Before Class: Chapter Ten

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph.
This chapter was on the Arts and Crafts movement, which flourished in England during the the last decades of the nineteenth century as a reaction against the social, moral, and artistic confusion of the Industrial Revolution. William Morris was the leader of the Arts and Crafts movement, he called for a fitness of purpose, truth to nature of materials and methods of production, and individual expression of both designer and worker. Morris originally wanted to enter the ministry, but realized that he would rather be an artist. He tried being an architect but found it to be dull. He struggled for a while trying to find his design vocation, while establishing a home with he wife, Jane Burden, he started to find it. He and a few friends established an art-decorating firm which included furniture and cabinet makers, weavers, dyers, stained glass window fabricators, potters, and textile designers. He created over 500 designs for wallpapers, textiles, carpets, and tapestries. Morris also began working with typefaces in 1888, his first typeface was called Golden. He then established Kelmscott Press, where he printed books and created two more typeface designs, Troy, and Chaucer. John Ruskin was an artist and writer who inspired the philosophy of this movement. Ruskin not only believed in reestablishing beautiful art into society he also advocated for improvements in housing for industrial workers, national education systems, and retirement benefits. The overall design concept of the Art and Crafts movement was to create beautiful objects that were not at all part of the mass produced goods that had lack of craftsmanship.

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
I really found William Morris to be very interesting, his whole story of becoming what he was was great. He was born into a wealthy family, wanted to originally go into the ministry, wrote poetry, decided to become an artist, and then established his own firm of art-decoration. He was very involved in his work, created hundreds of designs that were influenced by nature, worked with typefaces, and embraced socialism because of the over exploitation of the poor.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading. (if you state none here, you’d better have more detail done above to offset the work.)
What happened to the other men that established the art-decorating firm (Morris, Marshall, Faulker and Company) with Morris? Did he buy them out? Or did they decide to do other things?