OFFICIAL67 Why did design reformers criticize the wallpapers that won awards at the Exhibition of 1851?

[00:00.00]As the industrial revolution took hold in early 19th century, England. [00:10.60]Uh, the increased availability of cheap goods made in the latest styles was taken advantage of by the rising middle class. Home decoration became very popular. [00:21.23]And this LED to the popularity of mass produced carpets and wallpaper in all sorts of ornate patterns and bright colors. [00:29.88]And while this explosion of manufacturing LED to breakthroughs in the kinds of designs that could be produced, it didn't necessarily lead to improvements in design quality.
[00:40.89]According to a group of designers and social critics in England, who were known as design reformers. [00:47.61]And we'll talk more about them in a minute. [00:50.12]The great exhibition of 1851 in London, uh showcase, the new wallpaper designs and styles. [00:56.89]There you had thousands of exhibits that were meant to celebrate how Good Contemporary manufacturing was. [01:03.94]There were many, many machine made wallpapers on display there with prizes awarded to some of the best pieces. [01:11.68]There are a lot of very detailed patterns and bright colors. [01:16.12]Some papers had very realistic pictures and others had special effects like the illusion of depth. So you'd think this would be good. [01:25.53]But the exhibition LED to outraged newspaper editorials, criticizing how poor public taste was. [01:33.73]The British inspector general for art actually wrote a report specifically about the wallpaper at the exposition. [01:41.40]In his view, the judges gave awards based on technical aspect, like the number of colors used in the papers, rather than on more traditional aesthetic criteria, like beauty or simplicity.
[01:54.77]Uh, despite being a leader in industrial progress, England, by some accounts, seemed to be lagging behind its rival France in terms of design quality. [02:05.47]And some design reformers worried that the nation could lose its advantage in international trade if designs weren't changed. [02:14.60]So the new technical abilities in production introduced by the industrial revolution, uh, prompted or enabled these new wallpaper designs. [02:24.94]You see, manufacturers had figured out how to use engraved metal rollers in the production of wall paper. [02:31.74]Using metal rollers to print wallpaper allowed a level of extremely fine detail and shading that previously had not been possible. [02:40.86]I mean, before the papers were being made by block printing, which was pretty imprecise, uh, plus the new production techniques made wall paper a lot cheaper to buy since it reduced production costs.
[02:54.60]And these new wallpapers were popular. [02:57.36]To the average industrialist, good design meant whatever sold the best, popular taste, equated ornate embellishment with excellence. [03:06.36]So many manufacturers created wall papers with as much surface decoration as possible. [03:12.40]Graphic elements from different areas were combined without regard to period or, or stylistic unity. And designs became increasingly cluttered.
[03:22.15]All of which irritated design purists, even the Victorian era writers mock the wallpaper design trend. [03:30.28]In his 1852 short story, a house full of horrors, the writer Henry Morley described the garish combination of mismatch design elements that represented the new style in wallpaper design. [03:43.94]Quote, the paper in my parlor contains 4 kinds of birds of paradise besides bridges and pagodas. [03:53.20]Wilkie Collins described another of the new wall papers as, quote, a gaudy pattern of birds, trellis work and flowers in gold, red and green on a white background. [04:05.91]And quote, one technique, in particular, became associated with the new wallpapers. [04:12.15]Trompe I’oeil, um, Trompe I’oeil, that's French for tricking or cheating the eye was a design technique that created visual illusions. [04:23.60]So you'd have wallpaper that actually looked like marble or wood, grain, or maybe like aged leather.
[04:30.46]Now, the design reform critics, they oppose this. [04:35.02]They thought that Trompe I’oeil designs were inherently deceptive, because they made walls look like something they were not. [04:42.56]This was also, this was the design reformers critique of the three dimensional illusions of death. [04:49.56]To them, It was all a type of lying. So these designs were actually immoral. [04:56.09]And.. and according to their shaky logic, if people filled their houses with wallpapers that were visually deceitful, then the inhabitants would become deceitful, too. [05:06.72]Yeah. Right. When they created wall papers, design, reform, advocates avoided illusions and visual deceptions. [05:17.02]They created primarily geometric, two dimensional patterns, which they said would confirm the wall as a flat surface, rather than disguise or misrepresent it. [05:27.54]And they used fewer and more subdued colors in their wallpaper. [05:32.12]So it's probably not surprising that design reform products didn't do well in the marketplace. [05:38.50]From the 1840s, on the three dimensional and Trompe I’oeil designs continue to sell in huge quantities despite their supposed corrupting influence. [05:49.80]Meanwhile, design reforms, geometric patterns sold in small quantities, and were used mainly to decorate government buildings instead of homes.