Blog Post #4

This time, we began the class by watching a video of William Morris. A writer, artist, designer and political activist. He is also known as the founder of the arts and crafts movement.Inspired by the writings of John Ruskin, and the social movements in reaction to industrialization.

To get us a bit into context, lets go back to the time of the Industrial revolution. With inventions like the printing press, and society being geared towards a more materialistic path. The art of hand made things was rare, and people would prefer to buy by quantity rather than quality.

A part of society began to rebel against this development of technologY. They wanted the traditional back, the hand made materials designed by real artists.
William Morris was highly linked to this society that rejected the industrial production of arts.

He was the son of a wealthy merchant, wanting to change society. And at this time, unless you had he money to do so, you didn’t have time to fight for a revolution.
His entire philosophy on the matter was basically “Rather than complying to the crapy chair, lets go back to the craftsmanship” . The flaw in this logic is, the amount of money it takes to produce these materials. Hence the idea wasn’t as attractive to the lower class of society.

After finishing his studies, Morris constructed “The Red House” which was his wedding gift for his fiance. The house was created with the notion that everything within it, had to be beautiful or have a particular purpose for being there.
It makes us wonder whether our work is valuable for its beauty or for its functionality doesn’t it?

Anyways, during his years here, Morris evolved as an artist, and created his own company along with other artists in which he basically relived the traditional culture and arts within a victorian England.

He then founded the Kelmscott Press, and began to produce his own original works. Though many of his works were based on works done by Peter Loslein and Bernhard Maler.

I thinks it’s safe to say that without a doubt Morris was a big part of the visual arts history and influence in the design of the industrial era.