Illustration: Walter Crane. Enamel panel design, c1902.
It is often surprising to note how many crafts and disciplines artists and designers either worked in or designed for, particularly in the latter half of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. A number of individuals known today mostly for specialities in specific disciplines were also known to have produced work in disciplines that were not always seen as being immediately complementary. So for example those with specialities in embroidery worked in ceramics and metal, those better known for glass work also worked in textiles, illustrators and graphic designers also produced work in wood and metal, and so on. Architects in particular tended to produce work across many disciplines, but this has more to do with the increasingly common feature of gesamtkunstwerk that took more and more emphasis within the creative and decorative arts as the nineteenth century drew to a close.
Gesamtkunstwerk is loosely defined as the total work of art, where one specific creative individual is responsible for a piece of work in its entirety. Therefore, the building of a house for example would be the responsibility of the architect, both inside and out. Taken to its inevitable conclusion would be the case whereby an architect would design the building itself, but also the interiors, furniture and furnishings down to the smallest detail. Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an enthusiastic proponent of the gesamtkunstwerk, as indeed was Frank Lloyd Wright.
Illustration: Walter Crane. Enamel panel design, c1902.
On a broader scale, although not seeing themselves as being involved necessarily with the totalised idealism of gesamtkunstwerk, were the decorative designers and artists who sanctioned an increasingly broad spectrum of work. One such was Walter Crane. Ostensibly an illustrator, Crane also produced work in a number of disciplines from wood engraving, to printed and woven textiles, carpets and rugs, embroidery, wallpaper, ceramics, metalwork, stained glass and others. Although trained as an illustrator, Crane was able to infuse a number of other disciplines with the unique perspective of an illustrator. How this changes the perspective of that adopted discipline can sometimes be subtle, at other times profound.
The four enamel panels produced by Crane in about 1902 are perhaps not a particularly astounding example of a cross-disciplined adventure. However, they are perhaps an attempt by the designer to broaden the appeal of his own work, but perhaps more importantly, and certainly within the character of Crane himself, to expand the appeal and diversity of the decorative arts in general.
Illustration: Walter Crane. Enamel panel design, c1902.
By the dawn of the twentieth century the decorative arts in Europe had become increasingly complex, with many artists and designers becoming part of a larger continent-wide phenomenon, one that was to produce a support network of creativity. Many artists, companies and organizations were to see themselves as either multi-disciplined or newly open to the possibilities of inter-border and inter-creativity on a much wider international, rather than national scale. While nationalism was and still is a recurring problem in Europe, for a time at least it did appear that as far as creativity was concerned, Europe had lost its debilitating and juvenile national border mentality. Crane himself was involved in a number of Europe-wide exploits and connections which included Germany, Austria and Hungary.
Crane and many others helped to put in place a broad foundation for the decorative arts in Europe. All arts and crafts were included and seen as having merit and substance. Interaction between creatives of different nationalities gave the decorative arts one of its most forward, confident and optimistic modes in its history. That it was left in near tatters after 1914 says much about the differing perspectives and empathy perceived and projected by the creative as opposed to the much narrower confines of the politician.
Illustration: Walter Crane. Enamel panel design, c1902.
Although, to be fair a number of artists and designers across Europe did fall into place with nationalist political propaganda and were at first enthusiastic supporters of the war, many others were bewildered as to the sudden change from cooperation to open hatred of creative individuals who happened to be on the wrong side of what seemed an overnight impenetrable although arbitrary border. A number who refused to disconnect themselves from friends made in the original international decorative arts network, were perceived, often near-hysterically as spies, traitors and worse. The sense of interwoven, inter-disciplined and inter-connectedness of creative Europe never really recovered anything like the perceived enthusiasm and excitement towards the international decorative arts that it had during the first few years of the twentieth century. Europe was to commit a slow and painful suicide over much of the twentieth century, with the decorative arts always seeming to play a very secondary place to politics, nationalism and all the other horrors brought out into the open by the small-minded but politically powerful.
The inter-disciplined creative individual still exists of course and probably always will do, although many seem less inclined to enthusiastic cross-discipline experimentation and much more to that of honing the one skill. As to the levels of international decorative artistic and design interaction, much has been largely replaced by internationalism and corporate one-size-fits-all branding.
Crane himself died in 1915, which on the whole was probably just as well.
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