Art Versus Industry? - (Studies in Design and Material Culture) by Kate Nichols & Rebecca Wade & Gabriel Williams (Hardcover)

About the Book

Explores the relationship between industry and the visual arts in the long nineteenth century, using new research to reveal surprising collaborations between craftspeople, inventors, engineers and educators.

Book Synopsis

This book is about encounters between art and industry in nineteenth-century Britain. It looks beyond the oppositions established by later interpretations of the work of John Ruskin, William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement to reveal surprising examples of collaboration - between artists, craftspeople, designers, inventors, curators, engineers and educators - during a crucial period in the formation of the cultural and commercial identity of Britain and its colonies. Across thirteen chapters by fourteen contributors, Art versus industry? explores such diverse subjects as the production of lace, the mechanical translation of sculpture, the display of stained glass, the use of the kaleidoscope in painting and pattern design, the emergence of domestic electric lighting and the development of art and design education and international exhibitions in India.

From the Back Cover

This book is about encounters between art and industry in nineteenth-century Britain. It looks beyond the oppositions established by later interpretations of the work of John Ruskin, William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement to reveal surprising examples of collaboration - between artists, craftspeople, designers, inventors, curators, engineers and educators - at a crucial period in the formation of the cultural and commercial identity of Britain and its colonies. Art versus industry? explores such diverse subjects as the production of lace, the mechanical translation of sculpture, the display of stained glass, the use of the kaleidoscope in painting and pattern design, the emergence of domestic electric lighting, the politics of ornament and the development of art and design education and international exhibitions in India. Its approach is as varied as its contents, often drawing on little-used primary sources and offering new perspectives on existing literature. This lively and richly illustrated volume operates across disciplines to form an essential source for those studying the histories of art and design, museum studies, the history and philosophy of science and postcolonial studies. It also has much to offer for the general reader interested in the industrial and visual cultures of the Victorian period.

Review Quotes

'There is a substantial amount of significant new research on offer here, framed within a wide-ranging demonstration of the socio-political reach of contemporary design history. The authors are an interesting combination of curators and academic art historians, some well-established, others from a new generation of young scholars, and several with cross-disciplinary backgrounds.'
Brian Maidment, Liverpool John Moores University, Victorian Studies, Vol. 59, No. 4

About the Author

Kate Nichols is Birmingham Fellow in British Art in the Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies at the University of Birmingham; Rebecca Wade is Assistant Curator (Sculpture) at Leeds Museums and Galleries; Gabriel Williams received his PhD on relations between sculpture, industry and international exhibitions from the University of York in 2015. He is an independent researcher and teaches art history in schools.