International studio (60.1916/1917)

The Arts and Crafts Exhibition

Arts and crafts at the
ROYAL ACADEMY.
(Third Article.)
Last summer when the prospectus of the recent
Arts and Crafts Exhibition was issued it was
accompanied by some notes on the “ Werkbund,”
an association formed in Germany a few years
ago with the object of capturing the markets of
the world for German art manufactures. The
notes showed how readily the scheme was adopted
in Germany, whose Government sent representa-
tives here to report on the English craft revival,
and German students to work at the Central

They admit, however, that the manufacturers have
not interested themselves sufficiently in the move-
ment, and that in view of the German efforts it is
of the first importance to bring them into closer
relationship with the artists. To achieve this is one
of the objects of the Committee, which contains
some of the ablest of French decorative artists and
some of her most enterprising manufacturers. Its
aims also include the re-organisation of the teaching
of the decorative arts, so that the schools shall
provide the factories with skilled craftsmen in
touch with new ideas ; the cultivation of the taste
of the purchasing public, and the holding of
exhibitions.

School of Arts and Crafts in London : and how

The objects of the Paris Committee are in com-

the “Werkbund” was supported by the German
manufacturers, great and small alike.* It was

plete agreement with those of the promoters of
the similar movement in England, and the terms

pointed out by the Committee
of the Arts and Crafts Society
that the German efforts would
be intensified rather than
relaxed after the war, and we
were urged to abandon our
inert attitude and to organise
our industries, and, as a first
step in this direction,
to support the exhibition at
Burlington House.
It is interesting to see that
France is making a similar
appeal, backed by identical
arguments and directed
against the common enemy.
In the French appeal, issued
by the Committee that has
its headquarters at the Musee
des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, it
is complained that there is
a tendency abroad to think
that decorative art in France
is purely traditional and
follows imitative rather than
creative lines. This view in
the opinion of the Committee
is a mistaken one, and they
point out that innumerable
examples of excellent modern
work have been shown at the
Musee des Arts Decoratifs
and other galleries during the
past five and twenty years.
*An account of this organisation
was given in “The Studio Year
Book of Decorative Art ” for 1911.

EBONY CHINA CABINET. DESIGNED BY ERNEST W. GIMSON ; EXECUTED BYE. SMITH
(The -property of Miss Gimson)


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