Christopher Dresser と日本

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Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) was an unique designer in the history of modern design. Many art historians, for example, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner in his "Pioneers of Modern Design" and Robert Schmutzler in his "Art Nouveau-Jugendstil", highly appreciated him as a revolutional designer. Dresser's design seems very functional and "modern". But it was not only the result of functional study but also the result of looking into fundamental form. It is true that he studied function of the shape of the pot, but it was only one of his interests. At the same time, he was deeply interested in the study of natural form and of an artistic arrangement of decorative forms. In 1873, he published "the Principles of Decorative Design", which had close relation to Owen Jones' "The Grammer of Ornament" and even to A.W.N. Pugin's "The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture" in 1841. These authors were inquiring into fundamental form and arrangement of decoration. Pugin's principles were based on the Catholic religion, Owen Jones' principles were based on the natural forms. And Dresser found the Energy and the Force as his basic principles for design. Dresser's principles, however, were not completely abstruct ones. He, then, caught a chance to visit Japan. His travelling through Japan from 1877 to 1878 shows characteristics of the principles of his design. He visited Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Nikko, Tokyo and many other places. He was interested in many of Japanese designs, especially, in such decorative designs as mausolea at Nikko and Shiba. It seems that the decorative arrangement in Japanese Art greatly inspired him, and that he had confidence that his principles were true. After returning to Britain, he created many revolutional designs. In these designs, however, we could not find any Japanese motives. But he must have been greatly inspired by Japanese Art. He was inspired not by forms but by the method of convention and arrangement of them. Contents of the thesis are as follows. I. Introduction II. Chronology III. Dresser and Cole's Circle and the South Kensington IV. Travelling to Japan in 1877 V. Controversies on "Japanese Village" and against J. Conder VI. Dresser's Principles
社団法人日本建築学会の論文
1974-12-30

著者

鈴木博之
東京大学

Christopher Dresser と日本

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