Arts and Crafts Movement

Arts and Crafts in the Society

Have you ever wondered what it means to have no art around you? No paintings to be seen inside the museum, no trendy clothes to wear, and your dream house without imaginative furniture and fancy design? Oh, life could be monochromatic, maybe. As Vincent Van Gogh said, “Color in a painting is like enthusiasm in life”, there is more to life with arts and crafts that can improve the life of every person in society.

The difference between art and craft lies not in the tools you hold in your hands, but in the mental set that guides them. For the artisan, the craft is an end in itself. For you, the artist, craft is the vehicle for expressing your vision. Craft is the visible edge of art (David Bayles). Arts and crafts have had a huge influence on culture, improving the way people work, the way people see it, and celebrating everything with visionary art. Everything has a starting point, such as arts and crafts, a trend in which arts and crafts become a necessity for daily use. Some of the first serious opponents of the Industrial Revolution were the founders of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Disenchanted in the 19th century with the impersonal, mechanized course of society, they sought to return to a more basic, satisfying way of living. In comparison to the "high" arts of painting and sculpture, Arts & Crafts artists are primarily associated with the broad range of decorative arts and architecture. The movement of Arts and Crafts is why today there are architects, interior designers, and craftsmen who make things great in our vision. In comparison to machine-manufactured pieces, artists and designers designed simple furniture, crafted with traditional ornamentation. This form of creative expression was a protest against the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of mass production and production processes. The furniture and ornaments of the Arts and Crafts movement were made by hand rather than by the new machines of the period, and the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement were inspired by a variety of artisans.

It started to affect all facets of interior design as the Arts and Crafts movement began to take off. Artists such as William Morris and John Ruskin provided furniture and ornaments with their concepts of simplicity and craftsmanship, and they advocated for a return to traditional artistry. Eventually, all facets of architecture, decorative artwork, and furniture making started to shape the movement. These media started to depict features that were simpler and displayed the craftsmanship of the artisans.

The key reaction to the Industrial Revolution by the adherents to the Arts and Crafts movement was that machine-based productivity of their output made artists less innovative. The movement was a backlash against this mass production and more hands- on production and craftsmanship were promoted. A design pattern of goods that were easy to produce and pleasing to the eye was also sponsored. Not only a response to the Industrial Revolution, the Arts and Crafts movement was not. For other art movements that focused on simplistic designs and their usefulness, especially Modernism, it also became an inspiration. The Industrial Revolution inspired the movement of Arts and Crafts because the movement developed as a reaction to the modernity brought into the modern world by the Industrial Revolution.