The international design reform movement that answered industrial mass production with handwork, honest materials and joy in labor, led in Britain by William Morris on foundations laid by John Ruskin. Flourishing from about 1880 to 1920, it reshaped architecture, furniture, textiles and book design, and every later craft revival argues with it or descends from it. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Disputed
OriginCredit for the movement's founding inspiration is usually given to Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin and William Morris. A minority of architectural historians credit Augustus Pugin, writing more than a decade earlier, with reaching many of the same conclusions about the importance of craftsmanship and tradition that Ruskin and Morris are usually credited with working out in practice. 1 Majority: Carlyle, Ruskin and Morris named as the movement's inspirations (Wikipedia, opening section). Minority: Pugin's biographer Rosemary Hill argues Pugin anticipated the core ideas decades before Ruskin and Morris worked them out in detail; see the recorded dissent. OriginNamed from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, founded in London in 1887; the movement itself flourished circa 1880 to 1920 1 FAQs
Who is credited with founding the Arts and Crafts Movement?
Usually John Ruskin and William Morris, though a minority credit Augustus Pugin, writing more than a decade earlier.
Credit for the movement's founding inspiration is usually given to Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin and William Morris. A minority of architectural historians instead credit Augustus Pugin, who wrote more than a decade earlier and reached many of the same conclusions about the importance of craftsmanship and tradition that Ruskin and Morris are usually credited with working out in practice. The movement itself takes its name from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, founded in London in 1887, and flourished from about 1880 to 1920.
Connections
Associated With
Ruskin's writing, above all The Nature of Gothic, supplied the movement's intellectual foundation
Source Arts and Crafts Movement (Wikipedia)
Source John Ruskin (Wikipedia)
Source Studio Craft (Wikipedia)
The movement developed in reaction against the machine-made design the 1851 exhibition celebrated
Source Arts and Crafts Movement (Wikipedia)
The Great Exhibition and the Arts and Crafts Movement both already existed on this atlas with no edge between them.
Source William Morris and the Arts & Crafts Movement in Great Britain (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya)
Morris was the movement's leading figure and public voice
Source Arts and Crafts Movement (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Arts and Crafts Movement (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationNorth America section
In Canada, the term Arts and Crafts predominates, but Craftsman is also recognised.
John Ruskin section
He believed factory-made works to be 'dishonest,' and that handwork and craftsmanship merged dignity with labour.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement, A. W. N. Pugin section
reached conclusions, almost in passing, about the importance of craftsmanship and tradition in architecture that it would take the rest of the century and the combined efforts of Ruskin and Morris to work out in detail
View the Source Arts and Crafts: An Introduction (V&A)
Victoria and Albert MuseumArts and Crafts: An Introduction, section on John Ruskin's influenceQuote, Arts and Crafts: An Introduction, section on John Ruskin's influence
Ruskin argued that separating the act of designing from the act of making was both socially and aesthetically damaging.
Studio Craft (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Studio Craft, History section, on Arts and Crafts influenceQuote, Associated With: Studio Craft, History section, on Arts and Crafts influence
The 1969 seminal exhibition OBJECTS:USA was a watershed moment aimed at bridging the century old divide between art and craft.
William Morris and the Arts & Crafts Movement in Great Britain (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya)
Museu Nacional d'Art de CatalunyaAssociated With: The Great Exhibition, Origins sectionQuote, Associated With: The Great Exhibition, Origins section
The spark for the Arts & Crafts movement was the Great Exhibition of 1851, where the chief criticism of manufactured objects on display was the riot of unnecessary ornament with little concern for utility.
John Ruskin (Wikipedia)
Dissenting Readings (2 dissenting readings)
Origin
Hill's biography of Pugin holds that he reached conclusions, almost in passing, about the importance of craftsmanship and tradition in architecture that it would take the rest of the century and the combined efforts of Ruskin and Morris to work out in detail, making Pugin an under-credited originator of ideas the movement's standard history assigns to Ruskin and Morris outright.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneArts and Crafts Movement (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation
Origin
Rosemary Hill, A. W. N. Pugin's biographer, argues that Pugin reached the core conclusions of the Arts and Crafts movement, about the importance of craftsmanship and tradition in architecture, more than a decade before Ruskin and Morris worked the same ideas out in detail, against the majority credit given to Carlyle, Ruskin and Morris for the movement's founding inspiration.
A dissenting reading, from Rosemary HillArts and Crafts Movement (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation
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