was, as Walter Crane wrote in the
Exhibition catalog, to "turn our artists into craftsmen and craftsmen into artists." Crane was
an illustrator and designer and the Society's founding President. The craftsman style ethics of
the movement were based on the mid-1800s writings of social thinker John Ruskin, an artist
and prominent English art critic. His book The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and
trilogy The Stones of Venice (1851-53) emphasized nature, art and society, and attacked
division of labor and industrial capitalism, ideals summarized succinctly in his own words from
the second volume of the trilogy:

"Now it is only by labour that thought can be made healthy, and only by thought that labour
can be made happy, and the two cannot be separated with impunity."

Ruskins writings also predicted social issues concerning environmentalism, sustainability and
craftsmanship. Concerned that people were being made insensitive by thoughtless consumption
of mass produced objects and lost to the beauty and spirituality of handcrafting from natural
materials, Ruskin appealed for a revival of traditional craftsmanship. William Morris, often
called the father of the English Arts and Crafts Movement, was a Ruskin admirer, a socialist
and an artist skilled at a variety of crafts. He took Arts and Crafts style ideals to a more
general level, calling for social and economic reform through an integration of labor and art in
society that would bring beauty as well as affordability to everyday objects and advance virtues
such as simplicity, utility, honesty and nature. Morris' belief that architecture and decorative
arts should be simple, functional, constructed of local materials, and, above all, beautiful is
summed up best in his own words:

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

Their notions of good design were linked to their visions of a good

society. Thus the vision of a society in which the worker was not
brutalized by the working conditions found in factories, but rather
could take pride in his craftsmanship and skill. Ruskin, Morris,
and others proposed that it would be better for all if individual
craftsmanship could be revived-- the worker could then produce
beautiful objects that exhibited the result of fine craftsmanship, as
opposed to the shoddy products of mass production. Thus the goal
was to create design that was... " for the people and by the people, and a source of pleasure to
the maker and the user." Workers could produce beautiful objects that would enhance the lives
of ordinary people, and at the same time provide decent employment for the
craftsman.

Medieval Guilds provided a model for the ideal craft production system. Aesthetic
ideas were also borrowed from Medieval European and Islamic sources. Japanese
ideas were also incorporated early Arts and Crafts forms. The forms of Arts and
Crafts style were typically rectilinear and angular, with stylized decorative
motifs reminiscent of medieval and Islamic design. One designer of this period, Owen Jones,
published a book entitled The Grammar of Ornament, which was a sourcebook of historic
decorative design elements, largely taken from medieval and Islamic sources. This work in turn
inspired the use of such historic sources by other designers.

However, in time the English Arts and Crafts movement came to stress
craftsmanship at the expense of mass market pricing. The result was exquisitely
made and decorated pieces that could only be afforded by the very wealthy. Thus
the idea of art for the people was lost, and only relatively few craftsman could be
employed making these fine pieces. This evolved English Arts and Crafts style
came to be known as "Aesthetic Style." It shared some characteristics with the
French/Belgian Art Nouveau movement

Arts and Crafts in America

By the late 19th century the Arts and Crafts ideas and convictions of William Morris were
carrying to and blooming in America. In the United States, the Arts and Crafts style was also
known as Mission style. This movement challenged the tastes of the Victorian
era. In the United States, the Arts and Crafts ideal of design for the masses was
more fully realized, though at the expense of the fine individualized
craftsmanship typical of the English style. If William Morris was the father of
the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain, Gustav Stickley (1858-1942), a
furniture manufacturer in New York, was the disciple who raised the banner in
the United States. Stickley advocated Morris' ideas in his magazine, The
Craftsman, which he launched in 1901. The magazine, published 1901-1916,
offered idealistic articles on the theories of the Craftsman Style and included
simple Craftsman style house plans and bungalow plans. Stickley urged readers to build homes
and craft furniture with their own hands using local materials, and he sold house plans,
furniture and household objects by catalog.

The English antagonism toward industrialization was not as evident in America, where the
machine was not an enemy but a tool with which to improve life, to reduce drudgery and
produce simple, aesthetic, affordable homes and objects that were both decorative and useful.
In 1901, while Charles Robert Ashbee, who was invited from England, toured America
professing the evils of machinery, Frank Lloyd Wright was addressing the Chicago Arts and
Crafts Society on "The Art and Craft of the Machine," taking on issues with the English
distrust of machine. By the early 20th century there was a widespread popularity of Craftsman
style homes and bungalows style homes all across America. The public had been educated and
their household tastes improved.

In New York, Gustav Stickley tried to serve a

burgeoning market of middle class consumers who
wanted affordable, decent looking furniture. By using
factory methods to produce basic components, and
utilizing craftsmen to finish and assemble, he was able
to produce sturdy, serviceable furniture which was sold
in vast quantities, and still survives. The rectilinear,
simpler American Arts and Crafts forms came to
dominate American architecture, interiors, and
furnishings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century. Today Stickley's furniture is prized by
collectors, and the Stickley Company still exists, producing reproductions of the original
Stickley designs.

In California, Charles Sumner Greene and his brother, Henry Mather Greene, took bungalow
architecture to a heightened level of craftsmanship. The Gamble House, in Pasadena, built for
David B. Gamble of the Proctor and Gamble Company, is the most famous of the Greene and
Green ultimate bungalows.

A neighborhood of more than 800 homes built

1900-1930 in Pasadena, California and aptly
named Bungalow Heaven exemplifies the
American Craftsman bungalow. The area
became a historic landmark district in 1989 and
historic home tours are now conducted annually.

Arts and Crafts Style American Craftsman House

Bungalow Heaven, Pasadena, California

The term Mission style was also used to describe Arts and Crafts Furniture and design in the
United States. The use of this term reflects the influence of traditional furnishings and
interiors from the American Southwest, which had many features in common with the earlier
British Arts and Crafts forms. Charles and Henry Greene were important Mission style
architects working in California. Southwestern style also incorporated Hispanic elements
associated with the early Mission and Spanish architecture, and Native American design. The
result was a blending of the arts and crafts rectilinear forms
with traditional Spanish colonial architecture and furnishings.
Mission Style interiors were often embellished with Native
American patterns, or actual Southwestern Native American
artifacts such as rugs, pottery, and baskets.

Sir Tristram and la Belle Ysoude.

Bradford Art Gallery
Designed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
One of a set of 13 glass panels
made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner
& Co for Harden Grange.

Replica of the Bayeux Tapestry (1075)

Museum of Reading, Berkshire.
Made in 1885 by William Morris, along
with textile maker Thomas Wardle,
his wife Elizabeth, and thirty
female embroiderers.
 Ideals from the Arts and Crafts Movement

The ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement are aesthetically expressed, in the past and
present, in beautifully handcrafted household objects, useful and uncluttered home decor,
homes and landscapes built with local materials, and home environments blended with nature.

The truth and beauty in these simple ideals can be an inspiration in today's busy and often
crazy world. Here are a few Craftsman Style ideals

 simple, refined aesthetics (beauty)

 simple, functional design (utility)
 handcrafted objects
 high quality craftsmanship
 creating objects well designed and affordable to all
 creating harmony with nature
 using and sustaining natural materials
 maintaining a sense of space and environment
 staying connected to home and nature
 creating space for inner peace away from jobs and factories

The Arts and Crafts Movement Cast of Characters

BRITISH:

 John Ruskin (1819-1900)

 William Morris (1834-1896)
 Walter Crane (1845-1915)
 Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1854-1923)
 Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942)
 Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)

AMERICAN:

 Charles Comfort Tiffany (1829–1907)

 Charles Limbert (1854-1923)
 Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)
 Gustav Stickley (1858-1942)
 Charles Fletcher Lummis (1859-1928)
 Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
 Dard Hunter (1883–1966)
 Architecture
 The architecture of the Arts and Crafts Movement was its most radical and influential
aspect, and architects such as Webb, Voysey, M. H. Baillie Scott (1865-1945), Norman
Shaw (1831-1912) and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, developed principles which not only
influenced 19th century architecture but would later become the benchmarks of
twentieth-century architects. These included the belief that design should be dictated by
function, that vernacular styles of architecture and local materials should be respected,
that new buildings should integrate with the surrounding landscape, and that freedom
from historicist styles was essential. The result was a number of buildings - especially
houses for the middle class - that architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner called
'fresher and more aesthetically adventurous than anything done at the same time
abroad'. These architectural canons fed the growing Garden City movement in Britain in
the early twentieth century, which brought together on a large scale Arts and Crafts
design and Morris's social reform ideals. The Garden City movement was based on the
theories of Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928), as put forward in his highly influential book,
Tomorrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform, 1898 (later revised as Garden Cities of
Tomorrow in 1902). Howard's social policies advocated the creation of small,
economically self-sufficient cities throughout the country, with the aim of halting urban
sprawl and overcrowding. Numerous such cities were built, with varying degrees of
success, and the ordinary home became the focal point of progressive architects
throughout the country.

ART NOUVEAU
This style, which was more or less concurrent with the Arts and Crafts
style, was not at all concerned with the social reform movements of the
day. Instead, it addressed the clutter and eclecticism of mid-19th
century European taste. Originating in Belgium and France, this
movement advocated nature as the true source of all good design. Art
Nouveau designers objected to the borrowing of design ideas from the
past, and even from other cultures, although the Japanese approach to
nature was much admired and emulated.

The characteristics of the style included above all the use of the sinuous
curved line, together with asymmetrical arrangement of forms and
patterns. The forms from nature most popular with Art Nouveau
designers were characterized by flowing curves- grasses, lilies, vines,
and the like. Other, more unusual natural forms were also used, such
as peacock feathers, butterflies, and insects. Architects and designers
who contributed to the development of this style include Victor
Horta, Hector Guinnard and Henry van de Velde.
 The glass and jewelry design of Lalique, as well as the stained glass
and other designs of Louis Comfort Tiffany and Emile Galle were
important examples of Art Nouveau style. A distinctive graphic
design style developed, which included typography styles as well as
a distinctive manner of drawing the female figure. The prints
of Aubrey Beardsley and Alphonse Mucha are typical of this style.

An illustration of the art nouveau style of

Drawing the female figure.

Synopsis
Art Nouveau was a movement that swept through the decorative arts and architecture in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. Generating enthusiasts throughout Europe and beyond, the
movement issued in a wide variety of styles, and, consequently, it is known by various names,
such as the Glasgow Style, or, in the German-speaking world, Jugendstil. Art Nouveau was
aimed at modernizing design, seeking to escape the eclectic historical styles that had previously
been popular. Artists drew inspiration from both organic and geometric forms, evolving elegant
designs that united flowing, natural forms with more angular contours. The movement was
committed to abolishing the traditional hierarchy of the arts, which viewed so-called liberal
arts, such as painting and sculpture, as superior to craft-based decorative arts, and ultimately
it had far more influence on the latter. The style went out of fashion after it gave way to Art
Deco in the 1920s, but it experienced a popular revival in the 1960s, and it is now seen as an
important predecessor of modernism.

Key Ideas
The desire to abandon the historical styles of the 19th century was an important impetus
behind Art Nouveau and one that establishes the movement's modernism. Industrial
production was, at that point, widespread, and yet the decorative arts were increasingly
dominated by poorly made objects imitating earlier periods. The practitioners of Art Nouveau
sought to revive good workmanship, raise the status of craft, and produce genuinely modern
design.

The academic system, which dominated art education from the 17th to the 19th century,
buttressed the widespread belief that media such as painting and sculpture were superior to
crafts such as furniture design and silver-smithing. The consequence, many believed, was the
neglect of good craftsmanship. Art Nouveau artists sought to overturn that belief, aspiring
instead to "total works of the arts," the infamous Gesamtkunstwerk, that inspired buildings
and interiors in which every element partook of the same visual vocabulary.

Many Art Nouveau designers felt that 19th century design had been excessively ornamental,
and in wishing to avoid what they perceived as frivolous decoration, they evolved a belief that
the function of an object should dictate its form. This theory had its roots in contemporary
revivals of the gothic style, and in practice it was a somewhat flexible ethos, yet it would be an
important part of the style's legacy to later movements such as modernism and the Bauhaus.

Concepts and Styles

Although Art Nouveau has become the most commonly used name for the movement, its wide
popularity throughout Western and Central Europe meant that it went by several different
titles. The most well-known of these was Jugendstil (Youth Style), by which the styles was
known in German-speaking countries. Meanwhile in Vienna - home to Gustav Klimt, Otto
Wagner, Josef Hoffmann and the other founders of theVienna Secession - it was known
as Sezessionsstil (Secession Style). It was also known as Modernismo in Spain and stile
Liberty in Italy (after Arthur Liberty's fabric shop in London, which helped popularize the
style). It also went by some more derogatory names: Style Nouille (noodle style) in
France, Paling Stijl (eel style) in Belgium, andBandwurmstil (tapeworm style) in Germany, all
of which made playful reference to Art Nouveau's tendency to employ sinuous and flowing
lines.
Art Nouveau's ubiquity in the late 19th century must be explained in part by many artists' use
of popular and easily reproduced forms such as graphic art. In Germany, Jugendstil artists like
Peter Behrens and Hermann Obrist, among many others, had their work printed on book
covers and exhibition catalogs, magazine advertisements and playbills. But this trend was by
no means limited to Germany. The English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley perhaps the most
controversial Art Nouveau figure due to his combination of the erotic and macabre created a
number of posters in his brief career that employed graceful and rhythmic lines. Beardsley's
highly decorative prints, such as The Peacock Skirt (1894), were both decadent and simple.