Art Workers Guild

Art Workers Guild logo

The Art Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British architects associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of all the arts', denying the distinction between fine and applied art. It opposed the professionalisation of architecture – which was promoted by the Royal Institute of British Architects at this time – in the belief that this would inhibit design.

The founders of the Guild were five young architects from Norman Shaw's office: W. R. Lethaby, Edward Prior, Ernest Newton, Mervyn Macartney and Gerald C. Horsley. Its first master was the sculptor, George Blackall Simonds; its second master was John Dando Sedding. Among its members was Henry Bird.

Much of the impulse that previously had fed into religion was transferred to art, retaining a moral seriousness and sense of mission that has characterised the Guild.

The architects Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer had an office in the front of the early Georgian house at 6 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, and when they heard that the freehold was for sale, encouraged the Guild to buy it. The back part of the building was reconstructed as a meeting hall, designed by F. W. Troup and inaugurated on 22 April 1914. It is furnished with rush-seated chairs to a pattern originally made in Herefordshire in the 1880s by Philip Clisset, and afterwards copied by Ernest Gimson and his successors. The names of all members up to the year 2000 are painted on a frieze around the walls of the Hall. The list of names now continues in the front room known as the ‘Master’s Room’.

The Art Workers Guild gave rise to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.

The Guild was originally a male only organization, leading May Morris to start the Women’s Guild of Arts in 1907 as an alternative for women.^[1] It was not until the 1960s that women were admitted, starting with the wood engraver Joan Hassall who became the first female Master in 1972.

The Guild is today a society of artists, craftsmen and designers with a common interest in the interaction, development and distribution of creative skills. They represent a variety of views on design and stand for authenticity (irrespective of political and stylistic ideology) in a world increasingly uncertain about what is real. Founded originally by the leading lights of the Arts and Crafts movement in the 1890s, many of its current members uphold long-established traditions of workmanship and a desire to contribute to the community. The Guild believes that art, craft and design should be invigorating and positive in outlook, at a time when much art remains alienating and self-indulgent. These principles are manifest in the individual work of the members and are spread through teaching, research, publication and exhibitions.

Past Masters of the Guild

1884-5 G. Blackall Simonds 1886-7 John D. Sedding 1888-9 Walter Crane 1890 John Brett 1891 Sir W B Richmond 1892 William Morris 1893 J. T. Micklethwaite 1894 Heywood Sumner 1895 Edward Onslow Ford 1896 Sir T. Graham Jackson 1897 Lewis Foreman Day 1898 Thomas Stirling Lee 1899 Sir Mervyn Macartney 1900 Selwyn Image 1901 Sir Frank Short 1902 Sir George Frampton 1903 Charles Harrison Townsend 1904 Sir Emery Walker 1905 Sir Charles Holroyd 1906 Edward S. Prior 1907 William Strang 1908 F.W. Pomeroy 1909 Sir George Clausen 1910 Halsey Ricardo 1911 W.R. Lethaby 1912 C.W. Whall 1913 Edward Prioleau Warren 1914 Thomas Okey 1915 H.R. Hope-Pinker 1916 Harold Speed 1917 Henry Wilson 1918 Earl Ferrers 1919 Arthur Rackham 1920 R.W.S Weir 1921 R. Anning Bell 1922 Laurence A. Turner 1923 Francis W. Troup 1924 C.F. Annesley Voysey 1925 Gilbert Bayes 1926 John Leighton 1927 Sir Francis Newbolt 1928 F. Ernest Jackson 1929 C.R. Ashbee

1930 H.M. Fletcher 1931 Edmund J. Sullivan[2] 1932 Basil Oliver 1933 Sir Edwin Lutyens 1934 F.L. Griggs 1935 Ernest G. Gillick 1936 Harry Morley 1937 F. Marriott 1938 Richard Garbe 1939-40 Hamilton T. Smith 1941 Percy J. Delf Smith 1942 George Parlby 1943 Sir Albert Richardson 1944 W.H. Ansell 1945 James H. Hogan 1946 Cecil Thomas 1947 Stephen J. B. Stanton 1948 Hesketh Hubbard 1949 Darcy Braddell 1950 Leonard Walker 1951 Kenneth Bird 1952 Gerald Cobb 1953 W. Godfrey Allen 1954 William Washington 1955 R.R. Tomlinson 1956 Donald H. McMorran 1957 Brian D.L. Thomas 1958 Laurence Bradshaw 1959 Henry Medd 1960 Stuart Tresilian 1961 Sydney M. Cockerell 1962 Sir Gordon Russell 1963 Milner Grey 1964 Arthur Llewellyn Smith 1965 William J. Wilson 1966 William F. Howard 1967 John Brandon-Jones 1968 Charles Hutton 1969 Frederick Bentham 1970 Bruce Allsopp 1971 Paul Paget 1972 Joan Hassall 1973 David Peace

1974 Rodney Tatchell 1975 Dennis Flanders 1976 Roderick Enthoven 1977 Arthur Bultitude 1978 Sean Crampton 1979 Gordon Taylor 1980 Peter Foster 1981 Philip Bentham 1982 Margaret Maxwell 1983 John R. Briggs 1984 Sir Peter Shepheard 1985 John Skelton 1986 Paddy Curzon-Price 1987 Roderick Gradidge 1988 Carl Dolmetsch 1989 Roderick Ham 1990 John Lawrence 1991 Anthony Ballantine 1992 Kenneth Budd 1993 Marthe Armitage 1994 Robin Wyatt 1995 Richard Grasby 1996 Glynn Boyd Harte 1997 Josephine Harris 1998 Peyton Skipwith 1999 Ian Archie Beck 2000 Donald Buttress 2001 Zachary Taylor 2002 Edward Greenfield 2003 Christopher Boulter 2004 Sally Pollitzer 2005 Dick Reid 2006 Stephen Gotlieb 2007 Assheton Gorton 2008 Brian Webb 2009 Alison Jensen 2010 Sophie MacCarthy 2011 Sir Edmund Fairfax Lucy 2012 George Hardie 2013 Julian Bicknell 2014 Prue Cooper 2015 Anthony Paine 2016 David Birch

References

1. Thomas, Zoe (June 2015). "'At Home with the Women's Guild of Arts: gender and professional identity in London studios, c. 1880-1925'". Women's History Review.
2. Bryant, Mark. World War I in Cartoons. London: Grub Street Pub, 2006, page 17, ISBN 190494356X

Further reading

• J. L. J. Masse, The Art-Workers Guild 1884-1934 Oxford: Printed for the Art-Workers' Guild at the Shakespeare Head Press, 1935. OCLC 559542296

External links

• "Art Workers Guild". Official website of the Guild. Archived from the original on 24 October 2005. Retrieved 17 October 2005.
• Gavin Stamp. "A Hundred Years of the Art Workers Guild" (PDF). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
• The Guild Constitution
• Artworkers’ Guild History