The Arts & Crafts Movement


Book Description

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” This quote alone from William Morris could summarise the ideology of the Arts & Crafts movement, which triggered a veritable reform in the applied arts in England. Founded by John Ruskin, then put into practice by William Morris, the Arts & Crafts movement promoted revolutionary ideas in Victorian England. In the middle of the “soulless” Industrial Era, when objects were standardised, the Arts & Crafts movement proposed a return to the aesthetic at the core of production. The work of artisans and meticulous design thus became the heart of this new ideology, which influenced styles throughout the world, translating the essential ideas of Arts & Crafts into design, architecture and painting.




The Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain


Book Description

Mary Greensted tells the story of the birth and development of the Arts and Craft movement in Britain with the help of numerous illustrations showing the buildings, furniture, metalwork, and the people who influenced it. The movement was concerned with the revival of traditional crafts, and a return to the vernacular, and it had socialist ideals at its heart. This movement, which flourished in the early twentieth century, has not only bequeathed us with a wealth of fine objects and buildings, but also a way of thinking about life and craft that continues to influence many today. Contains information on dozens of designers, artists, architects and thinkers, including: William Morris CFA Voysey Charles Rennie Mackintosh AH Mackmurdo CR Ashbee Ernest Gimson




The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman


Book Description

Illustrated with original photographs of Shipman's superb gardens - many by photographer Mattie Edwards Hewitt which have never been previously published - and new photographs by Carol Betsch which were specially commissioned for this volume, the book documents in fascinating detail the life and work of one of America's most important and influential garden designers.










The Rise of Everyday Design


Book Description

This fresh look at the Arts and Crafts Movement charts its origins in reformist ideals, its engagement with commercial culture, and its ultimate place in everyday households.




The Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland


Book Description

This authoritative book is the most detailed account to date of the Arts and Crafts movement in Scotland. Arts and Crafts ideas appeared there from the 1860s, but not until after 1890 did they emerge from artistic circles and rise to popularity among the wider public. The heyday of the movement occurred between 1890 and 1914, a time when Scotland's art schools energetically promoted new design and the Scottish Home Industries Association campaigned to revive rural crafts. Across the country the movement influenced the look of domestic and church buildings, as well as the stained glass, metalwork, textiles, and other furnishings that adorned them. Art schools, workshops, and associations helped shape the Arts and Crafts style, as did individuals such as Ann Macbeth, W. R. Lethaby, Robert Lorimer, M. H. Baillie Scott, Douglas Strachan, Phoebe Traquair, and James Cromar Watt, among other well-known and previously overlooked figures. These architects, artists, and designers together contributed to the expansion and evolution of the movement both within and beyond Scotland's borders. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art




Women Art Workers and the Arts and Crafts Movement


Book Description

Women Art Workers provides a new social and cultural history of the Arts and Crafts movement which offers unprecedented insight into how women constructed alternative, creative lifestyles and disseminated the ethos of the social importance of the Arts and Crafts across new local, national, and international spheres of influence.




Arts and Crafts Pioneers


Book Description

Surveying for the first time the Century Guild of Artists (CGA) and its influential periodical, the Century Guild Hobby Horse, this original publication asserts the significance of the CGA in the development of the Arts and Crafts movement and its modernist successors. Founded by the architect Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and his 18-year-old assistant Herbert Percy Horne (afterwards joined by the artist and poet Selwyn Image), the three men were driven by the ambition to answer John Ruskin's radical call to regenerate art and society. Motivated by the concept of 'the Unity of Art', the CGA embraced a spectrum of arts which included architecture, painting, sculpture, metalwork, textiles and stained glass. It also reached out to music and literature, aiming to educate its public in practical form. Skilfully weaving chronology with the impressive artistic achievements of the collective, the authors also draw out the lively personalities of each of the protagonists and their wider circle. For anyone fascinated by the Arts and Crafts movement, this is essential reading.