The Category Problem
The eighteenth-century system placed useful objects outside the fine arts. This hierarchy lasted for two centuries.
- Fine arts (painting, sculpture): taught in academies, signed by named masters, and collected.
- Decorative or applied arts (ceramics, textiles, furniture): taught by apprenticeship and often made by women or anonymous workshops.
The Arts and Crafts Revolt
William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement attacked this split. Morris argued that Industrial production degraded makers by separating design from execution. He believed daily objects should be both useful and beautiful.
However, hand production made these goods expensive. Wealthy patrons bought items meant to democratise beauty. Even so, the Crafts movement permanently raised the status of applied art.
The Bauhaus
Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1919. It closed in 1933. The school chose to design for the machine rather than reject it.
Key structural innovations included:
- A preliminary course in materials, form, and colour for all students.
- Workshops led jointly by an artist and a craftsman.
- An integrated curriculum with no fine-versus-applied hierarchy.
Modern Design
Industrial design emerged as a distinct profession. It requires objects to be usable, durable, and affordable. Design matters because most people encounter designed form most of the time.
Common pitfall: Viewing the division between Arts and crafts as a relaxed rule of quality. It was an institutional boundary tied to social status.