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Christopher Dresser, in his passionate support for a principal of design which was "an off-spring of the inner man", launched an outspoken attack on Ruskin and the South Kensington Institution which taught art along Ruskinian ideals. Dresser objected to the "misapplied pictorial art" which he claimed they practised and which he believed showed no useful, technical or scientific knowledge. He condemned the work as regressive and backward-looking. The Ruskin Gallery is delighted, however, to be able to show the influential work of Christopher Dresser and explore some of his fervently-held principles and to display Dresser's designs alongside the contemporary work he has inspired, the plans and drawings by the three artists responsible for the new look of Sheffield's Peace Gardens.
"... I was sitting in my study ... a glorious evening ... I commenced to draw, when, without the least effort of which I was conscious, and without exercising, so far as I know, any control over my pencil, forms and compositions which were new and rigorous, yet often eccentric, were produced with such rapidity, and in such quantities as astonished me." It was this evening of feverish work which produced Christopher Dresser's drawings of 1864. This sketchbook, on display in the exhibition, is an early and unique source for identifying his new and idiosyncratic design style. Regarded as dangerously avant garde, Dresser's designs were radically different from the usual work of the period. His belief in geometrical simplicity and the primacy of an object's function, material and construction meant that he concentrated on inexpensive materials (his designs in Sheffield were for electro-plated silver) and functional details such as handles and spouts. His inspiration came from the natural world, but he was eager to abstract simple subtle forms from his aesthetic experiences of nature. This did not appeal to ordinary Victorians who resolutely refused to invite him to turn his designs into practice. Unlike members of the Arts and Crafts Movement, which shared many of his ideals of providing accessible, low-cost art for the masses, Dresser was keen to exploit the opportunities provided by mass production. A city like Sheffield provided for him a focus of high class materials, craftsmanship and production in an atmosphere of industry of which he approved: "Workmen, I am a worker, and I believe in the efficacy of work."Dresser became the first designer to obtain the right to allow the designer's name to be imprinted on an object next to the maker's mark, thus fitting him clearly in place as an artist-producer, with a defined status within the processes of industrial production. Despite his achievements, however, he continued to find it difficult to persuade manufacturers to adopt his design principals. His designs for the Sheffield company of James Dixon & Son in 1879 were only ever produced in limited numbers because they were regarded as too radical. The simplicity and boldness of his pieces echoed inspirations from Japanese culture and concerns with industrial progress which had little precedent in the western traditions of design. It is these very features of his work, however, which have allowed Dresser's influence to re-emerge so strongly during the 20th century. Crossing the temporal and cultural divisions between Victorian Society and our own, the designs of Christopher Dresser continue to inspire and direct modern makers.
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maintained by Simon Quinn, Information Adviser, Learning Centre.
Last Altered on 10/11/99 |
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