The Arts and Crafts Movement in the North East of England: A Handbook The Arts and Crafts Movement in Yorkshire: A Handbook

摘要

Over the last twenty-five years I have become conditioned to approach with caution any book with the phrase 'Arts and Crafts' in its title. All too often it is used to evoke an undemanding image of aspects British architecture and the decorative arts between about 1880 and the Great War. There are even some quite respectable books and articles which unthinkingly use the phrase 'Arts and Crafts style' as though it meant anything - rather in the way that anything built between 1910 and 1950 with a squared-off profile and angular, stylised decoration is called Art Deco. Well, it doesn't mean anything. The Arts and Crafts Movement is the creative expression of a philosophy, of a way of thinking and being and, most importantly, making. It is not a style, but a loosely-defined set of principles; broadly anti-academic, rooted in practicality and the importance of expert craft-skills, respectful of local traditions and materials used idiomatically and in depth, expressive of location and function, idealistic and individualistic yet collaborative.