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| ABOVE: Drawing Room, Auchendarrock, Mount
Barker, Adelaide Hills Recreated interior using the original Morris & Co. Spring thicket wallpaper and Armchair upholstered in Persian Brocatel, supplemented with Australia table cover and Lily carpet [nos 21, 28, 43], and James Powell & Sons glassware. © copyright |
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| Who was William Morris? William Morris (1834 - 1896) was a remarkable man who lived and worked in Victorian Britain. He was a leading figure in the revival of the decorative arts in the second half of the nineteenth century, and has sometimes been referred to as the father of modern design. Whilst this is the legacy we remember him for today he was also known in his lifetime as an active conservationist, both of the environment and historical buildings, a leading socialist, a successful and accomplished writer, and the printer of fine books. Abandoning a planned career as a clergyman Morris threw himself with energy into the arts and became not only a successful designer and craftsman but also a spokesman for the decorative arts and their place in the world. The work he designed drew heavily upon nature. This influence can be found in his preference for strong, flowing curves and repeat patterns. He involved himself in almost all the decorative arts - wallpapers, curtains, carpets, furnishing fabrics, furniture, stained glass windows, embroidery and tapestry weaving. Morris established a successful company to produce high quality goods for household decoration, using traditional production methods. Everything produced by the company Morris could produce himself - teaching himself the techniques needed before teaching the skills to others who worked for him. In the 1880’s Morris became more heavily involved in politics and most of the designs for his company were done by a former student of Morris, J. H. Dearle. In the 1990’s Morris began a new enterprise - the printing of fine quality books at his Kelmscott Press. Morris died in 1896 but his firm continued until 1940, and his influence is still apparent today. Morris - achievements The work of William Morris revitalised the decorative arts in Britain, and has led to some calling him the father of modern design. Frank Lloyd Wright claimed him as a direct influence.In the 1880’s crafts guilds sprang up around Britain, with varying success and longevity. The Arts and Crafts Movement which developed from his ideas spread worldwide and has had an impact on the decorative arts ever since. As for Morris himself - even today his designs are sought after and many of his beliefs and ideas are still valid. The sound business management of Morris’s firm showed that quality, well designed products could compete successfully in an industrial market. Morris also showed that good design did not have to die as a result of industrialisation. Although he chose more traditional production techniques other designers who were influenced by him embraced the use of new technologies, whilst still insisting on control over quality and design. Although the company closed in 1940 Morris’s legacy continued to influence the development of design and the decorative arts during the twentieth century. The company could even claim a role in the revival of the embroidery industry in India! "The craft revival of the mid - late twentieth century was also indebted to Morris and his insistence on hand production, natural materials, sound design and, above all, commitment to improving the quality of life through objects of use and beauty." (Christopher Menz Morris and Co. Art Gallery of South Australia, 2002, p. 40) Morris - philosophy Morris believed that the separation of manufacture and design and the introduction of mass production had debased the quality of British decorative arts. Mass production, he believed, provided a large quantity of goods which lacked quality of design.He may have been the first to coin the phrase "cheap and nasty" - "... set on having things cheap ... they get them nasty also..." (William Morris : The Lesser Arts - lecture delivered to the Trades’ Guild of Learning.) Morris was a strong advocate for the decorative arts, believing that there should be no distinction between them and the so-called ‘fine arts’ of painting, sculpture and architecture. He believed the arts to be mutually supportive and necessary to each other, and argued against any discrimination between the terms artist and craftsman. A committed socialist Morris also believed that labour had become dreary because people no longer ‘created’ and beauty was absent from what they made. He advocated a utopian society where men worked as craftsmen, believing that labour was not a chore if you could take pride in what you created. He proposed the abandonment of luxuries in favour of living simply, claiming that you should have nothing in your home that you did not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful. (Something of a paradox to our eyes, viewing the lavish interiors he created!) At his works in Merton Abbey Morris created an environment for his workers that was in contrast to the industrial manufactories of his time - "...an old world air clings to the place, an atmosphere of quiet, and some of leisure, in which the workers, not harried to death, have space to breathe, and to enjoy something of the repose and beauty of the world ..." p.5-6). Morris was also an environmentalist who saw industrial cities as ugly, polluting and destroying. He believed that science needed to teach "...Manchester how to consume its own smoke, or Leeds how to get rid of its superfluous black dye without turning it into the river..." He wanted people to care about "...carrying on their business without making the world hideous... " but acknowledged that such improvements would be expensive. ( William Morris - The Lesser Arts ) ":I cannot refrain from giving you once again the message with which, as it seems, some chance-hap has charged me : that message is, in short, to call you to face the latest danger which civilisation is threatened with, a danger of her own breeding : that men in struggling towards the complete attainment of all the luxuries of life for the strongest portion of their races should deprive their whole race of all the beauty of life." (William Morris The Beauty of Life lecture delivered to the Birmingham School of Art and School of Design) Morris chronology
Morris - social context In the mid nineteenth century the British Empire was at its height.Since the early eighteenth century Britain had been rapidly industrializing. By 1850 it was the most advanced industrial nation in the world. The rapid move from a rural to an urban nation had brought huge social problems and the adhoc development of industrial centres meant that they were ugly, impoverished and under serviced. Many Victorians looked back to the pre-industrial era as a ‘Golden Age’ when life was better for everyone. Whilst to our eyes the social situation in Victorian Britain was appalling it was also a time of major advances as people came to grips with the impact of industrialisation and began to deal with it. Legislation was gradually enacted to restrict the age and hours of employees and to provide schooling for the general population. Sanitation and drainage began to be built to improve living conditions. Political processes began to change and become less open to corruption. Not only had Britain advanced industrially, Britain had also expanded, with colonies throughout the world. This led to a wide range of artefacts being brought to Britain both privately and publicly. The Victorians had a fascination with the ‘mysterious east’ fed by these items. Many Victorians were avid collectors of artefacts, having a nostalgic attachment to the past as a time of honour and chivalry, and a love of the exotic. Their interiors tended to be cluttered and eclectic. Morris shared the nostalgia of his age for the past, being passionate about the Middle Ages and Arthurian legends. He was also a man of his time in his interest in other cultures, claiming a study of Ancient Egyptian, Byzantine, Persian, Indian, Northern European and English traditions provided sources for his designs. Morris - issues Art v. Craft / Process and OwnershipMorris took active part in the debate about the relative value of the "applied" and "fine" arts that still continues today. What makes "applied" or "decorative" arts different from the "fine" arts? Do you agree that applied or decorative arts are quite different to other art forms? Why? Can embroideries be considered a work of art in the same manner that a painting or sculpture is? What processes has the designer gone through to produce an embroidery design? Are these the same as those a painter might explore? Can you analyse the work in the same manner as a painting - colour, form, composition, balance, style, etc.? Does it make a difference if the same person designs and produces the embroidery? Who is the artist? The designer or the producer? Morris - selected works from the exhibition
A wide variety of embroidery stitches have been used in this piece which would have been provided with the design marked out on the linen. The texture of the different stitches are as important as the colour to the overall effect of this piece. 2. Tapestry
Morris’s interest in the Middle Ages and traditional techniques naturally led to an interest in tapestry. Unfortunately another company preempted his plans to produce tapestries - The Windsor Tapestry Works were established in 1875 under the Queen’s patronage but it was not until 1879 that Morris began weaving. As soon as he had mastered the technique he taught it to Dearle and the firm began producing tapestries. The technique Morris used was high-warp or haute-lisse, a technique used by medieval Flemish weavers, in which the weaver works from behind the tapestry and can see their progress in a mirror. The warp runs from side to side, so that when the weavers are working they are looking at the design sideways. Weaving became almost an obsession with Morris, he had a loom set up in his bedroom and worked at it to relax himself. The Adoration was the first large scale tapestry produced by Morris and Co.. At least ten versions of it were woven between 1890 and 1907, the first being for Exeter College, Oxford. The Art Gallery’s Adoration is believed to be the sixth version. The weaving was not Burne-Jones only version of the design. In 1861 it was the subject of his first major painting commission, although the design was quite different, and in 1890-91 he produced a water colour on the theme entitled The Star of Bethlehem (watercolour on paper, 257x386 cm, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery). The tapestry includes many Christian symbols. The white lilies are Madonna lilies, associated with the Virgin, and the red roses refer to the crucifixion. The other flowers are simply species found in English gardens. 3. Furniture
Webb, an architect, often collaborated with Morris on designs as well as providing his own designs for the company. He was one of the founding members of the firm in 1861, and designed the Red House for William and Jane Morris in 1859. The simplicity of the sideboard’s style is typical of wooden furniture produced by the firm and in contrast to the ornate designs of their soft furnishings and much other Victorian furniture. 4. Carpet
The knotting at each end of the carpet serves a decorative purpose, but it also functional, tying off the weaving of the pile and keeping it secure. 5. Book
Books were one of Morris’s life long interests and the Kelmscott Press was his last great artistic endeavour. He approached it with all the energy that typified him, although he began the venture only five years before his death. This work was planned from 1991 and is accounted Kelmscott’s greatest work. It is an example of collaboration between Morris and Burne-Jones, who provided 87 illustrations. The flowing borders are by Morris. 6. Curtain Evenlode - William Morris, designer Soft furnishing fabrics are one of the things people most closely associate with Morris. Until the 1880’s the designs were all by Morris, but in 1888 Dearle took over. As with the carpets most designs revolved around flowing naturalistic forms and repeat patterns. The indigo discharge technique involved dyeing the fabric with indigo, then printing the areas to be coloured with a bleaching agent. Woodblock prints were then used to print the colour in the bleached areas. |
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| Morris – texts and websites Morris - Texts to look at Menz, Christopher, Morris & Co., Menz, Christopher, Morris and Company, The Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts
Movement, Aymer, Vallance, The Life and Works of William Morris, Dore, Helen, William Morris, MacCarthy, Fiona, William Morris, A Life for our Time, Morris, William, Hopes and Fears for Art - Five Lectures delivered in Birmingham,
London and Nottingham 1878-1881, Thompson, E. P., William Morris, Romantic to Revolutionary, Morris – websites to explore www.speel.demon.co.uk/artists/morris.htm http://www.lbwf.gov.uk/wmg/home.htm http://www.victorianweb.org/ http://www.morrissociety.org/ www.workhouses.org.uk/ http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/~bpn2f/victorian/bibliog.html www.victoriana.com/welcome/ www.iath.virginia.edu/mhc/
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| School
group booking information MORRIS & Co. is an excellent resource for students undertaking studies in Art & Design and also for teachers introducing students to designing and the world of design. Introductory talks (25 minutes) for class-size groups provided by Education Guides and the Education Officer. Bookings are required for all school group visits to the Gallery and to Morris & Co. Bookings: Telephone 8207 7033 (best contact time 3.30 – 5 pm school days) or fax: 82077070 Exhibition entry $20 per booked group. Tours free. For more information on education services at the Art Gallery of South Australia, click on the Education page |