Assignment 3 Beauty and Utility

Here is an example of a decorated construction. Creator: unknown

In the grammar of ornament in 1856, Owen Jones argued that ‘construction should be decorated, decoration should never be purposely constructed’. Owen Jones argued this is as during the first half of the nineteenth century industrialists, merchants, and professionals took interest to shape the values of a more complex and diverse society. Such attitudes took a variety of forms including the role of art in the decoration of construction.

Decoration should never be purposely constructed as it will be an imitation of nature and an inappropriate decoration for function ornament constructed which is a false principle. Construction should be decorated as it is the appropriate ornament for object and use for abstraction in representation which counts as a true principle.

I agree with Owen Jones as I think if decoration is purposely constructed it will look pretty ugly in terms of design. Constructions can be easily decorated into any appropriate ornament.