CVAC Postgraduate / ECR Reading Group

Whether you share John Ruskin’s (1819-1900) belief that ornament links aesthetics and ethics in revealing the pleasure of work. Or, whether you subscribe to the view of Adolf Loos (1870-1933) in his 1913 manifesto ‘Ornament and Crime’ that progress requires the striping back of ornament from the world in which we live. An undeniable fact is that ornament and decoration can still be found everywhere around us and for many cultures, both past and present, it remains a central element of artistic expression. 

These readings explore the debate concerning the theory of ornament and the social, political and psychological assumptions we bring to the discussion of ornament and the decorative arts. We begin with Joaquín Lorda’s thoughts on Aloïs Riegl (1858-1905) and The Problems of Style, one of the first significant attempts to lay down what Riegl termed the ‘Foundations of a History of Ornament’.  The texts then explore the complex contribution of ornament to visual culture through a case study of the arabesque by Finbarr Barry Flood and an equally provocative reading by Oleg Grabar looking at the implications of calling some art ‘decorative’ with a particular focus on Islamic art. Finally, an article by Glenn Adamson, a writer on the intersection of craft, design history and contemporary art, looks at the Pattern and Decoration movement and the issues it raises in late twentieth-century American culture.  

Download the readings here: https://bit.ly/3FIZ1MD