The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed in London in 1887 to promote the exhibition of
decorative arts
]
The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...
alongside fine arts. The Society's exhibitions were held annually at the
New Gallery (London), New Gallery from 1888 to 1890, and roughly every three years thereafter,
[Crane, "Of the Arts and Crafts Movement"] were important in the flowering of the British
Arts and Crafts Movement in the decades prior to
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
History
The illustrator and designer
Walter Crane
Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and K ...
served as the founding president of the Society for its first three years.
Of its goals and purposes, he wrote:
Annual exhibitions were held at the New Gallery in 1888, 1889, and 1890, but the third exhibition failed to match the quality of the first two, and was a financial disaster.
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
succeeded Crane as president in 1891., and the Society thereafter chose to reduce the frequency of showings in order to ensure an abundance of materials to display.
The Society published ''Arts and Crafts Essays'', an influential collection of essays on the decorative arts by its members, in 1893. Contributors included Morris, Crane,
T. J. Cobden-Sanderson,
Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often William Hogarth, Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his mos ...
, and
May Morris
Mary "May" Morris (25 March 1862 – 17 October 1938) was an English artisan, embroidery designer, jeweller, socialist, and editor. She was the younger daughter of the Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer William Morris and his wife and artists' m ...
.
The fourth exhibition, held in 1893, was far more successful, and the fifth exhibition of 1896—although clouded by the death of
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
on its planned opening day—proved to be its most influential. The 1899 exhibit featured a Morris retrospective. Another successful exhibition was held in 1903, but the Society suffered organizational problems in the new century, with the exhibitions of 1906, 1910, 1912 and 1916 each being held in a different location. Crane died in 1915, and architect and designer
Henry Wilson
Henry Wilson (born Jeremiah Jones Colbath; February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was an American politician who was the 18th vice president of the United States from 1873 until his death in 1875 and a senator from Massachusetts from 1855 to ...
was president from 1915 to 1922, but the exhibitions failed to recover the critical and artistic success of the 1890s. In 1915,
W. R. Lethaby and other members, recognising the limitations of the Society's devotion to craft methods of production, set up the
Design and Industries Association
The Design and Industries Association is a United Kingdom charity whose object is to ''engage with all those who share a common interest in the contribution that design can make to the delivery of goods and services that are sustainable and enhance ...
to improve the standards of British industrial design.
In the 1930s it became clear to some members that if the Society was to survive in any form it had to confront the role of the crafts in relation to industry and the place of machinery in craft production. The Society’s 1935 exhibition introduced a section devoted to mass-produced articles designed by craftsmen to demonstrate the influence the crafts could have on industry, which brought its exhibitions to the notice of the press again. This move was controversial within the Society and led to some resignations.
The Society continued to exhibit periodically until the 1950s and many eminent craftsmen and women were associated with it. In 1960, it merged with the Cambridgeshire Guild of Craftsmen to form the Society of Designer Craftsmen, which is still active.
Notes
References
*
*Parry, Linda: ''Textiles of the Arts & Crafts Movement'', Thames and Hudson, revised edition 2005,
*Parry, Linda, ''William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement: A Sourcebook'', New York, Portland House, 1989 {{ISBN, 0-517-69260-0
See also
*
Mary Elizabeth Turner
Mary Elizabeth Turner (née Powell; 1854–1907) was an English embroiderer who exhibited her work at the 1890 exposition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, for which she wrote an essay on modern embroidery. Identified with the Arts ...
(1854–1907). English embroiderer
External links
Society of Designer Craftsmen successor to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition society
British art
Interior design
Arts and Crafts movement