V&A · An Introduction To The Aesthetic Movement | esthetic movement
TheAestheticMovementinBritain(1860–1900)aimedtoescapetheuglinessandmaterialismoftheIndustrialAge,byfocusinginsteadonproducingartthatwasbeautifulratherthanhavingadeepermeaning–ArtforArtssake.TheartistsanddesignersinthiscultofbeautycraftedsomeofthemostsophisticatedandsensuouslybeautifulartworksoftheWesterntraditionandintheprocessremadethedomesticworldoftheBritishmiddle-classes.Beautyhasasmanymeaningsasmanhasmoods.Beautyisthesymbolofsymbols.Beautyrevealseverything,becauseitexpressesnothing.When...
The Aesthetic Movement in Britain (1860 – 1900) aimed to escape the ugliness and materialism of the Industrial Age, by focusing instead on producing art that was beautiful rather than having a deeper meaning – Art for Arts sake. The artists and designers in this cult of beauty crafted some of the most sophisticated and sensuously beautiful artworks of the Western tradition and in the process remade the domestic world of the British middle-classes.
Beauty has as many meanings as man has moods. Beauty is the symbol of symbols. Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing. When it shows itself, it shows us the whole fiery-coloured world.
Oscar Wilde, 1890
These new Aesthetic artists included romantic bohemians such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris[1] and Edward Burne-Jones[2]; maverick figures such as James McNeill Whistler[3], then fresh ...