Morris Willima Arts and Crafts Today

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ART AND ITS PRODUCERS, andTHEARTS & CRAFTS OF TODAY: TWOADDRESSES DELIVERED BEFORETHE NATIONALASSOCIATIONFORTHE ADVANCEMENT OF ART. BYWILLIAM MORRIS.


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http://www.archive.org/details/artitsproducersaOOmorrrich


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ARTAND ITS PRODUCERS, andTHEARTS & CRAFTS OF TODAY: TWOADDRESSES DELIVERED BEFORETHE NATIONALASSOCIATIONFORTHE ADVANCEMENT OF ART. BYWILLIAM MORRIS. .


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ART AND ITS PRODUCERS, A LEOTURE DELIVERED IN LIVERPOOLIN 1888. BY WILLIAM MORRIS.I fear what I have to tell you will be looked uponby you as an often^told tale; but it seems to methatatthe inception ofan enterprise forthe popu*^larisingand furtheranceofthe arts of life, the sub/-ject^matter of my paper is very necessary to beconsidered* I will begin by putting before you akind oftext, from which I will speak, so that youmay understand from the first the drift of mypaper; a plan which, I hope, will save both yourtime and mine*Whereas the incentive to labour is usually as^sumed to be the necessityofearning a livelihood,and whereas in our modern society this is reallythe onlyincentive amongst thoseoftheworking/class who produce wares ofwhich some form ofart is supposed to form a part, it is impossible thatmen working in this manner should producegenuine works of art* Therefore it is desirableeitherthat all pretence to art should beabandonedin the wares so made, and that art should be re^stricted to matters which have no other functionto perform except their existence as works of art,such as pictures, sculpture, and the like; or else,that to the incentive of necessityto labour shouldbe added the incentivesof pleasureand interest inthe work itself*That is my text, and I am quite sure thatyouwill

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Lecture V* find it necessary to consider its subject-matterArt and its very carefully ifyou are to do anything save talkProducers* aboutart:forwhichlatterpurposeworks ofartare

not needed; since so many fine phrases have beeninvented in modern times which answer all thepurpose ofrealities*To put it in another way, the question I ask youis threefold* First, shall we pretend to producearchitecture and the architectural arts withouthaving the realityofthem ? Second, shallwe givethem up in despair or carelessness of having thereality? Or, third, shall we set ourselves to havethe reality ?To adopt the first plan would show that we weretoo careless and hurried about life to trouble our^selves whether we were fools (and very tragicalfools) or not* The adoption of the second wouldticket us as very honest people, determined to befreefromasmanyresponsibilitiesaspossible,evenat the expense of living a dull and vacant life* Ifwe adopt the third sincerely, we shall add verymuch tothetroubleand responsibilityofour lives,for a time at least, but also verymuch to their hap/piness* Therefore I am in favour ofour adoptingthis third course*In point of fact,though I have put the second onebefore you for the sake, I fear, ofan appearanceoflogical fairness, I do not thinkwe are free to adoptitconsciously atpresent,thoughwemaybe drivento adopt it inthe end*To/day I thinkonlythe two


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courses arc opento us, ofquietlyacceptingthepre^ Lecture Vtence of an all^pervading art, which indeed per^ Art and itsvades the advertising sheets and nothing else; or Producers*elseof strugglingfor an artwhich shall reallyper/vade our lives and make them happier. But sincethis, ifwe are in earnestabout it, will involve are^construction of societv, let us first see what thesearchitectural arts really are, and whether they areworth all this trouble; because, ifthey are not, wehad better go on aswe are, and shut oureyestothefact that we are compelled to be such fools as topretend that we want them when we do not.The architectural arts, therefore, ifthey are any/thing real, mean the addition to all necessaryarticles of use of a certain portion of beauty andinterest, which the user desires to have and themakerto make.Till within acomparativelyrecentperiod there has been no question whether thisbeauty and interest should form a part ofwaresit always did do so without any definite order onthepart oftheuser,andnotnecessarilyconsciouslyon the part ofthe maker; and thesham artwhichI have spoken of is simplythe traditional survivalofthis realitv; that is one reason why you cannotclear yourselves of it in the simple and logicalwaythat I putbeforeyou just nowas the secondcourseto be adopted.Butthe integrityand sincerityofthis architecturalart,which, mind you, theworkmanworks upwithhis wares,not only because he must (for he is not

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LectureV* conscious of compulsion in the matter), but be^Art and its cause he likes to,though he is oftennot consciousProducers* ofhis pleasure this real architectural artdepends

on the wares ofwhich it forms a part being ptoyducedbycraftsmanship,fortheuseofpersonswhounderstand craftsmanship* The user, the con/sumer, must choose his wares to be soand so, andthe maker of them must agree with his choice*The fashionofthem must not be forced on eitherthe user or the maker; the two must be of one

' mind, and be capable under easily conceivablecircumstances of exchanging their parts of userand maker* The carpenter makes a chest for thegoldsmith one day, the goldsmith a cup for thecarpenter on another, and there is sympathy intheir work*** that is, the carpenter makes for hisgoldsmith friend just such a chest as he himselfwould have if he needed a chest; the goldsmith'scup is exactly what he would make for himselfif he needed one* Each is conscious during hiswork of making a thing to be used by a man oflike needs to himself* I askyou to note these state-^ments carefully, for I shall have to put a contrastto these conditions ofwork presently* Meantimeobserve that this question ofornamental orarchietectural artdoesnotmean,asperhapsmostpeoplethink it does, whether or not a certain amount ofornament or elegance shall be plastered on to ahelpless, lifeless article of daily use*** a house, acup, a spoon, or what not*The chest and the cup,

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the house, orwhatnot,niaybcassinipIcorasrudc LectureVasyou please, or as devoid ofwhat is usually called Art and itsornament; but done in the spirit I have told you Producers.of, they will inevitably beworks of art. In worlc sodone there is and must be the interchange of in/-terest in the occupations of life; the knowledge ofhuman necessities& the consciousness ofhumangood^will is a part of all such work, and theworldis linked together by it* The peace of the artssprings from its roots, and flourishes even in themidst ofwar and trouble and confusion.Nowthis is the architectural artwhich I urge youto think it worth your while to struggle for in allits reality. I firmlybelieve it isworth the struggle,howeverburdensomethatmaybe.Therearesomethingswhich are worth any cost; but above themall I value consciousness ofmanly life ; and the artsform a part ofthis at least.This, I say, is the theory of the conditions underwhich genuine architectural art can be produced;but that theory is founded on a view of the his^torical development of the industrial arts, and isnot merely built up in the air. I must, therefore,now givea briefaccountofmy historical position,although it has been so often done before, that itmustbefamiliartomany, ifnotmost ofyou. Fromthe beginning of history down to the end of theMiddle Ages there has been, as I have said, noquestion as to whether due form of art shouldaccompany allwares intended to last foranytime

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LectureV* this character of theirs did not in itself enhanceArt and its their price or increase the conscious labour uponProducers* them, itwaspartoftheirnaturetobe so, they grew

so like a plant grows ; during all these ages wareshad beenmadewhollybycraftsmanship* Itistruethat in the ancient world the greater part of theproduction ofwareswas theworkofchattel slaves,and though the condition oftheartizan slaveswasvery different from that of the field^hands, yettheir slavery has fixed its mark clearlyenough onthe minor arts of the period, in their severe, orliterally servile subordination to the higher workdoneby artists*When chattel slaverypassedawayfrom Europe with the classical world and theMiddleAges were fairly born out ofthe Medeancaldron ofthe confusion thatfollowed; as soon asthe formation ofthe Guilds gavea rallying/pointto the workmen, free and serf, of the day, thoseworkmen, the makers of wares, became free intheirwork,whatever their political position was;and the architectural arts flourished to a degreeunknown before, and at leasta foretastewas givento the world ofwhat the pleasure of life might bein a society ofequals* At this time craftsmanshipreached its highestpointttheavowedobjectoftheCraft/Guilds, as may be gathered from the irre^fragable evidence of their rules, was to distributewhateverwork was to hand equitably amongst asociety of pure handicraftsmen (we have trans/*lated the word now in order to give it a meaning

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exactly opposite to its original one) to check the Lecture VIverybeginnings ofcapitahsmand competition in/ Art and itsside the Guild, and at the same time to produce Producers.wareswhose test should be the actual use, the realneeds ofthepubHc ofneighbours thatwasengagedinwork carried on in a similar spirit* This mannerofwork, ofproducing for use& not for profit, boreits due fruit: as a matter ofcourse, thewares madeby the guildsmen of the fourteenth and fifteenthcenturies havemostly perished ; eventhemost enxduring ofthem, the buildings oftheir raising, havebeen eitherdestroyed ordegradedbytheignoranceand intolerance, the frivoHty and the pedantry ofsucceedingages;butwhatisleftus,mostIy bysheeraccident, is enough to teach us the lesson that nocultivation, no share in the science which has inthese days subdued nature, as long as it is exteriorto theworkinglifeoftheworkman, can supply theplace offreedom of hand and thought during hisworking hours, and interest in the welfare of hiswork itself;& further, thatthe collective genius ofapeopleworkinginfreebutharmoniouscoz-operaxtion is far more powerful for the production ofarchitectural art than the spasmodic efforts ofthegreatestindividual genius; becausewith the form/er the expression of life and pleasure is unforcedand habitual, and directly connected with thetraditions of the past, and consequently is as un^failing as the work of Nature herself.But this society ofworkmen, thiscrown oflabour

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Lecture yi of the Middle Ages, was doomed to a short life*Art and its Its tendencyto equalitywas so completely extin^Producers* guished by the development of the political ele^

ment inwhich it lived, that the existence of it hasbeen scarcelysuspectedbeforetheriseofthe schoolofhistorical criticismofourowndays*Thosewho,perhaps unwittingly, are wont to trouble them/selves aboutwhat might have been,may considerthe lesser causes that seem to have led to thischange, and speculate on what would have hap/penedifthe Black Deathhad nothalfdepopulatednorth/western Europe; if Philip van Artaveldeand his bold Ghentmen had defeated the Frenchchivalry at Rosebeque, as their fathers did atCourtray; ifthe stoutyeomen of Kentand Essex,gathered on ^the Fair/field at Mile/end,^had hadwits not quite so simple as to trust the youngscoundrel ofa king,who had just had their leadermurdered under tryst, but had carried out thepeasants^ war to its due conclusion*All this ispleasantfooling, but it is little else*TheGuild/governed industry must in any case havecome to an end as soon as the general longing fornew knowledge, greater command over nature,andgreaterhurryoflife,hadgrownstrongenoughto force on the next development of productivelabour* The Guilds were incapable of the neces/saryexpansion then called for,andtheyhad to dis/appear, after having contributed largely to thedeath of the feudal hierarchy, and given birth to

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the middle^classcs, which took its place as the Lecture V.dominant force in Europe* Capitahsm began to Art and itsgrow up within the Guilds, the journeyman, the Producers*so-called free^labourer, began to appear in them;and outsidethem, notably in this country,thelandofthe countrybegan to be cultivated for the profitofthe capitalistic farmer instead ofthe livelihoodofthe peasant, and the system ofproduction wascreatedwhichwas needed for carrying on modernsociety**the society of contract, instead of thesociety of status* It was essential to this systemthat the free^labourer should be no longer free inhiswork ; hemustbe furnishedwith amasterhav^ingcompletecontrolofthatwork,asaconsequenceof hisowningtherawmaterialandtools oflabour;and with an universal market for the sale of thewares with which he had nothing to do directly,& theveryexistence ofwhich hewas unconsciouso He thus gradually ceased to be a craftsman, aman who in order to accomplish his work mustnecessarily take an interest in it, since he is re^sponsible for making ormarringthe wares he hasto do with, andwhosemarketwasmadeup chieflyofneighbours,men whose needs he could under^stand*Instead ofacraftsmanhemustnowbecomea 'hand,' responsible for nothing but carrying outthe orders of his foreman* In his leisure hours anintelligent citizen (perhaps), with a capacity forunderstanding politics, or a turn for scientificknowledge, orwhat not, but in hisworking hours

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Lecture V* not even amachine,butan average portion ofthatArt and its great& almost miraculous machinethe factory;Producers* a man, the interest ofwhose life is divorced from

the subject-matter ofhis labour,whose work hasbecome 'employment/ that is,merely the oppor^tunity of earning a livelihood at the will of someone else*Whatever interest still clings to the pro^ductionofwaresunderthissystem has whollyleftthe ordinary workman, and attaches only to theorganisers of his labour; and that interest com^monlyhas little to do with theproductionofwaresas thingsto behandled, looked atused, in short,but simply as counters in the great game of theworld^market^ I fancy that there are not a few ofthe 'manufacturers' in this great 'manufacturing'districtwhowouldbehorrified at the idea ofusingthe wares which they 'manufacture,' and if theycould be witnesses ofthe enthusiasm of the cusxtomers ofthe customers of their customers whenthose wares reached their final destination of usethey would perhaps smile at it somewhat cynic/ally*In this briefaccount I have purposely left out thegradations bywhichwe have reached the contrastbetween the craftsman ofthe MiddleAges& thefreeworkman ofto-day ; between the productionsofwares for direct useand their production as cx^change wares for the world^market^ I want to laybefore you the contrast as clearly as possible; butthat I may meet objections, I ought to say that I


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am well aware that the process oftransformation LectureVwas gradual ; that the new free labourer did notat Art and itsfirst have to change his manner of work much; Producers,that the system ofdivision oflabourwas broughtto bearonhim in the seventeenth centuryandwasperfected in the eighteenth,& that, as thatsystemdrew near to perfection, the inventionofautomaxtic machinerychanged theworkman^s relation tohis work once more, and turned him, in the greatstaple industries, into the tender ofa machine in-^stead of a machine (which I think was to him anadvantage); but, on the other hand, brought al^mostall the survivinghandicraftsthathad hither/*to escaped, under the swav of the system of divi-^sion oflabour,&thus forthetimebeingabolishedcraftsmanship among the wage-learning classes*Craftsmanship is now all but extinct, except a^mongtheprofessional classes,who claimthe posi^'tion of gentlemen.Ifwe are in earnest inwishing to make the archietectural or decorative arts a reality, we must facethese facts as they regard theworkman in the firstplace. But in order to be clear as towhat the posi^tion oftheworkman, the producer ofsuch wares,really is,wemust also consider that ofthe consume'erofthem. Foritwill perhaps be said, ifyou desirethe production of these wares, there is nothingnecessary but to create a demand for them, andthenthey will come naturally,& oncemore trans^formtheworkmanintoacraftsman.Now,grantedU


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LectureV* thatsuchdemand is genuine^& alsowide enough,Artand its that is quite true; but then comes the questionProducers* whether this genuine and wide demand can be

created; and if it can be, how it is to be done ?Now, as the present system of production hastransformed the handicraftsman into a machinewithout will, so it has turned the neighbour pur^chaser with good marketing faculties into a slaveofthe worldz-marketa purse* The motto of themodern commercialist being, not the market forman, but man for the market: the market is themaster, the man the slave, which to my mind, isreversingthereasonableorderofthings* Letus seeifthat is not so* In the present daythe great prob^lemwhichwe have to face is the due employmentofhumanlabour;ifwefailinemployingitinsomefashion, it will eat us up to begin with, whateverit does afterwards; ifwe fail to employ it duly wemust at leastexpect to havenothing but a corruptand degraded society; and for my part I wish wecouldturn ourthoughts to employinglabour duly,instead of employing it anyhow* But at any ratewe are all practically driven to recognise the factthat, except for afew hundred thousands,who foranythingwe can domust starve or goto thework/house,wemust look to theemployment oflabourpower, that is, men* Now, I have said just now,andrepeat it againwith alltheemphasisthat I can,that the proper employers (or say customers) oftheworkingmen are theworkingmen : and ifthey

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had no other customers, I should have perfect LectureVconfidence that in the long run they would be Art and itsemployed in making nothing but useful things ; Producers*among which, ofcourse, I include works of art ofvarious kinds : but as they have other customers,I have not that confidence, for I see, no one can failto see,thatthey are employed in producinga greatdeal that is not useful, although it is marketable*They themselves are not as good customers tothemselves as theyshould be, becausethey are notwealthy enough; all the wares which they con^sume must be ofinferior quality for one thing, letalone their quantity; therefore theircustom mustbe supplemented bythat ofthewell^'to^do andtherich classes, and these we will suppose are all ofthem wealthy enough to satisfy their needs forreallydesirablethings,andtheydo so: other thingsthe reasonableamongthem would notdemand,ifthey could help themselves; but from what I cansee round aboutme, I judge that theycannot helpthemselves* It seemsthatthemarket for gamblingin profits is too exacting, or the need for the em^ployment oflabour is too pressing to allow themto purchase and consume only what they need;theymust, in addition,purchase& consumemanythingswhichtheydo notneed ; habits ofpomp andluxurymust beformed amongstthem, so that themarket which would be starved by the misery ofthepoor,maybe keptbusywith ministeringto theluxury ofthe rich *Andyoumustunderstand that

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LectureV I mean here to assert that though all wares madeArt and its must be consumed, nevertheless that consump/Producers* tfon does not prove theiruse: theymaybeused,or

they may be wasted, and if they are not needed,they cannot be used and must be wasted*Here, then, in considering the possibility of thewidespread and genuinedemand for architecturalart,we are met at the outset bythis difficulty, thatthe workmen, who must be the producers of theart,arelargely,Iwillsaymostly,employedinwast'ing their labour in two ways ; on the one hand, inmaking inferior wares, which their inferior posi^tion forces them to demand, and for which thereought to beno demand; and onthe other, in mak/-ing wares, not for the use, but for thewaste oftherich classes, for which, again, there ought to be nodemand* And these two haplessly false demandsare forced on toboth these classes, because theyareforced intothe positionwhichsoforcesthem*Theworld^market,which should beour servant, is ourmaster, and ordains that so it must be*The wide

' and genuine demand, therefore, for the architectsural artswhichwe have seen can onlybe producedby the handicraftsman, cannot be created underthe present system ofproduction, which, indeed,could not go on ifthe greater part of itswareswerethe work ofhandicraft*We are driven at last, then, to this conclusion ; thatpleasure and interest in the work itselfare neces^sary to the production of a work of art however

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humble; that this pleasure and interest can only LectureV.be presentwhen the workman is free in his work, Art and itsi^e,, is conscious of producing a piece of goods Producers.suitable to his own needs as a healthy man ; thatthe present system of industrial production doesnot allow of the existence of such free workmenconsciously producing wares for themselves andtheir neighbours, and forbids the general public toask for wares made by such men; that, therefore,since neither the producers nor the users ofwaresare free to make or ask forwares according to theirwills,we cannot underour presentsystem of pro-'duction have the reality of the architectural artswhich I have been urging you to strive for, butmust putupwith pretendingtohavethem; whichseems to me a ratner sorry proceeding*What can we do, then, in order to shake off thisdisgrace; in order thatwe maybe free to say eitherthatwe want the ornaments of life, and no make^shifts ofthem shall content us ; or that we do notwant them, and will not have them ?Ifmypremises are accepted thepractical positionis clear; we must try to change the system of theproduction ofwares.To meet possible objectionsonce more, I do not mean by this that we shouldaim at abolishing all machinery : I would do somethings bymachinerywhich arenowdonebyhand,and other things by hand which are now aone bymachinery: in short, we should be the masters ofour machines and not their slaves, as we are now.


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LectureV* It is not this orthattangible steel& brass machineArtand its whichwewanttogetridof^butthegreatintangibleProducers* machine ofcommercial tyranny, which oppresses

the lives of all of us* Now, this enterprise of re^belling against commercialism I hold to be athoroughly worthyone : remember whatmy textwas,and how I said that our aim should be to addto the incentive of necessity for working, the in/centive ofpleasure and interest in the work itself*Iam notpleadingfortheproductionofa littlemorebeauty in the world, much as I love it, and muchas I would sacrifice for its sake; it is the lives ofhumanbeingsthat I ampleading for; or ifyouwill,with the Roman poet, the reasons for living* Inthis assemblythere areperhaps only afewwho canrealise the meaning of the daily drudgery, hope/-less of any result except the continuance of a lifeofdrudgery,which is the lotof all but afewin ourcivilisation ; for indeed it is only possible to berealised byexperience or strong imagination; butdo your best to realise it,& then further to realisethe resultofturning those dailyhours ofhopelesstoil into days ofpleasantwork, thehappy exerciseofmanly energies, illuminated bythe certaintyofusefulness&thehope ofapplausefromthe friendsand neighbours forwhom it is exercised* Surelywhen you have thought ofthis seriously you willonce more have to admit that the attainment ofsuch a change is worth almost any sacrifice* I sayagain, as I have often said,that iftheworldcannot

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hope to be happy in its work it must relinquish Lecture Vthe hope of happiness altogether. Art and itsAgain, the aim of those who look on the popular Producers*arts seriously is, that we should be masters ofourwork, and be able to say what we will have andwhatwewilldo; and the pricewhichwe must payfor the attainment of that aim is, to speak quiteplainly, the recastingofsociety. Forthat mecnan-'ical and tyrannous system of production which Ihavecondemned is sointimatelyinterwoven withthe society ofwhichwe allform a part, that itsomc^times shows as its cause,& sometimes as its effect,and is in any case a necessity to it; you cannotabolish the slums of our great cities ; you cannothavehappyvillagerslivinginprettyhousesamongthe trees, aoing pretty-^looking work in their ownhousesorinthepleasantvillageworkshopbetweenseed-time& harvest, unless you removethecausesthat have made the brutal slum^dweller and thestarvelingfield labourer.All essentialconditionsofsociety, tne growth ofages as theyare,must bringabout certain consequenceswhicn cannot be dealtwith bymere palliation.The essentials ofancientsociety involved the chattel slave, thoseofmediae^val society the serf, those of modern society theirresponsible wage^worker under a master; andthe latter cannot by efforts from without be set todo work which does not belong to his conditionof dependency on a master; the craftsman is re-^sponsible for his work, and a dependent cannot be

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Lecture V* responsible foranything savethe fulfilment oftheArt and its task set him by his master*Producers* But lest you may think I show no course for you

to take except striving, as I do, towards the conxscious reconstruction ofsocietyon abasis ofequal*^ity, I will sayaword or two onworkwhich may liereadyto ourhands as artists ratherthan as citizens*There is asmallbodyofmenwho areindependentin their work, who are called by the name I havejust used artists: as a separate grouptheyaretheresult of the commercial system which could notuseindependentworkmen,and theirdivorcefromthe ordinary production of wares is the obviousexternal cause of the sickness of the architecturalarts* Anyhow, they exist as independent work/men, the loose screw in their position being thatthey do not work for the whole public, but for avery small portion of it, which rewards them forthat exclusiveness by giving them the position ofgentlemen*Nowitseemstomethatthe onlythingwe can do, ifwewill not help in thereconstructionof society, is to deal with this group ofgentlemenworkmen*The non^gentlemen workmen are be/'yond our reach unlesswe look on the matterfromthe wider point of view, but we can try to get theartists totake an interest inthoseartsof lifewhoseproduction at present iswhollyinthehandsoftheirresponsible machines ofthecommercial system,and to understand that they, the artists, howevergreat they may be, ought to be taking part in this


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production ; while theworkmenwho arc nowma/ Lecture Vchinesoughttobeartists^however humble,Onthe Art and itsother hand we may try to dig up whatever of re^ Producers.sponsibiHty& independence Hes half smotheredunder the compact clay of the factory system, tofind out if there are not some persons in the em^ploy ofthe commercial organiserswho are artists,to give them opportunities ifpossible ofworkingmore directly for the public, and to win for themthat applause& sympathyoftheir brother artistswhich every goodworkman naturally desires.Thcidea that this mayand can be done is bynomeansmine alone; in putting it forward I represent notmerely avague hopethatit maybeattempted,butan actual enterprise in good working order. I havethe honour tobelong to a smalland unpretentioussociety, of which Mr. Crane is President, which,under the name of the Arts and Crafts Society,has just carried outa successful exhibition ofwhatare called 'the applied arts' in London, with thedefiniteintention offurtheringthepurpose I havejust stated.To some ofus suchworkmayseem veryf)etty and unheroic, especially if they have beenately brought face to face with the reckless hide/ousness and squalor ofa great manufacturing dis/trict; or havebeensolong living in theshabby hellofthe great commercial centreoftheworld tnat ithas entered into their life& theyare now 'used toit,' that is, degraded to its miserable standard : butit is something to do at least, for it means keeping

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LectureV* alive the spark of life in these architectural artsArt and its for a better day; which arts might otherwise beProducers* wholly extinguished by commercial production^

a disasterwhich notmanV yearsago seemed mostlikely to happen* But I thinkthis lesser work willbesofarfromhinderingus,that itwill ratherdrawus on to engaging in thewiderand deeper matter,and doing our best towards the realisation ofthatSociety of Equals, which, as I have already said,will form the only conditions under which truecraftsmanship can be the rule ofproduction; thatform ofworkwhich involvesthepleasurableexer/cise of our own energies, and the sympathy withthe capacities and aspirations of our neighbours,that is, ofhumanity generally*

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THE ARTSAND CRAFTS OF TODAY-BEINGANADDRESSDELIVEREDINEDINBURGH IN OCTOBER, 1889. BYWILLIAM MORRIS.'Applied Art' is the title which the Society haschosen for that portion ofthe artswhich I have tospeak to you about.Whatarewe to understandbythat title ? I should answer that what the Societymeans by applied art is the ornamental quaHtywhichmen choosetoaddto articlesofutiHtyTheoxretically this ornament can be done without, andartwould then cease to be 'applied 'would existas akind ofabstraction, I suppose* Butthoughthisornamenttoarticlesofutilitymaybedonewithout,manup to thepresenttimehas neverdonewithoutit, and perhaps never will; at any rate he does notpropose to do so at present, although, as we shallsee presently, hehas gothimself into somewhat ofa mess in regardto his application ofart. I s itworthwhile for a moment or two considering whymanhas neverthoughtof givingupworkwhich adds tothe labour necessaryto providehimwith foodandshelter, and to satisfyhis cravingforsome exerciseofhis intellect? I think it is,and that suchconsid^eration will help us in dealingwith the importantquestion which once more I must attempt to an*^swer, 'What is our position towards the appliedarts in the present, and what have we to hope forthem and from them in the future ?'Now I saywithout hesitation thatthe purpose of

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LectureVL applying art to articles of utility is twofold: first, toThe Arts addbeautyto the results ofthework ofman, whichand Crafts would otherwise be ugly; and secondly, to addof Today* pleasure to thework itself, whichwould otherwisebe painful and disgustfuL If that be the case, we

mustceasetowonderthatmanshouldalwayshavestriven to ornament the work of his own hands,which hemust needs see allroundabouthim dailyand hourly; or that he should have always striventoturnthepain ofhislabourinto apleasurewhere^ever it seemed possible to him*Now as to the first purpose: I have said that theproduce ofman^s labour must be uglyifartbenotapplied to it, and I use theword ugly as the strong/-est plain word in the English language* For theworks of man cannot show a mere negation ofbeauty;whenthey arenotbeautifultheyare active^lyugly, and are thereby degrading to our manlikequalities; and at last so degrading that we are notsensible ofour degradation,and are therefore pre/paring ourselves forthenext stepdownward*Thisactive injury of non^artistic human work I wantespecially to fix in your minds; so I repeat again,ifyou dispensewith applying artto articles ofntiVity, you will not have unnoticeable utilities, bututilities which will bear with them the same sortofharm asblankets infectedwith the small^pox orthe scarletsfever, and every step in your materiallife and its ^progress^ will tend towards the intel^lectual death ofthe human race*

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Ofcourse you will understand that in speakingof LectureVI.the works of man, I do not forget that there are The Artssomeofhismostnecessarylabourstowhichhecan/ and Craftsnot apply art in the sense whereinwe are using it; of Today.but that only means that Nature has taken thebeautifying ofthem out ofhis hands; and inmostofthese cases the processes are beautiful inthem^selves ifour stupidity did notadd griefand anxietyto them. Imeanthatthecourseofthefishing^boatover the waves,the plough-^share driving the fur^row for next year's harvest, the June swathe, theshaving fallingfrom the carpenter's plane, all suchthings are in themselves beautiful,and the practiceofthem would be delightful ifman, even in theselastdays ofcivilisation, hadnotbeen so stupid as todeclare practically that such work (withoutwhichwe should die in afew days) is the work ofthrallsand starvelings, whereas thework of destruction,strife, and confusion, is thework ofthe pick ofthehuman race. gentlemen to wit.But ifthese applied arts are necessary, as I believethey are, to prevent mankind from being a mereugly& degraded blotch on the surface ofthe earth,which without him would certainly be beautiful,their other function ofgiving pleasure to labour isat least as necessary, and, ifthe two functions canbe separated,evenmore beneficent and indispens^able. For if it be true, as I know it is, that thefunc^tion of art is to make labour pleasurable, what isthe position inwhichwemust find ourselves with^

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LectureVI out it? One of two miseries must happen to us:The Arts either the necessarywork ofour lives must be car/and Crafts ried on by a miserable set ofhelots for the benefitof Today ofa few lofty intellects; or if, aswe ought to do,wedetermine to spread fairly the burden ofthe curse

oflabour over thewhole community,yettheretheburden will be, spoiling for each one of us a largepart of that sacred gift of life, every fragment ofwhich, ifwewere wise,we should treasure up andmake the most of (and allow others to do so) byusing it forthe pleasurable exercise ofour energies,which is the only true source ofhappiness^Let me call your attention to an analogy betweenthe function ofthe appliedarts and a giftofnaturewithout which theworldwould certainlybe muchunhappier, but which is so familiar to us that wehave no proper single word for it, and must use aphrase ; to wit, the pleasure of satisfying hunger*Appetite is the singlewordusedforit,butis clear/lyvague andunspecific:let us use it, however,nowwe have agreed as to what we mean by it*By the way, need I apologise for introducing sogross asubjectas eatinganddrinkingPSomeofyouperhaps will think I ought to, and are lookingfor/wardtothedaywhen this function alsowillbe civiVisedintothetaking ofsome intenselyconcentratedpill onceayear^orindeedonce in alife/timeJeavingus free for the restofourtimeto the exercise ofourintellectifwe chance to have any in those days^

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From this height ofcultivatcd aspiration I respects LectureVLfully beg to differ, and in all seriousness, and not The Artsin the least in the world as a joke, I saythat the daily and Craftsmeeting ofthe house^mates in rest and kindness of Today,for this function of eating, this restoration of thewaste onife,oughttobelookedon asakindofsacra^ment, and should be adorned by art to the best ofour powers: and pray pardon me if I say that theconsciousnessthatthere are somany peoplewhosehves are so sordid, miserable, and anxious, thatthey cannot duly celebrate this sacrament, shouldbe felt by those that can, as a burden to be shakenoffby remedying the evil, and not by ignoring it*Well now, I say,thatas eatingwould be dullworkwithout appetite, orthe pleasure of eating, so is theproduction ofutilities dullworkwithout art, or thepleasureofproduction;andthat it isNatureherselfwholeadsusto desirethis pleasure,thissweeteningofour daily toiL I am inclined to think that in thelong-run mankind will find it indispensable; butifthat turn out to be a false prophecy, all I can sayis that mankind will have to find out some newpleasure totake its place, or life willbecomeunen^durable, and society impossible. Meantime it isreasonable& rightthatmen should strive to maketheusefulwareswhich theyproduce beautiful justas Nature does;andthattheyshouldstriveto makethemakingofthempleasant,justasNature makespleasant the exercise ofthe necessary functions of

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LectureVL sentient beings* To apply art to useful wares, inThe Arts short, is not frivolity, buta partofthe serious busi/and Crafts ness oflife*of Today* Now let us see in somewhat more detail what ap/plied art dealswith* I take itthat it is only as amat/

ter of convenience that we separate painting andsculpture from applied art : for in effect the syno/nym forapplied art is architecture,and I should saythat painting is of little use, and sculpture of less,except where their works form a part of architectture* A person with any architectural sense reallyalways looks at any picture or any piece of sculpsture from this point of view; even with the mostabstract picture he is sure to think. How shall Iframe it, and where shall I put it ? As for sculpture,it becomes a mere toy, a tour de force, when it isnot definitely a part of a building, executed for acertain heightfromthe eye,and to be seeninacer/tain light* And ifthis be the casewith works ofartwhich can to a certain extent be abstracted fromtheir surroundings,it is, ofcourse,the case a fortioriwith more subsidiary matters* In short, the com*^pleteworkofapplied art,thetrue unitofthe art, is abuilding with all its due ornament and furniture;and I must sayfrom experience that it is impossixbletoornamentdulyanuglyorbasebuilding*Andon the otherhand I am forced to saythat the gloriaous art of good building is in itself so satisfying,that I have seenmany abuilding that needed littleornament, wherein all that seemed needed for its

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complete enjoyment was some signs of sympa^ LectureVI.thetic and happyuse byhuman beings: a stout tax The Artsble, a few old-fashioned chairs, apot offlowers will and Craftsornament the parlour ofan old English yeoman's of Today.house far better than awagon load of Rubens willornament a gallery in Blenheim Park*Only remember that this forbearance, this rc^straint in beauty, is not by any means necessarilyartless: where you come upon an old house thatlooks thu s satisfactory,whileno consciousmodernartist has been at work there, the result is causedby unconscious unbroken tradition: in default ofthat, in will march that pestilential ugliness I toldyou ofbefore, andwith its loathsome pretence andhideous vulgaritywill spoil the beauty ofa Gothichouse in Somersetshire, or the romance of a peeltoweron the edge ofa Scotch loch ; and to get backany ofthe beautyand romance (you will never getit all back) you will need a conscious artist of toxday, whose chief work, however, will be puttingout the intrusive rubbish and using the white/washing brush freely*Well, I repeat that theunitoftheart I havctodealwith isthe dwellingofsome group ofpeople, wellxbuilt, beautiful, suitable to its purpose,& duly or/namented and furnished, so as to express the kindof life which the inmates live. Or it may be somenobleand splendid public building,built tolastforages, and it also dulyornamented so as to expressthe life& aspirations ofthe citizens; in itselfa great

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LectureVL piece ofhistory ofthe eflEbrts ofthe citizens to raiseThe Arts ahouseworthy oftheirnoblehves, and itsmerede/and Crafts corationanepicwroughtfor the pleasure and edu/of Today* cation, not of the present generation only, but ofmany generations to come* This is the true work

ofart I was going to say ofgenuine civilisation,but the word has been so misused that I will notuse itthe true work of art, the true masterpieceofreasonableandmanlymenconsciousofthebondof true society that makes everything each mandoes ofimportance to every one else*This is, I say, the unit of the art, this house, thischurch, this town^hall, built and ornamented bytheharmonious efforts ofa free people: bynopos/sibility could one man do it, however gifted hemight be: even supposing the director or architectof it were a great painter and a great sculptor, anunfailing designer of metal work, of mosaic, ofwoven stuffsand the restthough hemaydesignallthesethings,hecannotexecutethem,andsome/thing ofhis genius must be in the other membersof the great body that raises the complete work:millions on millions of strokes of hammer andchisel, ofthe gouge, ofthebrush, ofthe shuttle, areembodied in that work of art, and in every one ofthem is either intelligence to help the master, orstupidity to foil him hopelessly^Theverymasonslaying daybydaytheir due tale ofrubble and ashxlar may help him to fill the souls of all beholderswith satisfaction, or maymake his paper design a

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folly or a nullity. They and all the workmen en/ LectureVLgaged inthework will bring that disasterabout in The Artsspite ofthe master'smighty genius,unless they are and Craftsinstinctwithintelligenttradition; unlesstheynave of Today.that tradition, whatever pretence of art there is initwillbeworthless.Butiftheyareworkingbackedbyintelligenttradition,theirworkistheexpressionoftheir harmoniousco/operationandthepleasurewhich they took in it: no intelligence, even ofthelowestkind, has been crushed in it, but rather sub/ordinated and used, so thatno onefrom the masterdesigner downwards could say. This is my work,but every one could say truly, This is our work.Try to conceive, if you can, the mass of pleasurewhich the production of such a work of art wouldgive to all concerned in making it, through yearsand years it maybe (for suchwork cannot be hur/ried); and when made there it is for a perennialpleasure to the citizens, to look at, to use, to carefor, from day to day and year to year.Is this a mere dream ofan idealist? No, not at all;suchworks ofartwere once produced,when theseislands had but a scanty population, leading arough and tomany(though not tome) amiserablelife, with a 'plentiful lack' ofmany, nay most, ofthe so/called comforts of civilisation ; in some suchway have the famous buildings oftheworld beenraised ; butthe full expression ofthis spiritofcom/mon and harmonious work is given only duringthe comparatively short period of the developed

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LectureVL Middle Ages,thetime ofthecompleted combina/The Arts tion ofthe workmen in the guilds of craft*and Crafts And nowifyouwill allowme I will aska questionof Today* or two, and answer them myself*

I* Do we wish to have such works of art? I mustanswer that we here assembled certainly do,though I will not answer for the general public*2*Whydowewishforthem? Because (ifyouhavefollowed me so far) their production would givepleasure to those that used them and those thatmadethem: since ifsuchworkswere done, allworkwould be beautiful and fitting for its purpose, andas a result most labour would cease to be burden/some*3* Can we have them now as things go? Can thepresent British Empire, with all its power and allits intelligence, producewhatthe scanty, half/bar/barous, superstitious,ignorantpopulationoftheseislands produced with no apparent effort severalcenturies ago? No; as things go we cannot havethem; no conceivable combination of talent andenthusiasm could produce them as things are*Why? Well, you see, in the first place, we havebeen engaged foratleastonecentury in loadingtheearthwith huge masses of ^utilitarian^ buildings,whichwe cannot get rid ofin a hurry;we must behoused, and there are ourhouses forus; and I havesaid you cannot ornament ugly houses* This is abad nearing for us*But supposingwe pulled these utilitarian houses

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down, should we build them up again much bct^ LectureVIter? I fearnot, in spite ofthe considerable improve^ The Artsment in taste which has taken place of late years, and Craftsand ofwhichthis Congress is, I hope, an indication of Today,amongst others.If the ugly utihtarian buildings abovesaid werepulled down, and we set about building others intheir place, the new ones would assuredly be oftwo kinds: one kind would be still utilitarian infact,though theymight affectvarious degreesandkinds of ornamental style; and they would be atleast as bad as those which they replaced, and insome respects would be worse than a good manyof the older ones; would be flimsier in building,more tawdry, and more vulgar than those of theearlier utilitarian style. The other kind would bedesigned by skilful architects, men endowedwitha sense ofbeauty,& educated in the historyofpastart,and theywould doubtless be far better informthan the utilitarian abortionswe have been speaksing of; but they would lack the spirit of the olderbuildings ofwnich I have spoken above. Let thatpass for the moment. I will recur to it presently.For one thing I am surewould immediately strikeus in our city rebuilt at the end of the nineteenthcentury.The great mass ofthe buildingwould beofthe utilitarian kind,& only hereand therewouldyou find anexample ofthe refinedand carefulworkofthe educated architects; the Eclectic style, ifyouwill allow me so to call it. That is all our rebuild-^

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LectureVL ing would come to; we should be pretty muchThe Arts wherewe arenow, except thatwe should have lostand Crafts some solid straightforwardly ugly buildings, andof Today* gained a few elegantly eccentric ones, *not under/

standed ofthe people/Howis this?Well,theanswertothatquestionwillanswer the ^why' ofa few sentences back*The mass of our houses would be utilitarian andugly even ifwe set about thework ofhousing our/selves anew, because tradition has at last broughtus into the plightofbeing builders ofbase and de/grading buildings, and when we want to buildotherwisewemusttrytoimitateworkdonebymenwhose traditions led them to build beautifully;which I must say is not a very hopeful job*I said just now that those few refined buildingswhichmightberaisedinarebuildingofourhouses,orwhich, to drop hypothesis, are builtprettyoftennow, would lack, or do lack, the spirit of the me/diaeval buildings I spoke of* Surelythis is obvious:so far from beingworks ofharmonious combina/tion as effortless as any artistic work can be, theyare, evenwhenmost successful,the result ofaeon/stant conflictwith all thetraditions ofthe time*Asa rule the only person connected with a work ofarchitecturewho has anyidea ofwhat iswanted init is the architect himself; and ateveryturn he hasto correct and oppose the habits ofthe mason, thejoiner, the cabinet/maker, the carver, etc*, and totry to get them to imitate painfully the habits of

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the fourteenth^ccnturyworkmen, and to lay aside LectureVLtheir own habits, formed not only from their own The Artspersonal daily practice, butfrom the inherited turn and Craftsof mind and practice of body of more than two of Today,centuries at least* Under all these difficulties itwould be nothing shortofa miracle ifthose refinedbuildings did not proclaim their eclecticism to allbeholders.Indeed,asitis,theignorantstareatthemwondering; fools of the Podsnap breed laugh atthem; harsh critics pass unkind judgments onthem. Don't let us beany ofthese :when all is saidthey do much credit to those who have designedthemand carried them out intheteeth ofsuch pro^digious difficulties; theyare often beautiful in theirown eclecticmanner : they are always meant to beso: shall we find faultwith their designers for try^ing to make them different from the mass of Vic^torian architecture? Iftherewas to beanyattempttomakethem beautiful,that difference,that eccen/-tricity, was necessary. Let us praise their eccen^tricity& not deride it,wewhose genuine tendencyis to raise buildingswhicharea bloton the beauti-'ful earth, an insult to the common sense of cultixvated nineteenth century humanity. Allow me aparenthesis here.When I look on a group ofcleanwelUfed middle^lassmen ofthatqueermixedracethatwehavebeeninthehabitofcallingtheAngloxSaxon ^whether they belong to the land on thisside oftne Atlantic or the other) ; when I see thesenoble creatures, tall, wide^shouldered, and well*^

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LectureVL knit,with their bright eyes andwell moulded fea-^The Arts tures, these men full of courage, capacity, and en/and Crafts ergy, I have been astounded in considering theofToday* houses they have thought good enough for them,and the pettiness of the occupations which they

have thoughtworthy ofthe exercise oftheir ener^gies* To see a man of those inches, for example,bothering himselfover the exactwidth ofa stripein some piece ofprinted cloth (which hasnothingto do with its artistic needs) for fear it might notjust hit the requirements ofsome remote market,tyrannised over by the whims of a languid Creoleora fantastic negro,has givenme a feelingofshamefor my civilised middle^class fellow/man, who isregardless ofthe qualityofthewareswhichhe sells,but intensely anxious about the profits to be de^rived from them*This parenthesis, to the subject of which I shallpresentlyhave to recur, leads me to note herethatI have been speaking chiefly about architecture,because I look upon it, first as the foundation ofall the arts, and next as an all embracing art* Allthe furnitureand oramentwhich goestomakeupthe complete unit of art, a properly ornamenteddwelling,'is in|some degree or other besetwith thedifficulties which hamper nowadays the satisfac/toryaccomplishment ofgood and beautiful build/

1 ing* The decorative painter, the mosaicist, thewindow artist, the cabinetmaker, the paperhang/ing/maker, the potter, the weaver, all these have

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to fightwith the traditional tendency ofthe epoch LectureVLin their attempt to produce beauty, rather than The Artsmarketable finery, to put artistic finish on their and Craftswork rather than trade finish, I may, I hope, withx of Today,out being accused of egotism, say that my hfe forthe last thirty years has given me ample oppor**tunity for knowing the weariness and bitternessofthat struggle*For, to recur to my parenthesis, if the captain ofindustry (asitisthefashiontocallabusinessman)thinks not ofthe wares with which he has to pro^vide the world^market, but of profit to be madefrom them, so the instrument which he employsas an adjunct to his machinery, the artisan, doesnotthinkofthewareswhich he (andthe machine)produces as wares, but simply as Hvehhood forhimselfThe tradition oftheworkwhich he has todeal with has brought him to this, that instead ofsatisfying his own personal conception of whatthe wares he is concerned in making should be, hehas to satisfy his master's view ofthe marketablequality of the said wares. And you must under^stand that this is a necessity of the way in whichthe workman works; to work thus means livelixhood forhim; toworkotherwisemeans starvation.I beg you to note that this means that the realitiesof the wares are sacrificed to commercial shamsof them, if that be not too strong a word. Themanufacturer (as we call him) cannot turn outquite nothing and oflFer it for sale, at least in the

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LectureVL case of articles ofutility;what hedoesdo is toturnThe Arts out a makeshift of the article demanded by theand Crafts public, and bymeans ofthe ^sword ofcheapness/of Today* as it has been called, he not onlycan force the saidmakeshift on the public, but can (and does) pre^

vent them from getting the real thing; the realthing presently ceases to be made after the make^shift has been once foisted on to the market*Now we won^t concern ourselves about othermakeshifts, however noxious to the pleasure oflife theymaybe:let those excuse them that profitby them* But ifyou like to drink glucose beer in/steadofmaltbeer,andtoeatoleo^margarineinsteadof butter; if these things content you, at least askyourselveswhat in the name ofpatienceyouwantwith a makeshift of art!Indeed I began by saying that it was natural andreasonable for man to ornament his mere useftilwares&nottobecontentwithmereutilitarianism;but of course I assumed that the ornament wasreal, that it did not miss its mark, and become noornament* For that is what makeshift art means,and that is indeed a waste oflabour*Tryto understandwhat I mean: youwantaewerand basin, say: you go into a shop and buy one;you probablywillnotbuyamerelywhiteone ; youwill scarcelysee a merelywhite set*Well,youlookat several, and one interests you about as much asanother: that is, not at all; and at last in mereweariness you say, ^Well, that will do^; and you

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have your crockerywith a scrawl of fern leaves and LectureVLconvolvulus over it which is its 'ornament/ The The Artssaid ornament gives youno pleasure, still lessany and Craftsidea; it only gives you an impression (a mighty ofToday.dull one) of bedroom. The ewer also has someperverse stupidityabout its handlewhich also saysbedroom, and adds respectable : and in short youendure the said ornament, except perhaps whenyou are bilious and uncomfortable in health. Youthink, if you think at all, that the said ornamenthas wholly missed its mark. And yet that isn't so;that ornament, that special formwhich the ineptixtude ofthe fern scrawland the idiocyofthehandlehas taken, has sold so many dozen or gross moreofthat toilet set than of others, and that is what itis put there for; not to amuse you, you know it isnot art, but you don't know that it is trade finish,exceedingly useful...to everybody except its userand its actual maker.But does it serve no purpose except to the manu-^facturer, shipper, agent, shopkeeper, etc.? Ugly,inept, stupid, as it is, I cannotquite saythat. For if,as the saying goes,hypocrisyisthehomagewhichvice pays to virtue, so this degraded piece oftradefinish is the homagewhich commerce pays to art.It is atokenthat artwas once applied to ornamentsing utilities, for the pleasure of their makers andtheir users.Now we have seen that this applied art is worthcultivating,andindeed thatwe are hereto cultivate

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LectureVL it; but it is clear that, under the conditions aboveThe Arts spoken of, its cultivation will be at least difficult*and Crafts For the present conditions of life inwhich the ap/of Today* plication pfart to utilities ismadeimplythatavery-serious changehas taken place sincethoseworks of

cooperative artwereproduced in the MiddleAges,which few people I think sufficiently estimate*Briefly speaking, this changeamounts to this, thatTradition has transferred itself from art to com/merce***that commerce which has nowembracedthe old occupationofwar, as well astheproductionofwares* But theendproposedbycommerce isthecreation ofa market/demand,andthe satisfactionof it when created for the sake oftheproduction ofindividual profits : whereas the end proposed byart applied to utilities, that is, the production ofthe days before commerce, was the satisfaction ofthe genuine spontaneous needs ofthe public,andthe earning of individual livelihood by the pro/ducers* I begyoutoconsiderthesetwo ideas ofpro/duction, and youwillthen seehowwideaparttheyarefrom one another*Tothe commercial producerthe actual wares are nothing; their adventures inthe market are everything*To the artistthewaresare everything; his marketheneednottroublehim


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ashcpossibIycanfromthcm:thcethicsofthc artist LectureVLbid him put as much ofhimselfas he can in every The Artspiece of goods he makes The commercial person, and Craftstherefore,is inthisposition,thatheisdealingwith of Today.a public of enemies; the artist, on the contrary,with a public offriends and neighbours.Again, it is clear that the commercial personmustchiefly confine his energies to the war which he iswaging; the wares that he deals in must be madebyinstruments; as far as possible bymeans ofin^struments without desires or passions, by auto^matic machines,aswe callthem.Where that is notpossible, and he has to use highlyz-drilled humanbeings instead ofmachines, it is essentialto his suo'cess that they should imitatethe passionless qualxityofmachines as long as they are at work; what^ever of human feeling may be irrepressible willbe looked upon by the commercial person as helooks upon grit or friction in his non^human ma-^chines,as anuisance tobe abated. Need I saythatfrom these human machines it is futile to look forart? Whateverfeelings theymayhavefor art theymustkeepfortheirleisure...thatis,fortheveryfewhours in theweekwhen they are tryingto rest afterlabour and are not asleep ; or for the hapless dayswhen they are out ofemployment and are in desxperate anxiety about their livelihood.Ofthesemen, I say, you cannothope thattheycanlive byapplyingartto utilities: they can onlyapplythe sham or it forcommercial purposes; and I may

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LectureVI sayinparenthesis^that from experience I can guessThe Arts whataprodigiousamountoftalentisthus wasted*and Crafts For therestyou may consider, andworkmen mayof Today* consider, this statement of mine to be somewhatbrutal : I can only reply both to you and to them,

that it is a truth which it is necessary to face* It isone side ofthe disabilitiesoftheworking class, andI invite them to consider it seriously*Therefore (as I said last year at Liverpool), I mustturnfromthe greatbodyofmenwho areproducingutilities, and who are debarred from applying artto them, to a much smaller group, indeed a verysmall one* I must turn to a group ofmen who arenot working under masters who employ them toproduce for theworld^market, but who are free todo as theypleasewith theirwork, and areworkingfor a market which they can see and understand,whateverthe limitationsmaybeunderwhichtheywork: that is the artists*They are a small and a weak body,on the surfaceof things obviously in opposition to the generaltendency ofthe age; debarred,therefore, as I havesaid,from true cooperative art: &as a consequenceof this isolation heavily weighted in the race ofsuccess* For cooperative tradition places an artistat the very beginning of his career in a positionwherein he has escaped the toil oflearning ahugemultitude oflittlematters difHcult,nayimpossibleto learn otherwise : the fieldwhich he has to dig isnot a part of a primeval prairie, but ground made

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fertile and put in good heart by the past labour of LectureVLcountless generations. It is the apprenticeship of The Artsthe ages, in short,wherebyan artist is born into the and Craftsworkshop ofthe world* of Today*We artists ofto-day are not so happy as to sharefullyin this apprenticeship : we have to spend thebest part ofour hves in trying to get hold ofsome'style' which shall be natural to us, and too oftenfail in doing so; or perhaps oftener still, havingacxquired our 'style,' that is, our method ofexpresssion, become so enamoured ofthe means, that wcforgettheend,andfindthatwehavenothingtoex^press exceptour self-satisfaction in the possessionofourveryimperfect instrument; so thatyou willfind clever and gifted men at the present day whoare prepared to sustain as a theory, that arthas nofunction but the display of clever executive quali^ties,and thatone subject is as good as another* Nowonderthat this theory should lead them into thepractice ofproducingpictureswhichwemightpro*nounce to be clever, ifwe could understand whattheymeant,butwhose meaningwecan onlyguessat, and suppose that they are intended to conveytheimpression on avery short-sighted person ofdi/vers ugly incidents seen through the medium ofaLondon fog.Well I admitthatthis isa digression, asmy subjectis Applied Art, and such art cannot be applied toanything; and I am afraid, indeed, that it must beconsidered a mere market article.

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LectureVL Thus we artists oftoday are cut oflFfrom cooper^The Arts ative tradition, but I must not say that we are cutand Crafts oflFfrom alltradition* And though itisundeniableof Today* thatwe are outofsympathywiththemain currentof the age, its commercialism, yet we are (even

sometimes unconsciously) in sympathywith thatappreciationofhistorywhich is a genuine growthofthe times, and a compensation to some ofus forthe vulgarity and brutality which beset our lives;and it is through this sense of history that we areunited to the tradition ofpast times*Past times; are we reactionists, then, anchored inthe dead past? Indeed I should hope not; nor canI altogether tell youhowmuch ofthe past is reallydead* I see about menow evidenceofideas tccuttying which have long been superseded* The worldruns aftersome object ofdesire, strives strenuouslyfor it, gains it, and apparently casts it aside ; like akitten playing with a ball,you say* No, not quite*The gain is gained, and something else has to bepursued, often something which once seemed tobe gained and was let alone for a while* Yet theworld has notgone back ; for that old object of de.^sirewas only gained in thepast as far asthe circum^stancesofthedaywouldallowit tobe gained then*Asaconsequencethe gainwasimperfect; thetimesare now changed, and allowus to carryon that oldgain astep forwardto perfection : theworld has notreally gone back on its footsteps, though to someithas seemedto doso* Didtheworld goback, forin^

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stance, when the remnant of the ancient civilisax Lecture VI.tions was overwhelmed by the barbarism which The Artswas the foundation ofmodern Europe?We can all and Craftssee that it did not* Did it go back when the logical of Today,and orderly system ofthe Middle Ageshad to giveplace to the confusion of incipient commercialismin the sixteenth century? Again, ugly and disasxtrous asthe change seems on the surface,! yetthinkitwasnota retrogression into prehistoric anarchy,but a step upward along the spiral, which,and notthe straight line, is, as my friend Bax puts it, thetrue line ofprogress.So that ifin the future that shall immediately fol^low on this present we may have to recur to ideasthat to-day seem to belong to the past only, thatwill notbe really a retracing of our steps, but rathera carrying on of progress from a point where weabandoned it a while ago. On that side of things,the side of art, we have not progressed; we havedisappointed the hopes of the period just beforethe time ofabandonment: have those hopes reallyperished, or have theymerely lain dormant, abid^ingthetimewhenwe, oroursons,orour sons' sons,should quicken them once more ?I must conclude that the latter is the case,that thehope ofleading a life ennobled by the pleasurableexercise of our energies is not dead, though it hasbeen for awhile forgotten. I do notaccuse the epochin which we live of uselessness: doubtless it wasnecessary that civilised man should turn himself

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LectureVL to mastering nature andwinning material advan/The Arts tages undreamed ofin former times ; but there areand Crafts signs in the air which show that men are not soof Today* wholly given to this sideofthebattleofHfeas theyusedto be* People arebeginning tomurmur& say:

^So we have won the battle with nature; wherethen istherewardofvictory?We have strivenandstriven^ but shall we never enjoy ? Man that wasonce weak is now most mighty* But his increaseof happiness, where is that? who shall show it tous,who shallmeasure it?Havewedonemorethanchange one form ofunhappiness for another, oneform ofunrest for another?We seetheinstrumentswhich civilisation has fashioned; what is she go/ingtodowiththem ? Makemoreandmoreand yetmore? Towhatavail? Ifshewould but use them,thenindeedweresomethingdone*Meantimewhatis civilisation doing? Day by day the world growsuglier, and where in the passing day is the com/pensating gain? Half/conquered nature forced usto toil,and yet formorerewardthan the sustenanceof a life of toil; now nature is conquered, but stillwe force ourselves to toil for that bare unlovelywage: riches wehavewonwithoutstint,butwealthis as farfrom us as ever, or it maybe farther*Comethen, since we are so mighty, let us tryifwe can notdo the one thing worth doing; make the world, ofwhich we are a part, somewhat happier*^This is the spirit of much that I hear said aboutme, not by poor or oppressed men only, but by

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thosewhohave agood measure ofthe gains ofcivile LectureVLisation* I do not know if the same kind of feeHng The Artswas about in the earHer times of the world; but I and Craftsknow that it means real discontent, ahope, partly of Today.unconscious, of better days : and I will be bold tosay that the spiritofthis latter part ofour centuryis that of fruitful discontent, or rebellion;that is tosay, of hope. And of that rebellion we artists area part; and though we are but few, and few as wcare, mereamateurs comparedwith the steadycom/petency of the artists of bygone times, yet we arcofsome use in the movement towards the attain^ment ofwealth, that is toward the making of ourinstruments useful.Forwe, at least,haverememberedwhatmostpeo^pie have forgotten amongstthe ugly unfruitful toilof the age of makeshifts, that it is possible to behappy, that labourmaybe a pleasure; nay, thattheessence of pleasure abides in labour if it be dulydirected ; that is if it be directed towards the perxformance ofthose functions which wise& healthypeople desire to see performed; in other words, ifmutual help be its moving principle.Well, since it is our business, as artists, toshowtheworld that the pleasurable exercise ofour energiesis the end of life and the cause of happiness, andthustoshowitwhich roadthe discontentofmodemlife must take in order to reach a fruitful home, itseems tome thatwe ought to feel our responsibili/*ties keenly. It is true that we cannot but share in

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LectureVL thepovertyoftIiisageofmakesIiijfts,andforIongIThe Arts fearwe canbelittlebutamateurs*Yet^ at least eachand Crafts in hisown person,we may struggle against make/of Today* shifts in art* For instance, to press a little home onourselves, ifdrawingis ourweakpoint,letustryto

improve ourselves on that side, and not proclaimthat drawing is nothingand tone is everything*Orifwe arebad colourists, letus set towork& learn,atleast,to colourinoffensively(whichlassureyoucanbe learned), instead ofjeering at thosewho giveusbeautiful colourhabituallyand easily* Or ifwe areignorant of history, and without any sense of roxmance, don^t let us try to exalt those deficienciesinto excellenciesbymaintainingthe divinityoftheuglyandthe stupid* Letus leave all suchunworthyshabbinesses to the Philistines& pessimists,whonaturally want to drag everybody down to theirlevel*In short,we artists are inthis position, thatwe aretherepresentativesofcraftsmanshipwhichhasbe/come extinct in the production of market wares*Letus thereforedo ourverybest tobecome as goodcraftsmen as possible; and if we cannot be goodcraftsmen in one line, let us go down to the next,and find our level in the arts, and be good in that;ifwe are artists at all, we shall be sure to find outwhatwe can do well, even ifwe cannot doit easily*Let us educate ourselves to be good workmen atall events, which will give us real sympathy withall that is worth doing in art, make us free of that46


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greatcorporation of creative power, the workofall Lecture VIages, and prepare us for that which is surely com^ The Artsing,the new cooperative art ofhfe,in which there and Craftswill be no slaves, no vessels to dishonour, though of Today,there will necessarily be subordination of capaci^ties, inwhichthe consciousness ofeach one that hebelongs to a corporate body, working harmonicously, each for all, and all foreach, will bringaboutreal and happy equality.Printed at the Chiswick Press with the Goldentype designed byWilliam Morris for the Kelmsxcott Press, and finishedon the twenty^sixth day ofApril, tpoi. Published by Longmans & Co. 39,Paternoster Row, London.

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Morris Willima Arts and Crafts Today