When we think about Arts & Crafts, we may refer to the international cultural movement that characterized the decorative and fine arts through the critical thinking, as a reaction against the effects of the Industrial Revolution. The mechanized, impersonal, serial and programmatic characteristics of the society of the end of the 19th- beginning of the 20th century generated the reaction through to a simpler, more natural, more fulfilling way of living. The effects upon the visuals determined by the contrast between modern technology and the authenticity of the traditional craftsmanship generated the key ideas of the new aesthetic variations that became known as Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, Sezessionsstil, the Wiener Werkstatte, the Prairie School, etc..

Arts & Crafts began in Great Britain and spread all across Europe and United States of America between approx. 1880 and 1920, flourishing so far as Japan, through Mingei movement. Essentially, its strong influence stood for an anti-industrial reform and found its visual definition into a return to the traditional craftsmanship, organic shapes, the use of simple, natural forms. Maybe that’s why artists and craftsmen used medieval, romantic, folk, vernacular styles as sources for their creations. 

The influence of the Arts & Crafts style continued among artists, craft makers, designers or urbanists even after the official style was displaced and replaced by Modernist currents.

The founders of the Arts & Crafts movement were some of the first major critics of the Industrial Revolution.

A few key ideas:

• The aesthetic of the style varied greatly depending on the materials and technology involved, as well as on the location. 

• The most relevant influences related both on the imagery of nature and the forms of medieval art, especially the Gothic style, which benefit of a consistent revival in Europe and North America during the mid-19th century.

• Even if the Arts & Crafts movement existed under the same denomination in Great Britain and the United States of America, two different stances regarding the attitude towards industrialization drew the line between them: in Britain, creators manifested a negative or ambivalent perspective towards the role and use of machine in the technological process, while Americans felt more motivated to embrace the machine, at least for certain procedures.

• The connection forged between the artist/craftsman and the object through handcraft was the key to producing both human fulfillment and beautiful items that would be useful on an everyday basis; as a result, Arts & Crafts artists are largely associated with the vast range of the decorative arts and architecture as opposed to the "high" arts of painting and sculpture.

 

There are at least 3 ways in which we can talk about the concept Arts and crafts and its interpretation relation with the Contemporary Romanian Art.

1. The historical perspective - It beholds the stylistic similarities with the Arts and Crafts variations in the central and Eastern European territory, as Art Nouveau or Jugenstyl and also the Romanian National Style, well known as „Ion Mincu Style” due to his promoter, the romanian visionary Architect, Ion Mincu (1852, Focșani - d. 6 decembrie 1912). As a great number of the '1900 buildings in Western Romania, in cities like Timișoara, Oradea, Arad or Târgu Mureș (ex. Palace of Culture Târgu Mureș http://palatul-culturii.ro/), which were designed under the Jugenstyl influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the impact of Neoromânesc style can be traced in central and eastern parts of Romania, in cities like București, Craiova, Constanța and others.

 

2. The ethnological perspective - It is the line that defines the relation between the craftsmanship practiced by rural craftsmen and the way they were integrating the know-how of their creation in their everyday life. We can find decorative artefacts in private collections, “village museums” or “etnografical museums” around Romania in almost all its regions such as: Muzeul Țăranului Român (http://www.muzeultaranuluiroman.ro/), Muzeul Etnografic al Transilvaniei, The Transylvanian Museum of Etnography (https://www.muzeul-etnografic.ro/ro),  Muzeul Satului Bănățean, The Village Banat Museum (http://muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro/), Muzeul Național Astra, The Astra National Museum Complex (http://www.muzeulastra.ro/), Muzeul Etnografic al Moldovei, The Ethnographical Museum of Moldavia (http://palatulculturii.ro/muzeul-etnografic-al-moldovei).

 

3. The phenomenological perspective - We may refer to this type of interpretation when the relation between the tradition is explored by contemporary artists and integrated in their current practice. From this point of view, the “arts and crafts field” becomes an inspiring and fertile conceptual space for contemporary creations, exhibitions, researches and studies. We may take into consideration Romanian contemporary artists like Gorzo, Cristian Paraschiv, Suzana Fântânariu and others. In 2019, during the Cultural Season Romania - France, the Romanian Artist Mircea Cantor opens in Paris the exhibition: „Le Chasseur d’images/ The images chaser” at the Chase and Nature Museum. In the same cultural season, throughout 2019,  the exhibition „Persona”, at the Mucem Museum in Marseille, France, curated by Diana Marincu, gathers eight contemporary Romanian artists (Ioana Bătrânu, Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan, Razvan Botis, Mircea Cantor, Olivia Mihaltianu, Anca Munteanu Rîmnic, Ioana Nemeș) and is presenting artworks inspired by their relation with the Romanian rural rituals and objects, highlighting especially the procession masks as a source of inspiration for contemporary artists.

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                                                                                                                                                              Text by Andreea Foanene