Feb 26 History of GD Chapter 10

The arts and crafts movement, led by William Morris, was a revival to the quality of design where rich and handcrafted. Morris discovered Victorian products and began designing furniture, stained glass and other tapestries that supported his style as a two dimensional pattern designer. His view on designing throughout the Industrial Revolution was that mass production was the key to success while craftsmanship and tastelessness was lacking. He worked to create beauty through arts and crafts and re-establish aesthetics throughout designing. Morris, along with other designers such as Mackmurdo and Image, created a group called Century Guild that established their rightful place next to their works so they were noticed. Throughout the Hobby Horse, a periodical that began publication in 1884, artists believed that everyone deserved equal claim to be called an artist as much as the painter Raphael does. Morris worked on typeface (such as Golden) and created well made books with beautiful unity that was showing up from before the Victorian era. After the death of Morris, many other artists such as Ashbee, Sanderson, Hubbard, and Pissaro, sought to restore apprenticeship and typography without imagery. They figured that typography should communicate to the imagination without the use of words. Dutch typography was also improved producing symmetrical layouts, balance, and harmony.

One person that I really enjoyed reading about was William Morris. He advanced arts and design by creating carpets and wallpapers that had pattern designs on them. To me, this kind of interior design was a breakthrough that I could see wealthy people would want to have. He was very concerned with mass production and how it had a negative effect on the quality of design. Looking back through the Industrial Revolution, I don’t quite understand where he gets his view points. I look at the art work created through the Industrial Revolution and see complete beauty and a new breakthrough with photography and chromolithography.

One thing that I wonder about and find very interesting when reading this chapter is trying to understand the Dutch Renaissance. They viewed mass production as a “necessary evil, cautiously tolerated, principally for economic reasons”. They did not consider the Industrial Revolution a blessing at all. It is hard to understand what they were going through that made them think that this was not an improvement in the economy and culture. Why did they feel the Industrial Revolution was evil? What effect did it have on their culture and was it negative?