ARTH 366: Studies in 19th- Century Art and Architecture Arts and Crafts & Art Nouveau
- Wednesdays, 6:00-8:15pm
- EV-1-615
- Instructor: Dr. Laurie Milner
This course will explore two 19th century movements that mixed the fine arts with the decorative arts in order to add depth and richness to daily life. The Arts and Crafts movement – highly critical of industrialization – promoted an aesthetic of simplicity, truthfulness, and spiritual uplift. Inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a radical group of British painters who preferred the medieval period to the Renaissance, Arts and Crafts artists collaborated to produce innovative, aesthetically powerful works in mediums ranging from wood to stained glass to embroidery. On the heels of Arts and Crafts came the international style known as Art Nouveau. Like their predecessors, Art Nouveau artists looked to other cultures and time periods for inspiration and were interested in literature and fantasy themes. Unlike the purists of Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau artists often embraced industrial materials and modern methods of production. Their goal? To transport themselves and their clients/viewers into new worlds of intense sensation.
This course will provide an in-depth look at Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau, touching on related topics that include:
- medievalism, Victorian science, and the art, poetry, and craft production of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (e.g., Rossetti, Hunt, Millais)
- gender and sexuality in Victorian England and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
- industrialization, urbanization, nationalism and the crisis in Victorian design
- the aesthetic, social and ecological theories of William Morris; his collaborative design projects, including Red House and Morris & Co.
- utopian communities and the challenges of ethical design production
- anxieties about cultural degeneration and projects for renewal in Europe
- the fascination with other cultures and periods – esp. the Middle Ages, Japan, and Islam – as sources of modern aesthetics
- the relation of luxurious Art Nouveau objects and environments to the enslavement of colonized people in Africa
- the Symbolist movement, the invention of psychology and attempts to create art that spoke from and to the unconscious
- women as artists and entrepreneurs and as symbols/images in the new art movements
- art and design education reforms in Europe and the United States
- current explorations in the blending of fine arts and craft traditions
- current approaches to ethically produced, ecologically sensitive art and design