The Arts and Crafts Movement

The art and crafts movement was a movement which was introduced at around mid-19th century. It emerged late after the Victorian period which was going on in Britain. The arts and crafts movement is considered as a movement which rebelled to the idea of mass produced goods from the industrial revolution which was going on at that time.

The mind behind the Arts and Crafts movement was William Morris. William Morris believed that a product has to be manufacture with passion rather that in mass production by machines. He believed that a product has to be manufactured by small groups and craftsman. The idea of Morris had limited the amount of products manufactured as it was all hand made with no machinery used.

William Morris

During the industrial revolution the products that were being manufacture had no aesthetical value as they were made and produced in mass production and during the time any importance were being given from manufacturers. Personally I think that William Morris had some valid points in his arguments but he always failed to combine both mass production and the aesthetics together.
William Morris argued that the machines of the mass production factories were taking “man” away from manufacturing and was producing products which look rather bad. He strongly wanted to put man back into the design and manufacturing process.

The Bauhaus which was started in 1919 had the vision to combine the mass production that started in the industrial revolution with the idea of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The idea of Bauhaus was to use cheap materials but manufacture the products that were designed with aesthetical value and attention to design and the user in a mass production manner. Their idea was that it was important that the majority of the population had the opportunity to buy products which were beautiful in design but cheap to buy. This was something that William Morris failed to achieve in his time as he didn’t was to combine the two of them.

Products from Bauhaus

Reference : 

THE ART AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT 1880 to 1910. 2014. THE ART AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT 1880 to 1910. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.technologystudent.com/prddes1/artscrafts1.html. [Accessed 26 January 2014].

BBC - Homes - Design - Arts and crafts period style. 2014. BBC - Homes - Design - Arts and crafts period style. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/design/period_artscrafts.shtml. [Accessed 26 January 2014].