The Aesthetic Movement/Aestheticism, which occurred between 1860 and 1900, was a provocative and sensual era that aimed to overhaul Britain’s elaborate, pompous, and conformist Victorian traditions. Aestheticism influenced music, fashion, literature, and interior design. The movement sprung from the desire to craft art for art’s sake and laud taste. Additionally, the era was founded on the pursuit of beauty and self-expression. These principles were exalted over morality and restrictive conformity. The Arts and Crafts Movement occurred between 1860 and 1920. The era’s founders were among the first prominent critics of the Industrial Revolution, impersonal and mechanized. The Industrial Revolution critics recommended a simpler and more fulfilling way of life. The Aesthetic Movement and the Arts and Crafts Movement occurred concurrently and were closely related in their philosophies against the industrial revolution.
Theories and Philosophies of the Aesthetic Movement
The Aesthetic Movement was a revolutionary idea that arose in the middle 19th century in Britain. The movement started in 1860 and ended in 1900. The Aesthetic Movement was provocative and sensuous in contrast to the preceding conservative Victorian traditions. It started as a rebellion against modern industrialism and Victorian materiality. Its pioneers wanted to move away from the ugliness and materialism associated with the Victorian era and develop new beauty ideals (“The Aesthetic Movement,” n.d.). Artists involved in the movement aimed to create innovative art and liberate themselves from obsolete cultural ideas and moral codes. They were motivated to create art for “art’s sake.” Additionally, sculptures offered visual and palpable delight and embraced sensuality (Carelli, 2013). Therefore, art only existed to be beautiful and not to tell stories or make social commentary on morals or send a socio-political message.
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The Aesthetic Movement was also guided by a need to find new beauty ideals that did not involve any negative aspects, such as illness and death. Therefore, artists chose models with looks and lifestyles that contradicted conventional Victorian ideals of demure femininity. For example, they chose red-haired women with big eyes, who were considered unconventional beauties. Sensual portraits of unconventionally beautiful women arose introduced a new ideal of feminine beauty (“The Aesthetic Movement,” n.d.). Moreover, the movement asserted that art ought to be diverse and should not be limited to paintings, architecture, and sculptures. Instead, it should be part of everyday life. The innovative ideas in the era also influenced design. Avant-garde designers abandoned the Victorian middle-class home's banal and pretentious furnishings in favor of art furniture (Carelli, 2013). Artists also criticized the penurious and repetitive designs of consumer products.
Hedonism, which was characteristic of the Aesthetic Movement, subverted dominant arguments about culture and society during the democratization era. Oscar Wilde, a celebrity symbol associated with the movement, created works that allowed the wider aesthetic counter-culture examination. The works opposed arguments for critical consensus and undermined the calculated Utilitarian political economy (Livesey, 2016).
Theories and Philosophies of the Arts and Crafts Era
The Arts and Crafts Movement, which started in 1860 and ended in 1920, opposed the Industrial Revolution's tenets, impersonal and mechanized. The movement emerged in the United Kingdom and spread to the US in the 1890s, where it started as a response to the social changes instigated by the Industrial Revolution. The movements in the respective regions had opposing attitudes towards industrialization, where British artists were opposed to industrialization while American artists embraced machines more readily. The movement’s practitioners believed that handwork created a connection between an artist and their work, thereby producing human fulfillment and striking items that could be used daily. The movement focused predominantly on decorative arts and architecture instead of paintings and sculpture (“The Arts and Crafts Movement,” n.d.). Moreover, the movement was influenced by the imagery of nature and had its roots in medieval art, especially the Gothic style.
The Arts and Crafts Movement acted as a defense against the harsh conditions of industrialization. During the industrial revolution, large populations of working-class laborers migrated into cities that were ill-prepared to handle the sudden surge in numbers. Consequently, cities became polluted, and residents were crowded into ramshackle housing. Additionally, workers were also subjected to dangerous and harsh working conditions, with long hours and low pay. The movement’s practitioners recommended turning the craft into leisure to eliminate these hardships. Critics of the Industrial Revolution believed there was a strong association between a nation’s morality and its form of architecture (“The Arts and Crafts Movement,” n.d.). Consequently, Arts and Crafts practitioners created residences as a regenerative spiritual haven and the traditional family unit's locus.
The Arts and Crafts Movement advocated reform and grew out of social commentary. Therefore, political views were bound to arise. The Movement advanced socialist and progressive reforms in America and Britain. Moreover, it led to the alteration of craft into a leisure activity. The era linked craft with un-alienated labor, therefore opposing mass production. The movement also influenced progressive art by birthing movements against globalization and sweatshops and for organic goods, fair trade goods, green products (Krugh, 2014). Therefore, the Arts and Crafts Movement’s concerns for production and consumption persist to date.
Comparison of the Aesthetic Movement and the Arts and Crafts Era
The Aesthetic Movement and the Arts and Crafts Movement were founded as a rebellion against modern industrialism. Both movements emphasized pre-industrial techniques to ensure quality craftsmanship and preserve handcraft and the artist’s authenticity. Aesthetic Movement practitioners opposed the mechanization of the creative process, which dehumanized design. They also favored beauty over practicality and emphasized the need to create art for art’s sake. They claimed that mechanizing the creative process led to predictable, repetitive designs (“The Aesthetic Movement,” n.d.). Similarly, Arts and Crafts practitioners believed that handcraft forged a connection between an artist and their work, leading to human fulfillment. They emphasized a return to a simpler and more fulfilled way of living (“The Arts and Crafts Movement,” n.d.). Therefore, both movements emphasized self-expression.
The Aesthetic Movement and the Arts and Crafts Era are closely related, and both started in 1860. However, the Arts and Crafts Movement outlived the Aesthetic Movement and ended in 1920 since the latter lacked single cohesive philosophy that could ensure artists moved in the same direction. Additionally, the Aesthetic Movement became a symbol of immorality and sexual promiscuity, following Oscar Wilde’s trial and imprisonment for homosexuality (“The Aesthetic Movement,” n.d.). Although the Arts and Crafts Movement outlived the Aesthetic Movement, it also came to its demise owing to the problem of handcraft, which was labor-intensive. Therefore, Arts and Crafts practitioners opted to adopt machine production, leading to the movement’s untimely end (“The Arts and Crafts Movement,” n.d.). Though both movements started at around the same time, the Aesthetic Movement ended earlier than the Arts and Crafts Movement due to a lack of sound and uniform philosophies.
Conclusion
The Arts and Crafts Movement and the Aesthetic movement occurred concurrently and were closely related in terms of the basic philosophies behind their formation. The Aesthetic Movement, which started in 1860 and lasted for 40 years, begun as a rebellion against modern industrialism and Victorian materiality. Additionally, the movement aimed to find new positive ideals of beauty. Similarly, the Arts and Crafts Movement began as a response to the social changes instigated by modern industrialism and opposed the Industrial Revolution, which was impersonal and mechanized. Additionally, both movements emphasized pre-industrial techniques to preserve handcraft and the artist’s authenticity. However, the Arts and Crafts Movement differed from the Aesthetic Movement since it ended later than the latter in 1920.
References
Carelli, F. (2013). The Aesthetic Movement: Perfect beauty so pale and cold. London Journal of Primary Care , 5 (1), 73-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/17571472.2013.11493380
Krugh, M. (2014). Joy in labour: The politicization of craft from the arts and crafts movement to Etsy. Canadian Review of American Studies , 44 (2), 281-301. 10.3138/CRAS.2014.S06
Livesey, R. (2016). Aestheticism and the Politics of Pleasure. In The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Literary Culture . 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199593736.013.35
The Aesthetic Movement . (n.d.). The art story. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/aesthetic-art/#nav
The Arts and Crafts Movement . (n.d.). The art story. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/arts-and-crafts/
