“Remember we have but one weapon against that terrible organization of selfishness which we attack, and that weapon is Union.”
Art has been created since the beginning of time. Art and artists are not always “great” or of particular skill, and people of manual labor may not always understand art. Morris fears for the future of art because he is not sure how art will be defined in the furture. Morris believes in two types of Art, Intellectual and Decorative. Intellectual art feeds the mind without the over-bearance of material where decorative art has always been there, and is of service to the body. Morris explains there is an intimate connection between both and states that when art flourished most (mere opinion), the higher and lower kinds were not steadily divided.
Morris states: “Intellectual art is separated from Decorative by the sharpest lines of demarcation, not only as to the kind of work produced under those names, but even in the social position of the producers; those who follow the intellectual arts being all professional men or gentlemen by virtue of their calling, while those who follow the Decorative are workmen earning weekly wages, non-gentlemen in short.”
Morris discusses what types of artists there are in various contexts. Real artists have struggled with their work and have learned the individuality of their craft by themself, despite art being taught through out the ages. Morris states that in the time when art was healthy, true artists operated with these qualities. Real artists in today’s world have to go against the grain, so to speak. They have to compete with the never ending definitions of what art is, combined with the perceptions of what people percieve as art, how artists that have exploited there art for the wrong cause and the burderns of capitalism. Today art suffers by so many factors that nature itself must be considered soley an art just to escape from all negative and contradicting qualities of what art is and what artists are, yet even the disrespect of nature is considered a hindrance to art.
“So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die.”
The true meaning of art will die as man is constantly forced and willing to participate in a system of work and capitalism as primary focus because there will be no more room for the pleasure of art. The motion of materialism and production causes man to believe in dreams of capitalism which inhibits the production of art in society. Overall, It is up to the human to preserve art and its true meaning because frankyly, the world will not be changing anytime soon. Morris encourages opposition of “the machine” and suggests a socialist artistic perspective in order to preserve art. He encourages the masses to still be influenced by emotion and turn oppression into “artistic activism” and overall unite to preserve the future of art.
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