In fact, careful scrutiny will reveal the root of the problem. In the Middle Ages, those craftsmen who were trained by guilds and educated were swept away in the so-called "rational age", which led to the phenomenon that all products were handed over to uneducated manufacturers for disposal at will. However, these vulgar products are favored by the masses because they are very cheap. And these people are not well educated. They either have money but no time, or they have no money and no time. This will lead to serious pollution of the public's artistic taste. At this time, most artists were influenced by Schiller's artistic philosophy and romanticism, and despised practical value and the general public. They locked themselves out of the real life of the times and retired to the small circle of his holy spirit to create art for the artists themselves.
In fact, among the organizers of this exhibition, the art team includes henry cole (1808- 1882), owen jones (1809- 1874) and Matthew Digby Wyatt (1874).
1849, Cole founded a magazine named Design and Manufacturing Magazine. The concept advocated by this magazine is that "decoration … must be subordinate to what is decorated" and "decoration must be suitable for what is decorated". And these all come from the creed that Putin founded a few years ago. In his book "The Principle of the Spire Dome or Christianity", August ·w·n· Putin begins with the following words: "Two principles of design ... first, remove the features that are not conducive to the convenience, constructiveness and applicability of the building;" Second, all decorations should be condensed from the essence of architecture. Putin was born in a French immigrant family and later believed in Roman Catholicism. He is famous as a pioneer in the revival of Gothic style in Victorian architectural history, and advocates honesty and frankness in design and manufacture. His thoughts greatly influenced john ruskin, a British art theorist and essayist (18 19- 1900).
As a socialist, Ruskin's design theory has a strong democratic color. He believes that real art must be created for the people, denies the difference between so-called big art (pure art) and handicrafts and interior decoration called small art, and advocates that artists engage in artistic design and combine art with technology.
Putin's advocacy of the moral content of medieval art also had an important influence on Ruskin. Ruskin also opposes excessive decoration and thinks that decoration should be appropriate and true. He wrote "Seven Lights of Architecture" at 1849. The second light is truth. For Ruskin, truth is made by hand and must be done happily. If you are like a craftsman in Greece and Egypt, it is still humble and untrue, because "the craftsmen here have a low status, and their skills and abilities are completely dominated by the will of their superiors." Only the handcraft in the Middle Ages is really beautiful, especially the decoration of Christianity "completely got rid of this servility, because Christianity recognizes the value of individuals regardless of major issues." But in addition to acknowledging this value, he also admits that this value is imperfect, because this value thinks that only trivial things can have dignity ... Perhaps the most enviable thing for Gothic is that they accept the labor achievements of the lower class, point out the imperfections, and build a complete, solemn and blameless art palace with an inclusive attitude. He also wrote in a chapter entitled "The Lamp of Life" that "the most precious thing is the sign of life".
Ruskin advocates naturalism in decoration and opposes Victoria's complicated and pretentious decoration. He believes that "forms that are not derived from nature must be ugly". In denying the machine, he regards the monotony produced by the machine as a dead thing, while the things made by hand are regarded as the expression of life.
Ruskin's theoretical thought eventually became the dominant thought of British arts and crafts movement. William morris (1834- 1896) is an advocate, designer, painter, poet and social reformer of British arts and crafts movement. He put his theory into practice.
Morris's family is very rich, and his education is highly valued at home, which enables him to study in the architecture department of Oxford University. In college, Morris listened to Ruskin's lectures and was deeply influenced by Putin. He also read Ruskin's book The Stone of Venice. He was obsessed with this book and became interested in Gothic architecture. In order to study Gothic architecture, I went to France with Edward Burne Jones (1833- 1898), my college classmate and my later partner. This trip was an eye-opener for them, and it was also the beginning of their design activities that they were keen on Gothic revival all their lives. After graduation, Morris entered George streeter Street, which specializes in Gothic architectural design, to study architecture. Later, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (one of the founders of pre-Raphael School) persuaded him to leave his studio in streeter on 1857 and come to London to start his design career and practice Ruskin's theory.
1859 when Morris decorated his newly-married house, he couldn't find an ideal house and decent tables and chairs in the market. With a rich family, he went to study architecture again. So I came up with the idea of designing my own house and furniture. He asked his friend and colleague Philip Webb (1831-1915) in streeter Studio to design a house for himself. At first, Weber drew a symmetrical picture of the house for Morris. Because Morris was deeply influenced by Ruskin and his rebellious thoughts, he simply changed it into an asymmetric structure. It was also his rebellious thoughts that were stopped when Weber tried to paint the walls of the house. Just expose the red wall. This is the famous "Red Chamber" in art history (Figure 1). The whole red chamber has no academic discipline at all. Planning from the back, with the facade of the building as the secondary consideration; At the same time, the internal structure of the whole building is completely displayed, and the building and the environment are perfectly combined and unified. At the same time, they even mixed various styles when designing the furnace wall in the house. Morris also began to design furniture and wallpaper, curtains, curtains patterns, personally embroidered by Morris's wife Jenny, in pursuit of the unity of Gothic style. The design of The Red House can be said to be the first trial practice of Ruskin's theory, which paved the way for the later arts and crafts movement and became an early model of the Art Nouveau movement.
Considering that many people in society also need a house similar to the "red house", in order to realize and develop Ruskin's theory, Morris, his friends Marshall, Faulkner and craftsmen set up a manufacturing and decoration company (MMF) at 186 1. The company's business is divided into five categories: painting, sculpture, furniture and ironware manufacturing. It has truly realized Ruskin's ideal that "artists engage in artistic design and combine art with technology", and fully demonstrated the viewpoint that "art should be taken from the people and used by the people". This also marks the beginning of a new era of western art.
1874 or so, due to financial problems, Morris bought the shares of two other partners, operated independently, and changed its name to "Morris Company", which expanded the company's scale. At the same time, Morris himself gained an international reputation in the field of design. However, when he wanted to make art have a wider mass market, he failed, because he denied machinery like Ruskin, so he could not produce it on a large scale. The products made by artists by hand must be very expensive, so he could not serve the public more widely. So his products can only serve the rich.
From 65438 to 1970s, Morris served the public more widely for art, and improved and guided the public's artistic taste. He began to turn slowly to political activities. "He took it as his duty to openly engage in Ruskin's socialism and the protection of cultural relics that were already insane at that time." And in 1877, the ancient architecture protection association was established. /kloc-started reading Karl Marx's works in 0/883, and joined the Social Democratic Alliance in the same year. 1887 After the dissolution of the Social Democratic Alliance, he and Marx's daughter Elena set up a socialist alliance with the help of Aflin and Bacchus, and at the same time served as the editor-in-chief of Gong * * * Welfare magazine, the organ newspaper of the alliance. He published many articles on art and social issues in this magazine, including his novel News with Utopian Socialism from Out of nowhere. His early democratic thoughts and later socialist thoughts formed under the influence of Ruskin's theory were clearly expounded, and at the same time, his theoretical system of arts and crafts was formed.
In his 35 speeches from 1877 to 1894, he gradually extended the issue of art to the field of social science. He hates the artist's so-called personal feelings and creative inspiration. "It's nonsense to say' inspiration'" and "there is no such thing at all, only technology." (4) He hates that artists are divorced from the reality of daily life and "wrap themselves tightly with the dreams of Greece and Italy" ... only a few people are still pretending to be moved by these things, or they don't know how to pretend to understand "(5). Morris told us, "If it is not art that everyone can appreciate, what does art have to do with us?" When discussing the relationship between big art (pure art) and small art (handicraft industry), he and Ruskin's point of view (mentioned above) are almost the same. He said: "We have no way to distinguish the so-called big art from the small art.. If we distinguish art in this way, small art will appear worthless, mechanical and unreasonable ... Without the support of small art, big art will lose its value of serving the public and become useless. True art must "create for the people and serve the people". His hope is to "remember that barbarism can spread all over the world again and make the world beautiful and dramatic again."
Under the influence of Morris, a group of young artists began to organize their own companies, called guilds. Thus set off an artistic movement to revive handicrafts-arts and crafts movement. Among them, five guilds were very famous at that time: Century Guild founded by 1882 A.H. Heygate A.H.Mackmurdo, Artists Guild founded by 1884, Family Art and Industry Association founded by 1888, and Charles, a student of Morris.
While the arts and crafts movement is going on vigorously, it also breeds another movement. On the basis of the arts and crafts movement and the introduction of Japanese and China products. Artists are in an era of artistic revolution, and they are faced with a society that needs comprehensive transformation and design in the field of art, including architecture, furniture, craft, jewelry design, graphic design and so on. In order to compete for their seats in different fields, artists are different. Even one person occupies several seats. This is the Art Nouveau movement, which lasted from the 65438+1980s to the First World War and spread all over Europe and North America. It can be said that the dominant idea of this movement inherited the idea of arts and crafts movement. Anti-traditional and anti-Victorian decorative styles are the main styles, but more emphasis is placed on naturalism and oriental style rather than arts and crafts movement.
The first work of the internationally recognized Art Nouveau movement is the cover of the book Rennes City Church designed by McMurdu, the founder of Century Guild, in 1883 (Figure 2). The picture is full of asymmetrical slender curves, and a slender rooster stands on both sides of the picture, which is a common style in the Art Nouveau movement, but the appeal of this book is not the Art Nouveau movement. An illustrator from Scotland in the north of England played a great role in the development of Art Nouveau. He is beardsley (1872- 1898). According to a legend, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 7 and died at the age of 26. But his influence on illustration is unparalleled. He only received two months of formal training in art night school, relying entirely on self-study; He came into contact with the pre-Raphaelites between the ages of 20 and 22. In his illustrations, there is no academic dogma at all: "He gathers all the inconsistent things in the world and weaves them into something consistent with his own model". From his paintings, we can also see many traces of the combination of East and West. Biazli lived in the "cradle age" of the Art Nouveau movement, but when the Art Nouveau movement entered a prosperous period, Britain disappeared from our sight.
The birthplace of art nouveau is in France. /kloc-at the end of 0/9, French artists began to get tired of the Victorian style at that time. From 65438 to 0900, the new art of Paris World Expo began to emerge. Emile Galle (1846- 1904), the designer of the French city of Nantes who participated in the exhibition at that time, began to show an elegant and colorful glass product as early as 1884, which was not Victorian at all. His design thought has a strong naturalistic tendency, and he is convinced that nature is the only source of inspiration. 1893, American designer louis comfort tiffany began to produce his glass products. Tiffany is the founder of Tiffany Department Store, the base of Art Nouveau movement in America. His combination of industrial production and artistic expression greatly inspired samur Bing. Samuel Bing, a publisher and dealer, went to the Far East on 1875 and became interested in Japanese art. 1888, he published a magazine "Japanese art", and he himself was recognized as a connoisseur of Japanese art. Later, in 1895, an "Art Nouveau Store" was opened in Provence Road, with the purpose of "providing a gathering place for enthusiastic young people eager to show their works with modern tendency and all art lovers eager to see energy. When the store opened, works with strong naturalism such as bernal, Lautrec, Biazli and Calais were exhibited. At the Paris World Expo, the "New Artist" exhibition hall exhibited the exhibits of the new art shop, which attracted widespread attention at that time, and newspapers began to use "New Art" to represent this new style.
1896 established a "six-person group" in Paris, and also praised the "art nouveau" style. One of the most famous and interesting architects is Hector Plumet, who directly applied the new art style to the entrance building of the Paris subway (Figure 3). Give full play to the characteristics of naturalism, the ceilings and railings of these entrances imitate the shapes of plants, especially twisted branches and twisted vines, and the ceilings are deliberately treated into the shape of seashells.
Horta, a famous Belgian architect (1861-kloc-0/947, one of the representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium) designed and built No.6 Paolo Emily Zhan Sen Road in Brussels in 1892, which is the original residence of No.2 Turin Road (. Compared with Jimad, it is the first attempt in the history of architecture to apply the style of Art Nouveau to architecture more perfectly. The slender curves in art nouveau and the imitation of vines in nature are perfectly presented here. The whole building has a unified style and the rooms are bright and beautiful. Hota is one of the important leaders of "Free Aesthetics Society" founded in 1894. The predecessor of the Free Aesthetics Society was the "Twenty-member Group" founded by 1884. At that time, the organization mainly introduced the paintings of avant-garde artists, such as Lautrec, Gauguin, Cezanne, Van Gogh and so on. At about 189 1, influenced by Horta's good friend Vanderveld, he began to introduce the works of the British arts and crafts movement, and gradually gave up the application of painting to art. In 1894, it was renamed the Free Aesthetics Society. The content of the exhibition has become richer, including Biazli, Morris, Ashby and so on. So who is Wilder? He is similar to Morris of England in Belgium. Wilder was a painter in his early days, and he began to notice the British arts and crafts movement around 189 1. So I gave up painting and engaged in design work. Like Morris, he is a socialist and a Democrat. Wilder emphasizes rational thinking in design, and when absorbing natural forms in decoration, it must be selected, analyzed and summarized, and finally become an abstract form. Only a completely practical design created according to the principle of rational structure can truly realize the first element of beauty and obtain the essence of beauty at the same time. His rationality made him notice the deficiency of Morris's theory, so he was not against machines, and he had a positive attitude towards them. This also makes him the most important founder in the history of modern design. His influence goes far beyond Belgium's borders and has far-reaching influence in European countries, especially Germany.
1895, Meyer Graf, a famous German art critic, founded Pan, a magazine introducing German contemporary art and literature. In the same year, Graff and samur Bing discovered the house designed by Wilder himself, and they all appreciated it very much. During 1897, Wilder's interior design works were exhibited in Dresden Practical Art Exhibition, and his creative curves on furniture were highly praised by Graf. At the same time, some young artists with the aim of artistic transformation similar to Wilde set up a "joint factory of arts and crafts" in Munich. These people include Briest (1863- 1927), endel (August endel) and Peter Behrens (Peter Behrens). They are not against machines, on the contrary, they hope to produce works of art through machines. The design style has also begun to change to a more abstract and geometric style. Similarly, a group of avant-garde artists and architects in Vienna *** 19 also organized a self-proclaimed "Separatist" group (founders include Klimt, Yue Se Hoffman (1870- 1956) and Joseph Maria Obric). Ideologically, it is very similar to Germany, but the separatists were influenced by the architect Otto Wagner (1841-1918). In design, more emphasis was placed on functionality, while decoration was put in a secondary position, and the form began to get rid of the curve style of Art Nouveau. Separatists hold exhibitions regularly to publicize their theories. 1900, the works of British designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868- 1928) were introduced into Austria through separatist exhibitions. Caused a strong response. McIntosh's design completely abandons the naturalistic decorative style in the Art Nouveau movement, and adopts simple geometric figures, especially vertical and horizontal lines as the basic structure, with black and white as the main color (Figure 5).
An architect in Spain, contrary to MacIntosh, developed the curve style of Art Nouveau to the extreme. He is Antonio Gaudi (1852- 1926). His architecture is full of imagination. Incredibly, he used broken porcelain, cups and saucers as decorative materials. Gaudi's mature architecture embodies his worship of nature, and his imitation of natural organic forms has reached a crazy level. Throughout his life, he has been constantly innovating and creating his own personality. Resolutely oppose imitating tradition. This also makes his buildings rarely get official approval. Even to the point where the masses can't stand it. However, there is one person he admires very much, and that is Gouel (the Gouel family is the upstart of Catalonia), an entrepreneur who has supported and sponsored him for a long time. This factor is very important to his architectural career.
Gaudi was a highly personalized Gothic revivalist in his early days, which can be seen from his 1878 Vinson apartment in Barcelona. It was not until 1883 officially designed the building for a family in Gouel that some organic forms began to appear, such as the bold and willful curve at the entrance of Gouel Villa. By 1900, he had designed a manor for Gouel, and his creation entered a mature stage, completely abandoning the shadow of Gothic, and he successfully combined nature and architecture into a perfect whole. Everything here-bridges, roads, benches inlaid with colored porcelain-is full of Art Nouveau's winding style, and even many places that are arbitrarily treated are beyond the scope of Art Nouveau.
19 10 completed Mira apartment (Figure 6) which has reached the acme of Art Nouveau. It's the best house Gaudi thinks. The whole building, including all the furniture and decorations inside, is completely organic. Even the walls are uneven. This extreme practice aroused the anger of Barcelona citizens. The newspaper described his building with words such as "bug" and "bumblebee curse".
Sagrada Familia (Figure 7) is an unfinished building that Gaudi took over from 1884 until today after his death. Almost all the architectural style changes in Gaudi's life are reflected in this unfinished church. One of the characteristics of his architecture is that there are no engineering drawings, no budget and no design scheme. Don't do architecture as a project at all, but as a work of art. This is so arbitrary that craftsmen are encouraged to do their work roughly that they have to do it themselves in many places. This building, together with the Gouel Manor and Mira Apartment described above, was declared as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO in 1984, which is very rare in the history of world architecture.
Generally speaking, Britain is the birthplace of the industrial revolution. They are the first to face the crisis brought by industrialization and how to deal with the relationship between art and industry, art and people, and art and social development. They chose the art reform, so they had the arts and crafts movement. After the reform, there will inevitably be many vacancies in the art field (as mentioned above). For example, in the British arts and crafts movement, there have been masters such as Morris, Weber and Biazli. Then continental Europe and the United States also faced great industrialization. Their goals and choices are the same, and they all learn from the arts and crafts movement. Reform the art and launch the Art Nouveau Movement. This is also the reason why the Art Nouveau movement did not have a strong reaction in Britain, because Britain has reformed and masters have appeared, and Macintosh can only be regarded as a transitional figure in the transition from Art Nouveau movement to modernism movement.
(1). Pioneer of modern design, chapter 2, page 25.
(2). The Stone of Venice, Chapter 10, 189.
(3) sense of order, chapter 2, page 45.
(4). Mackail, op. cit., Volume I, p. 186.
⑤. Collected Works of william morris, London, 19 15, xxiii, p. 147.
6. Mackail, op cit., vol. II, p. 99.
7. Ibid., vol. 22, page 47.
8. Ibid., p.144; Volume I, page 305
Pet-name ruby. Mario Amaya, New Art, Herbert Press, 1985.
Attending doctor. World Modern Design History, Chapter 3, 7 1 page.
Bibliography:
Pioneer of Modern Design —— From william morris to Gropius, by Nicholas pevsner, translated by Wang Shen and Wang Xiaojing, China Building Industry Press, 2004.
The Source of Modern Architecture and Design, by Nicholas pevsner, translated by Yin Lingyun, Fan Jingzhong University, Life, Reading and Knowledge Joint Publishing Company, 200 1, Beijing, 1 February.
European Art19th Century, Wu Gan, Renmin University of China Press, 2004.
Design History of Modern World by Wang Shouzhi, China Youth Publishing House, Beijing, September 2002, p. 1 edition.
Sense of Order, [English] Gombrich, translated by Fan Jingzhong, Hunan Science and Technology Press, 1, 2000.