A Century of Art and Design Education: From Arts and Crafts to Conceptual Art

A fascinating and rigorously researched account of the ideas and influence of the artists and teachers who brought about the major advances in national art education during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The outstanding artists to whom the Author gives special attention are: Walter Crane, C.R. Ashbee, R. Catterson-Smith, W.R. Lethaby, Fred Burridge and Fra Newbery. These adherents of Morris believed in the unity of the arts and crafts and in one of the central tenets of the Arts and Crafts movement: namely, that work should represent pleasure, rather than a resented duty. Furthermore, the same disciples insisted upon the students working from memory, as well as from life; together these approaches brought impressive gains for visual education. This highly informative work examines each follower of the movement in turn and also looks at the role played by progress in Glasgow. The book concludes by confronting the dilemma faced by teachers of art and design, which has arisen from the contemplation of the ideas of Sir Herbert Read and the promoters of Conceptual Art.