A Century of Change- The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a time of extreme acceleration in development. I find it interesting how much of this rapid change was caused by the opening of trade routes across the globe, allowing cultures to converse and mix more freely, where before cultural influence would have taken decades to take hold, the development of faster motorised vehicles allowed global economy, and trade between nations all the way across the world, allowing cultures to much more easily affect each other, as we can see today in, for example, the multitude of foods we eat that come from as far as east Asia and the Americas, and the prominence of American technology across the entire world.

A topic of this week’s lecture which greatly interested me was Japonism. I have long been fascinated by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock printing, such as the work of Tōshūsai Sharaku, and his prints of people from his time, in the Japanese late 1700s.

I was not aware of how great an impact this style and methods of art had on European artwork during the Industrial Revolution. After the Meiji government took over japan, replacing the Shogun’s military rule, Japan began to trade with European countries, mainly the Netherlands and France. Even highly famous artists such as Van Gogh took inspiration from Japan, using brightly coloured ukiyo-e styled backgrounds for his work, contrasting with the predominant art style of Western Europe at the time, consisting of mainly muted colours. He also replicated various older Japanese artworks, adding some of his own style, mixing the two cultures together.

Another artist from this lecture who interests me is William Morris. I find it interesting how he developed from the work of John Ruskin in the Art Nouveau movement, and his mindset that the design should not be separate from manufacturing, as Morris created his own designs, as well as creating them by hand. Although he disliked the capitalistic mass production of good during the Industrial Revolution, he occasionally used machinery for his work, only opposing the low quality and soullessness of mass produced goods, but not the means by which they are created.

I am especially intrigued by his textile works, as he uses simple limes and shapes to create patterns of intricate natural forms. He was also fascinated by the art of the medieval period in Europe, and used previously forgotten (due to the new focus on industry and commercial design) methods of that time to create his work, such as surface embroidering, and natural dying using plants.