News from Anywhere

2012-02-02T09:39:00.000-05:00

Museo de Arte de Ponce announces symposium on “Treasuresof the Collection in Context: The Pre-Raphaelites”

In anunprecedented event for Puerto Rico, on Saturday, February 4, 2012, Museo deArte de Ponce will host an international symposium titled “Treasures of theCollection in Context: The Pre-Raphaelites in the Museo de Arte de PonceCollection,” Art Daily reports.

From 10 am to 5 pm, renowned specialists in art history and Victorianliterature will meet in this south-coast Puerto Rico city to discuss theartists and works contained in the museum’s world-famed collection. Thisconference represents the most important academic event ever held on thePre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in Puerto Rico. For more information, http://repeatingislands.com/2011/12/31/museo-de-arte-de-ponce-announces-symposium-on-treasures-of-the-collection-in-context-the-pre-raphaelites/

Edward Coley Burne-Jones, The Sleeping Beauty from the small Briar Rose series. Oil on canvas, 60 x 115 cm. Puerto Rico, Museo de Arte de Ponce.

Talk by David Mabb at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 12 January 2012

2012-01-02T15:54:00.004-05:00

"On the Passage of a Few Patterns through a Rather Brief Moment in

Time: David Mabb’s Appropriations of William Morris 1999-2011"

William Morris thought that interior design had a fundamental role to play in the transformation of everyday life. This essentially political motivation - a commitment to the radical potential of design - is behind much of his work as a designer and craftsman and the setting up of Morris & Co. Morris's designs are highly schematized representations of nature, where it is always summer and never winter; the plants are always in leaf, often flowering, with their fruits available in abundance, ripe for picking, and with no human labor in sight. Mabb's paintings, photographs, textiles and videos, work with and against Morris's designs by contrasting them with the work of Malevich, the Russian Constructivists, modernist architecture, photographs of industry and recently images of slogans. These combinations produce unstable picture spaces that are never fixed, where a Morris pattern and the other image never merge or separate.

This lecture has been organised to accompany the exhibition William Morris: Story, Memory, Myth which is open until 29 January 2012 at Two Temple Place. The exhibition draws upon the remarkable collections of

the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, which is closed for major refurbishment until July 2012. Organised in collaboration with The Courtauld Institute of Art, this exhibition is the first in the annual series of exhibitions by The Bulldog Trust which are intended to draw on and increase the visibility of collections across the country, and to provide opportunities for young and emerging curators.

Thursday, 12 January 2012
6 p.m.
Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre
The Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN UK

"Palaces of Art: Whistler and the Art Worlds of Aestheticism," symposium 27-28 October at the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

2011-09-18T13:07:00.002-04:00

"Palaces of Art: Whistler and the Art Worlds of Aestheticism," a two-day symposium at the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, features presentations by international scholars consider how issues of patronage, collecting, display, and critical interpretation shaped the Aesthetic art movement, its theories and practices, and its reception in a global context. Through the introduction of new approaches to Aestheticism, scholars challenge conceptions about the place of James McNeill Whistler and his international circle of contemporaries within the Aesthetic movement.
This symposium honors the achievements of Professor Margaret MacDonald of the University of Glasgow. It is organized by the Lunder Consortium for Whistler Studies, a scholarly collaboration of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Colby College Museum of Art, and the University of Glasgow. It is the first in a series of conferences supporting the consortium’s mission of promoting innovative scholarship on the art of James McNeill Whistler and his international circle of contemporaries.
“Palaces of Art: Whistler and the Art Worlds of Aestheticism” is made possible by the generosity of the Lunder Foundation.
The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. The proceedings will be archived and available online for future reference.

Thursday and Friday, 27-28 October 2011
Meyer Auditorium
Freer Gallery of Art
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC

For more information, contact:

Margaret Laster
Fellow, Lunder Consortium for Whistler Studies
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
LasterM@si.edu

Image: Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen. James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903). Oil on wood panel, 1864. Gift of Charles Lang Freer, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, F1904.75a.

Update on the William Morris Gallery

2011-09-18T12:52:00.000-04:00

An exciting new project will redisplay one of the world’s finest collections of William Morris artefacts.
The William Morris Gallery is the only public gallery devoted to Morris’s life, work and influence. Housed in Morris’s early home in Walthamstow, it holds an internationally significant collection of textiles, designs, wallpapers, furniture, ceramics and books associated with Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. This exciting project will refurbish and extend the Gallery, transforming it into world-class cultural destination and a centre of excellence for the study of Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement.
When the Gallery reopens in July 2012 in time for the Olympics, more of the outstanding collection will be on display and it will be reinterpreted to appeal to all ages and backgrounds. There will be a new learning centre, a research library and a temporary exhibition space, as well as a new website and an excellent tea room and shop.
Architect’s impression of the rear of the Gallery showing the new extension to the left.

Image: Pringle Richards Sharratt
Visitors will learn in the main displays about Morris’s early years in Oxford, his association with the Pre-Raphaelites and the foundation and enduring success of Morris & Co. Hands-on, interactive exhibits will invite people of all ages to explore how products were designed and made, emphasising Morris’s preference for traditional craft techniques. They will also find out about Morris’s career as a writer and campaigner and his lasting influence as father of the Arts and Crafts movement.
The permanent exhibitions will be complemented by an ambitious programme of temporary exhibitions exploring aspects of Morris’s legacy – both historically and in contemporary art and design. In addition, a radical programme of Activities and Events will engage a wider, more diverse audience, whilst an innovative Schools Programme will inspire the next generation of artists, designers and makers.
The Development Project has been made possible by a grant of £1.52 million by the Heritage Lottery fund matched with £1.5 million from the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Funding has also been secured from a number of trusts and foundations and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery. With just 12 months left to go until reopening, the Gallery team have £850,000 left to raise. To find out more, including how you can get involved, visit www.walthamforest.gov.uk/william-morris.

For further information please contact:

Vicky Carroll
Museum, Gallery and Archives Manager
Tel: (44) 020 8496 4390
Email: vicky.carroll@walthamforest.gov.uk
www.walthamforest.gov.uk/william-morris

"Searching for a Famous Book: A Census of the Kelmscott Chaucer" - presentation 29 Septmeber at the Library of Congress

2011-09-18T12:25:00.000-04:00

On Thursday, 29 September, the Library of Congress will hold a special event, "Searching for a Famous Book: A Census of the Kelmscott Chaucer." This presentation, by William S. and Sylvia Holton Peterson, celebrates the publication of their new book, The Kelmscott Chaucer: A Census, from Oak Knoll Press (2011). Two of the Library of Congress's copies of the Kelmscott Chaucer will be on view for the occasion.

Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress, the American Printing History Association, Chesapeake Chapter, and the William Morris Society n the United States.

Thursday, 29 September 2011
4 p.m.
The Lessing J. Rosenwald Room (LJ205)
The Rare Book and Special Collections Division
2nd Floor, Jefferson Building
Library of Congress
Washington, DC

For further information, please contact The Division at 202-707-2025
Request ADA accommodation five business days in advance
Contact (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov

Visit the Kelmscott Chaucer blog: http://kelmscottchaucer.wordpress.com/.

2012 Fellowship in Pre-Raphaelite Studies

2011-08-22T08:41:00.001-04:00

A reminder about the 2012 Fellowship in Pre-Raphaleite Studies offered by the University of Delaware Library and the Delaware Art Museum:

The University of Delaware Library in Newark, Delaware and the Delaware Art Museum invite applications for the 2012 joint Fellowship in Pre-Raphaelite Studies. This one-month Fellowship is intended for scholars working on the Pre-Raphaelites and their associates. Up to $3,000 is available.

The Delaware Art Museum is home to the most important collection of Pre-Raphaelite art in the US. Assembled largely by Samuel Bancroft, Jr., the collection includes paintings, works on paper, decorative arts, manuscripts, and letters, and is augmented by the museum’s Helen Farr Sloan art library. With comprehensive holdings in books, periodicals, electronic resources, and microforms, the University of Delaware Library is a major resource for the study of literature and art. The Special Collections Department contains material related to the Pre-Raphaelites who are also well-represented in the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection of Victorian books, manuscripts, and artworks.

Application deadline: October 15, 2011

More information: www.delart.org/education/fellowships.html or write to:

Pre-Raphaelite Studies Fellowship Committee
Delaware Art Museum
2301 Kentmere Parkway
Wilmington, DE 19806 USA

New William Morris Society Website

2011-08-22T08:14:00.001-04:00

We are happy to announce that the William Morris Society in the United States has a brand-new website. Everything from the "old" site—information about Morris's life and work, images of his s design work, events listings, texts, translations, details about Morris Society membership and publications, and the online Journal of William Morris Studies—is there, along with new features:

streamlined payment system for new and renewing members
full site search, available from every page
higher-resolution images of Morris's designs
improved navigation

The web address remains the same: www.morrissociety.org.

...and it's International Hug a Medievalist Day!

2011-03-31T09:23:00.001-04:00

http://fmrsi.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/news-international-hug-a-medievalist-day-31st-march-2011/

The Skeleton in Armor; or, Morris & Co and Walter Crane Crossing the Pond

2011-03-30T22:10:00.000-04:00

Posted today on the Beinecke Library blog, "Room 26, Cabinet of Curiosities":
http://brblroom26.wordpress.com/

Upcoming Event, The Cult of Beauty exhibition at the V&A, April 2-July 17, 2011

2011-03-16T13:25:00.006-04:00

http://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/future_exhibs/aestheticism/index.html

and, for more detailed information:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/periods_styles/cult-of-beauty/exhibition/index.html

Death of Joan South, Long-time Morris Society Member

2011-02-18T08:14:00.001-05:00

Marilyn Ibach, a member of the William Morris Society in the United States, writes—

Joan South, who was active for so many years as Trustee of the William Morris Society in the UK, and who remained a great mentor to me long after I left my job at the William Morris Centre in 1978, passed away peacefully at home with her three children Imogen, William, and Julia at her side, on February 6, 2011, aged 86, after some months in a nursing home in Kent.

Joan became a member of the William Morris Society in 1970, and by the time I was living at Kelmscott House in 1977, she was a Committee member. She regularly dropped by Tuesdays on her way to market in Hammersmith to see how I was going on. Having moved to London from Australia in 1959, Joan was sympathetic to a new arrival, and regularly invited me to her home, including for a wonderful Christmas dinner.

Her interest in William Morris was the main reason that we met, and of course we could talk about that for hours. But it was her nurturing, bright nature that drew me, and I am sure, many others. Florence Boos, when learning of her death, called Joan South a woman of great intelligence and broad culture.
In the late 1990s, Joan became the Honorary Secretary of the William Morris Society. She also was active in another cause, the Leasehold Enfranchisement Association, when her lease at Upper Phillimore Gardens was threatened with closure. She wrote the book Leasehold: the Case for Reform, in 1994.

I last saw Joan in September 2009, and she was as interested and involved in family, friends, and life as always. I will miss her.

Caroline Arscott Lecture at UPenn on 14 February

2011-02-12T00:06:00.003-05:00

From the UPenn / Penn Visual Studies School of Arts and Sciences webpage:

Caroline Arscott, Head of Research, Courtauld Institute of Art
With a brief response by Jeremy Melius, Dept. of Art and Archaeology,
Princeton University

"William Morris's Woodpecker Tapestry: Evolution and Utopia"

"This lecture draws on Herbert Spencer’s account of the emergence of psychological life (from physiological existence) in his account of evolution, and on Charles Darwin’s account of sexual selection in relation to evolution to investigate the temporality of the Woodpecker tapestry made by William Morris in 1885. The tapestry relates to the tale from Ovid in which Picus is transformed into a woodpecker. Arscott will focus on the theme of transformation and raise questions about the temporality implied by the motif and by the verses added to the tapestry by Morris. A particular relationship between the present and the future is posited. Arscott argues that this has a bearing on the way that Morris’s tapestry offers a meditation on its own making."

Caroline Arscott is the author of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones: Interlacings (2008).

Monday, 14 February 2011
5 p.m.
Cohen Hall 402
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

Free and open to the public. Reception to follow

A Cure for the Winter Doldrums... Books by and about William Morris

2011-02-11T23:51:00.005-05:00

Is this interminable winter getting to you? Are you looking for a great new book to sink your teeth into? Check out the full list of titles that are currently available for sale from the William Morris Society in the United States through the following URL:

www.morrissociety.org/ahobooks.pdf

Life member Gary L. Aho, professor emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, generously gave us a portion of his library, with the wish that the books be sold to benefit the Society. The books are offered through the Kelmscott Bookshop, 34 West 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, (410) 235-6810, info@kelmscottbookshop.com.

To order contact the bookshop directly and cite the author, title, and inventory number. You will be informed of availability and told the cost of ship- ping. Payment may then be made via check or credit card. Please do not send orders or payment to the William Morris Society.

Happy Birthday Ruskin!

2011-02-08T22:29:00.003-05:00

On this day, February 8, in the year 1819, John Ruskin - art and architecture critic and social commentator - was born in London.

Collecting Kelmscott and William Morris on ABE

2011-01-07T14:32:00.001-05:00

The online bookstore, Advanced Book Exchange, one of the largest seller of secondhand, antiquarian, and rare books, recently posted a short piece on "Collecting Kelmscott: William Morris & His Quest for Fine Books." Admittedly an enticement for people to buy books offered by ABE's booksellers, the article reads as follows:

More than 100 years after his death, William Morris – founder of the Kelmscott Press – remains an influential figure in design and art, and his Kelmscott fine press books are highly prized.

The textile designer, author and artist founded the Kelmscott Press in 1891. Morris (1834-1896) published his own work as well as translations and reprints of mediaeval writing he believed should be read. A traditionalist in every sense of the word, Morris wanted to preserve the relationship between art and books. He detested the mechanisation of art during a period when the western world was embracing mechanisation.

Morris was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an organization that strived to produce art reminiscent of the romantic, medieval eras. These ideals were instrumental in everything that Morris did from the initiation of the Arts and Crafts movement in late 19th century England, the design and decoration of his famous Red House, his design and manufacture of textiles and, of course, the Kelmscott Press.

Kelmscott Press was founded in a cottage where Morris set up three printing presses that he used to print books by traditional methods. To maintain the traditional feel, Morris designed two typefaces based on 15th century fonts. He also made his own paper to complete his handmade books. Despite the painstaking effort put into each publication and the fact that Kelmscott was only in operation for seven years, the small press managed to produce more than 18,000 copies of more than 50 different works.

In true fine press tradition, the Kelmscott print runs were short and the books were not cheap, but they were beautiful and exemplified the Arts and Crafts movement. Kelmscott's finest achievement is probably its edition of Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. The books were designed by Morris himself and illustrated by fellow Pre-Raphaelite Edward Burne-Jones. It was the finest and most beautiful book of its day, containing 87 woodcut illustrations to accompany Chaucer’s masterful tales.

It doesn't take an expert to point out the errors here (Morris was more than a "textile designer, author, and artist"; he was not a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; Burne-Jones did not illustrate al the Kelmscott books)—the point is that Morris and Kelmscott continue to interest people and are, if not actively collected, then actively offered by the booktrade. Case in point: the Kelmscott Works of Geoffrey Chaucer pictured here is priced at just over $95,000. More modest Kelmscott titles are considerably less expensive, in the $500 to $7,500 range; first editions of Morris's writings are listed for as little as $100. If one had the money it would seem possible to amass if not a complete, well then a very extnesive, Morris collection in a matter of a few clicks of the mouse.

Announcing—The Victorian Poetry Network

2011-01-07T12:44:00.000-05:00

Alison Chapman and Meagan Timney are delighted to announce the birth of the Victorian Poetry Network (www.victorianpoetry.net), which will provide a hub for Victorian poetry scholars, teachers and students on the web. It already has an exciting line-up of distinguished advisory board members who will write blog posts (including Isobel Armstrong, Linda Hughes, Jerome McGann, Marjorie Stone and Chip Tucker).

The organizers are looking for interested colleagues and students to contribute to the website (writing blogs posts, commenting on the poem of the month, joining us as researchers for the periodical poetry database, and contributing teaching resources and star student essays to the virtual classroom). Please contact Alison Chapman or Meagan Timney for more information. Membership details can be found in the "Join VPN" page.

Illustration: Oscar Wilde, The Sphinx. London: Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1894 (Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, on loan to the University of Delaware Library).

Special William Morris Society Tour of The Pre-Raphaelite Lens Exhibition at the National Gallery

2010-12-18T15:16:00.001-05:00

SPECIAL WILLIAM MORRIS SOCIETY EXHIBITION TOUR

The Pre-Raphaelite Lens:
British Photography and Painting, 1848–1875
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Saturday, 15 January 2011

Members and friends are invited to a special tour with the exhibition’s curator, Diane Waggoner. Join us for lunch after.

The Pre-Raphaelite Lens is the first survey of British art photography focusing on the 1850s and 1860s. With 100 photographs and 20 paintings and watercolors the exhibition examines the roles photography and Pre-Raphaelite art played in changing concepts of vision and truth in representation. Photography’s ability to quickly translate the material world into an image challenged painters to find alternate versions of realism. Photographers, in turn, looked to Pre-Raphaelite subject matter and visual strategies in order to legitimize photography’s status as a fine art. Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, Roger Fenton, Oscar Gustave Rejlander, and many lesser known photographers had much in common with such painters as John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and John William Inchbold, who all wrestled with the question of how to observe and represent the natural world and the human face and figure. This rich dialogue is examined in thematic sections on landscape, portraiture, literary and historical narratives, and modern-life subjects.

Diane Waggoner is associate curator in the department of photographs at the National Gallery of Art. She received a PhD in art history from Yale University. Prior to joining the department, she held positions at the Yale University Art Gallery and at the Huntington Library, where she was the curator of The Beauty of Life: William Morris and the Art of Design (2003). Since joining the NGA, she has co-curated many exhibitions. Her co-authored catalogue for The Art of the American Snapshot was the 2008 winner of the College Art Association’s Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award for distinguished museum publication. A specialist in the nineteenth century, she has also published on the photographs of Lewis Carroll.

Saturday, 15 January 2011
11.30 a.m. (meet at entrance to the East Building)
National Gallery of Art
Fourth St. NW
Washington, DC
www.nga.gov
RSVP to Mark Samuels Lasner
marksl@udel.edu
(302) 831-3250

Limited Edition Artwork to Benefit Historical Materialism

2010-12-18T14:57:00.000-05:00

The artist David Mabb has created an artwork especially for Historical Materialism. Titled Luibov Popova Untitled Textile Design on William Morris Wallpaper for HM 2010, the print is issued in a run of 100. Mabb?s picture is made by screen printing a textile design by Luibov Popova in red and black over a section of William Morris wallpaper including Fruit, Willow Boughs, Trellis, Brier Rabbit, Medway and Daisy. As a consequence of the different wallpapers employed and the registration process, each work will be unique. The prints measure 52.5 x 70 cm, and each one is signed and numbered by the artist.

The artwork is available for purchase at the price of £75 (unframed, postage not included) and can be ordered from www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/mabb-print. ;The print has already been bought by museums in the UK and America including the Victoria and Albert Museum. We hope you will see this as an opportunity to acquire a fascinating artwork.

Mabb regularly reworks the artistic imagery of Marxism to produce startling new configurations. In this print he combines William Morris?s hand-made natural imagery with the abstract machine aesthetics of the Russian Constructivists. In their own time, Morris and Popova were thwarted by economic realities; Morris?s designs proved too expensive for the working people he wished to reach, while the fledgling USSR proved unable to support the transformation of everyday life envisaged by Popova and her fellow Constructivists. Mabb reanimates these remnants of Marxist history, fusing the legacies in lively and beautiful images for our time.

David Mabb is a widely exhibited artist and Reader in Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. He regularly exhibits at the Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto and in 2004 he curated William Morris?ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich? at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. Recent exhibitions include: The Decorating Business, Oakville Galleries, Ontario; The Hall of the Modern, The Economist, London; Morris in Jaipur: The work of Art in the Context of Hand-made Reproduction, Mandawa Haveli, Jaipur, part of Jaipur Heritage International Festival, touring to The British Council Gallery, New Delhi; Art into Everyday Life, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius; and A Miniature Retrospective and Rhythm 69, Jugendstilsenteret/Kunstmuseet Kube, Alesund, Norway. During 2010 he exhibited The Morris Kitsch Archive at Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts.

Fancy and Imagination: Beardsley and the Book Illustrators Exhibition at the University of Leeds

2010-11-20T16:52:00.008-05:00

Two concurrent exhibitions at the University of Leeds, one of drawings and prints, the other of illustrated books, include work by William Morris and his contemporaries. Fancy and Imagination: Beardsley and the Book Illustrators is on at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, while the book show is being held across the street in the university library. Both run from 16 November 2010 through 12 February 2011.

Aubrey Beardsley, one of the most celebrated and controversial book illustrators of the Art Nouveau era. The exhibition presents Beardsley’s black and white world—at once wondrous, monstrous, and exotic—in context, celebrating the richness and variety of the medium of book illustration in Britain during the period between 1890 and the 1920s. The exhibition showcases works by other major illustrators of the era, including Arthur Rackham, Harry Clarke, Edmund Dulac, Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, Kay Nielsen and Jessie M. King. Morris's Kelmscott Press is also represented. The works exhibited alongside Beardsley’s illustrations and sketches provide an illuminating backdrop to the unique collection on display at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, a fine Art Deco setting within the landmark Parkinson Building of the University of Leeds. The artworks and books displayed come from the University of Leeds collections as well as from private collections.
The tragically short-lived Beardsley was born in Brighton in 1872; he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25 in 1898. He was a musical prodigy among other artistic talents, and at the age of nineteen he was warmly encouraged by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones. His career as a book illustrator was first supported by publisher J. M. Dent. Dent commissioned the young artist to illustrate an edition of Malory’s Le Morte Darthur in neo-Kelmscott style; a massive and sometimes tedious task. While Beardsley found increasingly boring, his technique matured in the process, and the result brought him fame.

One of the rare treasures on display is an early sketch in a letter of 1892 to a school friend. Writing excitedly of being advised by Burne-Jones and starting work on Malory, Beardsley ends his letter with a self-portriat as a stick-man striding up the dark side of a mountain, on the other side of which is the sunny destination “Art.” Despite the few brief years he had ahead of him as an artist, he made it to the other side: at the peak of his career, he was the art editor of the iconic 1890s magazine, The Yellow Book. Here, he worked with well-established writers and artists like Henry James and Sir Frederick Leighton, as well as figureheads of the avant-garde, such as W.B. Yeats and Max Beerbohm. This side of the mountain, however, proved to be less idyllic than he had imagined as a young aspiring artist.
Most of the items in the present exhibition are drawn from the Fay and Geoffrey Elliott Collection, a generous gift to Leeds University Library in 2001. One of the most important motives for this gift was Fay and Geoffrey’s wish that their outstanding collection of manuscripts and printed works should become available to a substantial body of young people. Fancy and Imagination: Beardsley and the Book Illustrators makes a significant part of this collection accessible for wider audiences for the first time. A complementary display, exploring the publishers and printing methods of the 1890s and including further Kelmscott Press examples, is open to the public during the exhibition run in Special Collections at the University of Leeds. A catalogue related to the main exhibition and this complementary display will be available for sale.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a full programme of related events, including the recently launched Saturday Club, offering creative activities suitable for all ages.

16 October 2010–12 February 2011
Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery
Parkinson Building
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT UK
0113 343 2778
gallery@leeds.ac.uk
www.leeds.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions.htm

New book: William Morris in the Twenty-First Century

2010-10-27T10:07:00.003-04:00

Peter Lang has just published William Morris in the Twenty-First Century, an outstanding collection of essays edited by Rosie Miles and Phillippa Bennett and drawn from papers presented at the William Morris Society conference held in London in 2005.

The book contains essays from scholars and professionals researching and working in fields relevant to Morris’s diverse interests. The contributors offer a reappraisal of his achievements and influence in areas such as literature, art, architecture, politics, environ- mentalism, science and technology. The essays provide a comprehensive introduction for those new to Morris Studies whilst presenting a series of fresh perspectives for those already familiar with Morris’s work.

Phillippa Bennett is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Northampton. She is Honorary Secretary of the William Morris Society and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of William Morris Studies.. She has published a number of art- icles on William Morris and has a particular interest in his last romances and their relationship to his political and aesthetic ideals. Rosie Miles is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Wolverhampton. From 2001 to 2007 she was Editor of the Journal of William Morris Studies and she is now a member of the Editorial Advisory Board. She has published a number of articles on Morris’s poetry and the book arts.

Contents:

Regenia Gagnier: Preface
Phillippa Bennett/Rosie Miles: Introduction: Morris in the Twenty-First Century
Maria Isabel Donas Botto: On (Re)Building the City: William Morris and the Regeneration of the British City
Ruth Levitas: After Morris: Warwick Herbert Draper and the Pursuit of Utopia
Jan Marsh: Red House: Past and Future
Hilary Laucks Walter: Another Stitch to the Legacy of William Morris: May Morris’s Designs and Writings on Embroidery
Tony Pinkney: Versions of Ecotopia in News from Nowhere
Piers J. Hale: William Morris, Human Nature and the Biology of Utopia
Peter Smith: Attractive Labour and So- cial Change: William Morris Now
David Mabb: Hijack: Morris Dialectically
Anna Vaninskaya: William Morris’s Germania: The Roots of Socialism
David Latham: Between Hell andEngland: Finding Ourselves in the Present Text
Phillippa Bennett: Rejuvenating Our Sense of Wonder: The Last Romances of William Morris
Rosie Miles: Virtual Paradise: Editing Morris for the Twenty- First Century
Thomas J. Tobin: William Morris 2.0: Spreading Socialist Ideals via the Internet

ISBN 978-3-03430-106-0 pb
sFr. 69 / € 47.50 / £ 40 / US $ 68.95
www.peterlang.com

A View from Kelmscott: Paintings by John Lendis on View at Brantwood

2010-10-26T09:35:00.003-04:00

This latest exhibition by John Lendis represents his fascination for John Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The series of paintings was produced after six weeks spent at Kelmscott in 2009, home of William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts movement. From being a child John Lendis has had a great interest in the Pre-Raphaelites. His varied career path has brought him full circle with his focus once again being the work of Morris and his companions.

After gaining a degree in textile art in Nottingham, Lendis spent a few years travelling, finally settling in Tasmania where he completed a Masters of Fine Art in Painting. He became an established artist in Australia, holding several exhibitions. Now back in England, Lendis has immersed himself in the paintings and ideas of John Ruskin and the work displayed at Kelmscott. He comments: "I find the abstract patterning of the landscape so interesting in Morris’s work and it seems to bring me closer to my initial training in fabric design….it is a form of landscape painting that has always deeply touched and inspired me.” Visits to Brantwood, home of John Ruskin, have further inspired him: “I began to find out more about John Ruskin, about his attitudes to landscape and place. I found the vistas from the house filled with poignancy …..The view in wintertime from those remarkable windows seemed to fit with the culmination of Ruskin’s life, with his passion for landscaping the gardens, with his struggles to accord landscape painting a `rightful` place in the history of art. The paintings in A View from Kelmscott represent an accumulation, a synthesis, of all these experiences and influences.”

2 October–14 November 2010
Coniston
Cumbria LA21 8AD UK
015394 41396
brantwood.org.uk
www.brantwood.org.uk

Call for Papers: Craftsman Farms 1st Annual Symposium for Emerging Scholars

2010-10-24T19:17:00.000-04:00

Craftsman Farms 1st Annual Symposium for Emerging Scholars

Transcending the role of furniture maker, Gustav Stickley used The Craftsman to position himself as a spokesman for the Arts and Crafts movement’s aesthetic concerns and theoretical basis. Throughout its fifteen-year history, the movement’s fundamental issues were documented and debated in the magazine’s columns, illustrations, and advertisements. In celebration of the centennial of Stickley’s home in Morris Plains, NJ, Craftsman Farms will host a day-long conference on 15 April 2011 for emerging scholars. We invite current graduate students and recently graduated scholars to submit proposals that critically address the thought, intention, and production of objects in the Arts and Crafts movement. Papers that use The Craftsman as a starting point for critical inquiry are particularly encouraged.

For more information and submission guidelines, please direct all inquiries to: Jonathan Clncy,

j.clancy@sothebysinstitute.com.

William Morris on Happiness

2010-10-11T19:52:00.000-04:00

It is interesting how Morris's words get around. On the "Happiness Project" blog—tied to a book of the same title by Gretchen Rubin—the following was posted on 9 October, accompanied by the photograph shown:

“The secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.”-- William Morris
I'm thunderstruck by the truth of this observation. In other words, mindfulness. Always mindfulness!
* Today, a reader commenting on the previous post mentioned TVTropes.org (and its addictive qualities). If you've never looked at it, check it out. Fascinating.
* If you'd like the new and improved starter kit for starting your own happiness-project group, for people doing happiness projects together, email me at grubin at gretchenrubin dot com. If you're wondering why you'd want to consider doing that, read here.

It turns out that the quotation, from Morris's lecture, "The Aims of Art" (collected in Signs of Change, 1888), has been truncated into a single sentence and taken out of context. The ful passage reads:

They will discover, or rediscover rather, that the true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life, in elevating them by art instead of handing the performance of them over to unregarded drudges, and ignoring them; and that in cases where it was impossible either so to elevate them and make them interesting, or to lighten them by the use of machinery, so as to make the labour of them trifling, that should be taken as a token that the supposed advantages gained by them were not worth the trouble and had better be given up. All this to my mind would be the outcome of men throwing off the burden of Artificial Famine, supposing, as I cannot help supposing, that the impulses which have from the first glimmerings of history urged men on to the practice of Art were still at work in them.

Creating the motto does not, of course, deny the truth in Morris's statement, of course.

Arts & Crafts Moments Exhibition at T. C. Steele House in Indiana

2010-10-02T08:36:00.003-04:00

T. C. Steele State Historic Site in Brown County, Indiana, allows you to step back in time and witness a revolutionary period in art through the Steeles' lives and their deliberate design choices. The exhibition, Arts & Crafts Moments,; highlighting artifacts and architecture from the Arts and Crafts movement, runs from 2 November 2010 through 30 March 2012.
Theodore Clement Steele (1847–1926), noted Indiana artist and member of the Hoosier Group of American regional impressionist painters, was inspired by the picturesque scenes that he encountered in Brown County. In 1907, Steele and his second wife, Selma Neubacher Steele, purchased property in Brown County and began construction of their home, which they named "The House of the Singing Winds." They built the Large Studio to accommodate Steele's work and landscaped the surrounding hillsides to enhance the beauty of their property. Selma created several acres of gardens around the home. From 1907 to 1921, the Steeles wintered in Indianapolis. They established a home in Bloomington when Steele became artist in residence at Indiana University in 1922. Each spring they returned to their Brown County property.
As Steele's popularity grew, an increasing number of visitors were attracted to Brown County to meet the artist and to see his work and estate. Steele was at the forefront of the state's art movement and is still one of Indiana's most honored artists. His appreciation of nature, combined with his intelligence and capacity for concentrated study, raised his works to an extraordinary level.

Guided tours are offered through "The House of the Singing Winds" and the Large Studio where changing exhibits display paintings done throughout Steele's life. The 211-acre site includes five hiking trails, the Dewar Log Cabin and the 92-acre Selma Steele Nature Preserve. The site offers many seasonal activities and events.

2 November 2010–30 March 2012
T.C. Steele State Historic Site
4220 T.C. Steele Road
Nashville, IN 47448
(812) 988-8457
tcsteeleshs@dnr.in.gov
www.indianamuseum.org/sites/tcst

William Morris Gallery Awarded £1.5 Million Award from the Heritage Lottery Fund

2010-10-02T08:05:00.001-04:00

This just in from the William Morris Gallery:

The William Morris Gallery Development Project

We are delighted to announce that we have secured a major award of £1.5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, matched with funding from the Council. Our grateful thanks to the Monument Trust which has pledged a significant amount to the project and to the Foyle Foundation for their generous support.

What will the development project achieve?

Not only will much more of our world-famous collections be on display, but we will also be showing them in new and beautifully refurbished galleries. And visitors of every kind, young and old, will enjoy the very best facilities. There will be a new learning centre with a purpose-built space for school groups, and an excellent shop and tea- room. And, of course, there will a suitably radical and exciting programme of events and activities – all designed to open the eyes of a new generation to the wonders of William Morris and his world.

What will the ‘new’ William Morris Gallery look like?

We have worked with a design team, and with English Heritage, to develop detailed plans for the project, which have now been submitted for planning permission. More details will become available soon.

The William Morris Gallery website has detailed information about the development project.

Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement Exhibition at the Newark Museum

2010-09-05T12:01:00.007-04:00

Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement, organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and nationally premiering at the Newark Museum, is the first exhibition to focus on the career of one of the most influential figures to arise within the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States in the early 20th century. The nationally touring exhibition will examine the Gustav Stickley’s contributions to the American Arts and Crafts movement during his most productive and influential period, from 1900–1913. Ranging from furniture, metalware, lighting, textiles, and architectural plans, the majority of the objects on view are from private collections and has never been seen before by the public.

Gustav Stickley was a tastemaker, a publisher, and a manufacturer. The home furnishings, house designs and interior decoration that he promoted, produced and lived with embodied his progressive vision of design, which rejected the conspicuous consumption of the Victorian era and embraced the concept of an honest and beautiful simplicity in shaping the ideal American home. Inspired by the legacy of 19th-century English design reformers such as John Ruskin and William Morris, the Arts and Crafts movement sought to elevate the notion of “good design” and to promote the revival of craft as a potent means for personal and societal betterment. In the United States, Stickley forged a successful commercial enterprise in which his own firm’s products were linked to the precepts of the movement and promoted as key to the creation of the ideal American home and its associated way of life.

The exhibition will include more than 100 of the most important works by Stickley’s designers and workshops. A fully illustrated catalogue 272-page catalogue, published by the Dallas Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, will accompany the exhibition.
Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art. The exhibition is supported by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support is provided by Dallas Museum of Art’s patrons and supporters with funds raised through Silver Supper, 2010. Publication of the exhibition catalogue is underwritten by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Windgate Charitable Foundation.

15 September 2010–2 January 2011
Newark Museum
49 Washington St.
Newark, NJ 07102
(973) 596-6550
www.newarkmuseum.org

The Beauty of Life: Installation by Artist Hilary Pfeifer in Porland

2010-09-05T11:30:00.004-04:00

Hilary Pfeifer, a Portland, OR artist, is working on an The Beauty of Life, an installation inspired by the wallpaper and fabric patterns of Arts and Crafts designer William Morris, especially his famous textile titled Strawberry Thief. She will individually sculpt thousands of leaf, flower, fruit and bird forms, which will be connected into an interlocking three dimensional wallpaper pattern that will span over 100 square feet. The plant elements will be made of the same materials as my previous work: reclaimed wood from deconstructed homes, or ornate picture frames, rulers, decorative fruit, toys, and cooking utensils. No found object will be easily recognizable. The pieces in the center of this installation will be harmonious, but as your eye moves towards the edges and to the parts growing onto the adjacent wall and floor, the flora and fauna will become more wild and unusual in form and behavior. These elements will break from their patterned routines, craning towards the light coming from the open ceiling above. A bird might now turn its head to peer at the viewer, a provocative object held in its beak. A monochromatic carpet will fill much of the floor space of the gallery, and it will be apparent that some of the vines coming from the main wall have been covered by this surface, similar to the black ground cloth we use to smother unruly growth on an urban plot of land. These vines have traveled beneath the surface, however, sprouting up in far corners again. Like the edges of the wall installation, these plants are slightly changed when they re-emerge. This not only is a nod to the long running themes in her own artwork, but also a nod to Morris, whose outspoken political views made him a controversial figure in his time.

One of Morris's most famous quotes is: “Have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” As an homage to this concept, the components of this installation are actually wall-mounted brooches and tie-tacks. Eight pieces that extend from the wall to the floor are neckpieces.

Pfeifer will be unveiling this project in the final six weeks of production on her blog. In addition, all the work from this installation is being pre-sold via an online campaign through Kickstarter) This will be Pfeifer's most intricate installation yet, so use Kickstarter funding to hire a team of professional jewelers and craftspeople to help me with the detailed construction work that this project requires.

For a video of the work-in-progress and more information click here

12 October–12 November 2010
Portland Building Installation Space
1120 SW 5th Avenue
Portland, OR
Monday–Friday, 7 a.m.–6 p.m.
Sponsored by Regional Arts and Culture Council

Craftsman Farms Symposium and Gala Weekend

2010-09-05T10:24:00.012-04:00

Shakespeare was wrong when he said that April is the cruelest month. It's October—at least for 2010. Too many activities of interest, scheduled too close for virtually anyone to attend them all.

First up, "Useful & Beautiful," the conference and related exhibitions and events in Delaware, on 7–9 October. For details click here.

The next weekend sees not only a symposium and benefit gala at Craftsman Farms, the New Jersey museum dedicated to Gustave Stickley, but a Stickley symposium at the Newark Museum. Also on 15–16 October—the annual conference of the American Printing History Association, with its traditional Arts and Crafts connections, in Washington, DC.
The cornerstone in a year of centennial events honoring Stickley’s groundbreaking achievement and celebrating his family’s joyous homecoming. the Craftsman Farms event begins on Friday, 15 October with a pre-symposium lecture at Craftsman Farms. Leslie M. Freudenheim, author of Building with Nature: Inspiration for the Arts and Crafts Home, will speak on "Gustav Stickley, Joseph Worcester and the San Francisco Swedenborgian Church." Freudenheim will explore this National Historic Landmark church, its minister Joseph Worcester, and their connection to Gustav Stickley, who twice featured this church in The Craftsman magazine. A book signing and reception will follow the lecture.

On Saturday, 16 October, the celebratory weekend continues in collaboration with the Newark Museum’s premiere of the nationally touring exhibition Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement. Join us for a symposium entitled "Honest & Beautiful: The Arts & Crafts Home in America" presented at the Newark Museum and cosponsored by the Stickley Museum. Click here for registration and further information about this exciting program. Finally, on Saturday night, beginning at 6:00 p.m. the Craftsman Homecoming Gala takes place at the Mountain Lakes Club in Mountain Lakes, NJ. Join John H. Bryan, Honorary Chair and event co-chairs Robert C. Burchell and Ann Reynolds for an evening of cocktails, dinner, and dancing to the music of the Andy Sherwood Trio. The evening will include the presentation of the Als Ik Kan Award to John Bryan. The gala’s auctioneer is David Rago, well known for his frequent appearances on Antiques Roadshow, and best known to Stickley Museum members as the recipient of the Foundation’s Als Ik Kan Award in 2000.

15–16 October 2010
Craftsman Farms, Parsinappny, NJ
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
(973) 540-0311
www.stickleymuseum.org

The Ideal Book: William Morris and the Kelmscott Press Exhibition in Buffalo, NY

2010-08-17T20:22:00.008-04:00

From 7 October 2010 to 30 January 2011 the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, in Buffalo, NY, will hold an exhibition entitled The Ideal Book: William Morris and the Kelmscott Press. The library—let's not forget that Buffalo was in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries one of the largest and most affluent American cities—has a remarkably rich and diverse collection of rare books and manuscripts. Most of the Kelmscott Press titles are there, including the famous Chaucer. Also on display as well will be a selection of books from active in the "revival of printing" influenced in some way by Morris, such as the Roycroft, Doves, Vale, Ashendene, and Essex House Presses. Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to learn about the history of the Kelmscott Press, the life of William Morris, important individuals like Edward Burne-Jones and Emery Walker and the profound impact of Morris on the theories of book design in the 20th century. Free and open to the public.

7 October 2010–30 January 2011
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library
1 Lafayette Square
Buffalo, NY 14203
Info: Robert Alessi, Special Collections Librarian
alessir@buffalolib.org
www.buffalolib.org

Illustration: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. [Hammersmith: Kelmsoctt Press, 1896]. (Buffalo and Erie County Public Library).

Update on the "Useful & Beautiful" Confernce and Related Events in Delaware, 7–9 October 2010

2010-08-17T19:48:00.004-04:00

An update on the conference, "Useful & Beautiful: The Transatlantic Arts of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites, " to be held at the University of Delaware, Winterthur Museum & Country Estate, and the Delaware Art Museum on 7–9 October 2010:

Online Registration

Online registration is now available (along with mail-in forms) at www.udel.edu/conferences/uandb/

The registration fee is $150 or $75 for students. There is no charge for University of Delaware students, faculty, and staff to attend the conference (although there is a fee for the lunch on Friday, if you wish to have that).

Additional Events

In addition to the previously announced keynote lecture by Fred Kaplan, the sessions of papers at UD, the demonstrations by Arts and Crafts practitioners at Winterthur, the symposium "Pre-Raphaelites in the 21st Century" at the Delaware Art Museum, the Morris Kitsch Archive installation at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, the performance (optional, at an additional charge) of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest by the Repertory Ensemble at UD, the museum and gallery exhibitions, etc., we have the following possibilities:

"Kindred Spirits: William Morris, Arnold Dolmetsch and Music,"—a concert on Thursday night, 7 October, Bayard Sharp Hall, University of Delaware. Karen Flint (harpsichord and virginals), Laura Heimes (soprano), and John Burkhalter (recorder) perform music drawn from the Dolmetsch repertory, including works by Byrd, Farnaby, Gibbons, Purcell, Handel, and Arne

display of Aesthetic dress from the Historic Costume and Textiles Collection, 1 October–17 December 2010, Alison Hall, University of Delaware

film program, Saturday night, 9 October, on the UD campus

Hotels

Only a small number of rooms remain available at the Courtyard Newark at the University of Delaware. We have arranged for additional blocks of rooms at the Embassy Suites and the Sleep Inn.

More details will be found at www.udel.edu/conferences/uandb

or contact

Mark Samuels Lasner
Senior Research Fellow
University of Delaware Library
181 South College Avenue
Newark, DE 19717
Tel (302) 831-3250
marksl@udel.edu

Illustration: Daisy Print Wellington Boot, detail from David Mabb, The Morris Kitsch Archive. Laminated digital print, 2009. 8.5 x 12 in. (Courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Tamara Henriques.)

University of Delaware Library/Delaware Art Museum Fellowship in Pre-Raphaelite Studies

2010-08-07T11:30:00.006-04:00

University of Delaware Library/Delaware Art Musum

FELLOWSHIP IN PRE-RAPHAELITE STUDIES

2011

The University of Delaware Library and the Delaware Art Museum are pleased to offer the 2011 joint Fellowship in Pre-Raphaelite studies. This short-term, one-month Fellowship, awarded annually, is intended for scholars conducting significant research in the lives and works of the Pre-Raphaelites and their friends, associates, and followers. Research of a wider scope, which considers the Pre-Raphaelite movement and related topics in relation to Victorian art and literature, and cultural or social history, will also be considered. Projects which provide new information or interpretation—dealing with unrecognized figures, women writers and artists, print culture, iconography, illustration, catalogues of artists' works, or studies of specific object—are particularly encouraged, as are those which take into account transatlantic relations between Britain and the United States.

Receiving the Fellowship

The recipient will be expected to be in residence and to make use of the resources of both the Delaware Art Museum and the University of Delaware Library. The recipient may also take advantage of these institutions' proximity to other collections, such as the Winterthur Museum and Library, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Princeton University Library, and the Bryn Mawr College Library. Each recipient is expected to make a public presentation about his or her research during the course of Fellowship residence.

Up to $2,500 is available for the one-month Fellowship. Housing is not provided, but the funds may be used for this purpose, or for travel and other research expenses.

The Fellowship is intended for those who hold a PhD or can demonstrate equivalent professional or academic experience. Applications from independent scholars and museum professionals are welcome. By arrangement with the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, scholars may apply to each institution for awards in the same year; every effort will be made to offer consecutive dates.

Important Dates

The deadline to apply for the 2011 Fellowship is October 15, 2010. Applicants will be notified of who the successful candidate is by November 15, 2010. The chosen candidate will then be asked to provide a date for assuming the Fellowship by December 1, 2010.

Previous Fellows

Karen Yuen (2010), Independent Scholar, Vancouver, Canada

Thad Logan (2009), Department of English, Rice University

Colin Cruise (2008), Research Lecturer, The School of Art, University of Aberystwyth, Wales

About the Delaware Art Museum

Founded in 1912, the Delaware Art Museum is home to the largest and most important collection of British Pre-Raphaelite art in the United States. Assembled largely by the Wilmington industrialist, Samuel Bancroft, Jr., at the turn of the century (with significant subsequent additions), the collection includes paintings and drawings by all the major and minor Pre-Raphaelite artists, as well as decorative arts, prints, photographs, manuscripts, and rare books. The Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, with a reference collection of 30,000 volumes, holds Samuel Bancroft's papers and correspondence, a rich source for the history of collecting and provenance which also contains significant manuscript material by and about the Rossettis.

About the University of Delaware Library

The University of Delaware Library has broadly based and comprehensive collections—books, periodicals, electronic resources, microforms, government publications, databases, maps, manuscripts, media, and access to information via the Internet—which provide a major academic resource for the study of literature and art. Many printed and manuscript items related to the Pre-Raphaelites and their associates are in the Special Collections Department, including major archives relating to the Victorian artist and writer, George Adolphus Storey, and to the bibliographer and forger, Thomas J. Wise. The Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, associated with the Special Collections Department, focuses on British literature and art of the period 1850 to 1900, with an emphasis on the Pre-Raphaelites and on the writers and illustrators of the 1890s. Its rich holdings comprise 7,000 first and other editions (including many signed and association copies), manuscripts, letters, works on paper (including drawings by Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti), and ephemera.

To Apply

To apply, send a completed application form, together with a description of your research proposal (maximum 1 page) and a curriculum vitae or resume (maximum 2 pages) to the address given below. These materials may also be sent via email to: fellowships@delart.org. Letters of support from two scholars or other professionals familiar with you and your work are also required. These must be sent by mail to:

Pre-Raphaelite Fellowship Committee
Delaware Art Museum
2301 Kentmere Parkway
Wilmington, DE 19806

For an application form go to:

www.delart.org/education/fellowships.html

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones, The High History of the Holy Grail. Ink and watercolor, 1898 (Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, on loan to the University of Delaware Library).

"Useful & Beautiful: The Transatlantic Arts of William Morris ant eh Pre-Raphaleites": Conference and Related Events in Delaware, 7–9 October 2010

2010-07-25T13:23:00.004-04:00

"Useful & Beautiful: The Transatlantic Arts of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites" will be the subject of a conference and related exhibitions to be held 7-9 October 2010 at the University of Delaware (Newark, DE) and at the Delaware Art Museum and the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate (Wilmington, DE). Organized with the assistance of the William Morris Society in the United States, "Useful & Beautiful" will highlight the strengths of the University of Delaware's rare books, art, and manuscripts collections; Winterthur's important holdings in American decorative arts; and the Delaware Art Museum's superlative Pre-Raphaelite collection (the largest outside Britain). All events will focus on the multitude of transatlantic exchanges that involved Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic movements of the late nineteenth century.

In addition to sessions featuring internationally-known scholars and experts, there will be a keynote lecture by noted biographer, Fred Kaplan; demonstrations by leading practitioners who make and design Arts and Crafts objects; special exhibitions; a concert of early music; and a performance of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest by the University of Delaware's critically acclaimed Resident Ensemble Players.

Registration fee: $150, $75 for students. No charge for University of Delaware faculty, students, and staff, but we ask them to register.

For more information and a registration form go to www.udel.edu/conferences/uandb

or contact Mark Samuels Lasner, Senior Research Fellow, University of Delaware Library, marksl@udel.edu, (302) 831-3250.

7–9 October 2010
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Winterhtur Museum & Country Estate, Wilmington, DE
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Info: Mark Samuels Lasner, marksl@udel.edu
(302) 831-3250
www.udel.edu/conferences/uandb

"Useful & Beautiful" is supported by Delaware Art Museum; Winterthur Museum & Country Estate; Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts; William Morris Society in the United States; William Morris Society (UK); University of Delaware Library Associates; Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events; the following University of Delaware units, departments and programs: College of Arts and Sciences, University of Delaware, University of Delaware Library, Art, Art Conservation, Art History, English, History, Institute for Global Studies, Frank and Yetta Chaiken Center for Jewish Studies, Center for Material Culture Studies, Office of Equity and Inclusion, Resident Ensemble Players/Professional Theatre Training Program, University Museums, and Women’s Studies; Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau. Illustration: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Water Willow, 1871. Oil on canvas, glued to wood. Delaware Art Museum, Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial, 1935.

Morris's Calligraphic Masterpieces Exhibition at the William Morris Gallery

2010-05-29T08:24:00.009-04:00

The William Morris Gallery summer show explores William Morris’s remarkable achievements in calligraphy and manuscript illumination. From his early—and continuous—interest in medieval manuscripts to the founding of the Kelmscott Press, Morris was enraptured by beautiful books. The exhibition focuses on the 1870s, his most intense period of calligraphic activity, often collaborating with Edward Burne-Jones on the illustrations. The exhibits demonstrate his extraordinary range of interests from the Icelandic sagas to the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Important loans from other British institutions (including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Society of Antiquaries, the Wellcome Institute, and the Bodleian Library) the make this a must-see for all those interested in William Morris and the art of writing. Morris produced in all fewer than two dozen calligraphic works so this is a rare opportunity to see many of them in a single exhibition.

19 June–22 August 2010
William Morris Gallery
Lloyd Park
Forest Road
London E17 4PP UK
020 8496 4390

Illustration: William Morris, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (facsimile) (William Morris Gallery, London Borough of Waltham Forest).

The Well at the World's End Makes "Top 10" List of Underrated Fantasy

2010-04-14T21:03:00.003-04:00

The latest issue of American Libraries Direct, the e-newsletter of the American Libraries Association drew our attention to a "top 10 list" on Listverse—a list of the top underrated fantasy novels published prior to 1937. Always curious to see if William Morris was included we looked, and found that The Well at the World's End was included. Here's the listing. Does anyone recognize the edition from the cover?

The Well at the World’s End

by William Morris

Publication Date: 1896

This book helped codify the classic fantasy story. And, indeed, both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were influenced greatly by the works of William Morris, this novel in particular. Written in a medieval style, we follow the adventures of a young man on his quest for the eponymous well, one which will grant him immortality. A book of similar influence and greatness by William Morris is “The Wood Beyond the World,” and it is equally worth your time. [Read it here.]

"The Music of Dante Gabriel Rossetti"—Lecture by Karen Yuen at the Delaware Art Museum

2010-03-31T07:50:00.006-04:00

Karen Yuen, the 2010 University of Delaware Library/Delaware Art Museum Fellow in Pre-Raphaelite Studies, will speak on "The Music of Dante Gabriel Rossetti" on Tuesday, 20 April, at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, DE. Her talk will focus on Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s changing attitude towards music as he matured. Described by his peers as a “music hater,” Rossetti was, at the same time, the most musically-inspired Pre-Raphaelite, producing countless paintings with color harmonies and musical instruments. Dr. Yuen’s research and presentation will explain the nature of Rossetti’s relationship with music, tracing the development of music in Rossetti’s works from the late 1840s to the 1870s. Prior to the lecture, the galleries devoted to the museum's Pre-Raphaelite collection (the largest outside the UK) will be open.

Tuesday, 20 April 2010
4.00 p.m.
Delaware Art Museum
2301 Kentmere Parkway
Wilmington, DE
(302) 371-9590

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Richard Jefferies—Events Sponsored by the Edward Thomas Fellowship

2010-03-31T07:29:00.004-04:00

Martin Haggerty has told us about two events sponsored by the Edward Thomas Fellowship which will be of interest to those interested in William Morris. The first, "Fields of Vision," an informal study-day devoted to the lives and writings of Richard Jefferies and Edward Thomas, is a collaboration between the Edward Thomas Fellowship and the Richard Jefferies Society. It will examine both writers, particularly their shared interests and concerns, and the Wiltshire landscape that they both knew and wrote about. Jem Poster, the distinguished poet, novelist and literary scholar, who is currently preparing a new edition of Richard Jefferies: His Life and Work by Edward Thomas for Oxford University Press, will be the keynote speaker. His lecture is entitled "First Known When Lost: Edward Thomas, Richard Jefferies, and the Rural World." There will also be talks by Richard Emeny (chairman of the Edward Thomas Fellowship, who has written and lectured prolifically on Thomas and various related authors) and Terry Lloyd (a Swindonian, and since childhood an enthusiast for the works of Thomas and Jefferies, who has thoroughly explored their landscapes on foot).

Saturday, 8 May 2010
10.30 a.m.–4.30 p.m.
Luddington Village Hall
Liddington, Wiltshire UK
www.edward-thomas-fellowship.org.uk

Participants may bring a lunch or eat in the Village Inn nearby. During lunchtime, publications and other merchandise from the Edward Thomas Fellowship and the Richard Jefferies Society will be offered for sale in the Village Hall, where there will probably also be a second-hand book stall.

Places at the study-day cost £15 (£5 for students and unemployed people), which include refreshments but not lunch. Bookings must be made before 1 May. A booking-form can be downloaded from the Fellowship's website at www.edward-thomas-fellowship.org.uk.

At the end of the afternoon, there will be an opportunity, using car-share, to visit St James's Church at Eastbury, Berkshire, which features an impressive engraved-glass window by Laurence Whistler, commemorating Edward and Helen Thomas, and where Helen is buried in the churchyard.

For more information about the study-day, contact its co-ordinator, Martin Haggerty, (01723) 375533.

The next day, Sunday, 9 May, there will be a guided tour, "In the Footsteps of Richard Jefferies."
Andrew Rossabi, a former President of the Richard Jefferies Society, who has written introductions to several new imprints of Jefferies' works and is currently working on a new biography of this writer, will lead a guided walk (with readings) along the east side of Coate Water, over Cicely’s Bridge, to the Gamekeeper’s Cottage at Hodson, where walkers may look around the garden and view the old thatched cottage, as well as the bluebells in Hodson Woods. The return route takes in the west side of Coate Water, where a picnic lunch may be eaten (alternatively eat at the Sun Inn, Coate). In the afternoon, until 4.30 p.m., everyone will be welcome to explore Richard Jefferies's home, watch the film Jefferies Land, and share readings from Edward Thomas's and Jefferies's works.

Sunday, 9 May 2010
10.30 a.m.–4.30 p.m.
Richard Jefferies Museum
Coate, near Swindon, Wiltshire
www.edward-thomas-fellowship.org.uk

BBC Symphony to Premiere Ian McQueen's "The Earthly Paradise"

2010-02-21T09:43:00.009-05:00

On 10 April, the BBC Symphony Orchestra will present the world premiere of The Earthly Paradise, a setting of prose, poetry, and sayings by William Morris composed by Ian McQueen. The complete program is as follows:

Elger, In the South (Alassio)
Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto
Ian McQueen, The Earthly Paradise (BBC commission)
Sir Andrew Davis conductor
Jennifer Pike violin
BBC Symphony Chorus

Wednesday, 10 April 2010
7.30 p. m.
Barbican Hall
London EC2Y 8DS UK
020 7638 8891
www.barbican.org.uk

The search for the land where "none grow old" guides the twists and turns of William Morris’The Earthly Paradise. Ian McQueen’s new work for chorus and large orchestra evokes the extraordinary world of the poet, surges with erotic charge and conjures up Morris’s magical vision of Iceland’s landscape and sagas. Jennifer Pike made headline news eight years ago as the youngest ever winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year. Tonight she applies her special artistry and élan to Mendelssohn’s evergreen Violin Concerto.

The concert is preceded by a Study Afternoon on "The Writings of William Morris"

Fiona McCarthy, author of the Wolfson History Prize-winning biography of William Morris introduces Morris and his writings. Clive Wilmer, poet, editor of Morris’s poetry and expert on Ruskin and his contemporaries, discusses Morris’s writings and Fiona McCarthy interviews composer Ian McQueen on his use of Morris’s poetry for his new work Earthly Paradise. The afternoon ends with a roundtable discussion and an opportunity for questions from the audience. Free to ticket-holders for the evening concert but separate ticket required.

Website for Facing the Late Victorians

2010-02-10T14:19:00.006-05:00

A follow-up to one of our earlier posts: there is now a website for the Facing the Late Victorians: Portraits of Writers and Artists from the Mark Samuels Lasner exhibition at the Henry B. Plant Museum, Tampa, FL. The exhibition, which contains portraits of Edward Burne-Jones, William and May Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Swinburne, Alfred Tennyson, and Kate Greenaway, runs from 5 March through 5 June 2010.

Illustration: Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Tennyson (The Dirty Monk), photograph, albumen, [1865] (Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, on loan to the University of Delaware Library).

Frederick Evans's Photographs of Kelmsoctt Manor Featured in Exhibition

2010-02-10T13:57:00.011-05:00

A series of wonderful photographs of Kelmscott Manor are featured in a new exhibition, A Record of Emotion: The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans, on view at the Getty Center in Los Angeles from 2 February through 6 June 2010.

Frederick H. Evans (British, 1853–1943) was best known for his photographs of medieval cathedrals, such as the image at right of England's Wells Cathedral—arguably the best-known example of his work. Yet Evans was also accomplished in the areas of portraiture, landscape, and photomicrography (photography made using a microscope), and he brought to each subject the same intensity that characterizes his cathedral images. He believed firmly that only a good negative would yield the perfect print, and his high standards for presentation extended to the elaborate mounting of the actual photographs. Using both a "straight" approach (not altering his negatives) and pictorial sensitivity to subject and style, Evans's work, created more than 100 years ago, continues to move and inspire.

In this exhibition, Evans's cathedral subjects are displayed alongside rarely seen landscapes of the English countryside and intimate portraits of the artist's family and friends, including writer George Bernard Shaw and artist Aubrey Beardsley.

Kelmscott Manor was built in the late 1500s adjacent to the river Thames. Since 1871 the Tudor farmhouse had been the summer home of William Morris, leader of the Arts and Crafts movement, and the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Kelmscott Manor played a key role in Morris's life; he used it in his novel about a utopian socialist society, News from Nowhere, and even named his private press after it.

In a series of photographs Evans made of Kelmscott in 1896, he approached his subject with a technique similar to that used for his cathedral pictures. He studied the location and considered the architectural space in a series of views that sought to capture the soul of the place—the unspoiled craftsmanship and organic feel that attracted Morris. Together the photographs are a symbolic portrait of William Morris.

Evans's photographs of Kelmscott's sparse loft are arguably some of the most spiritual of his career. Replete with symbolism—from the rough-hewn beams that suggest the Christian cross to the light that emanates from the doorway and beckons the viewer to ascend and cross the threshold from one room (or state of being) to another—the photographs have a mystical aura.

6 February–6 June 2010
The Getty Center
200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles, CA
(310) 440-7300

The Lost William Morris Carpet of Holland Park is For Sale

2010-01-16T11:18:00.005-05:00

Alexander Ionides, the Greek Consul-General in London commissioned Phillip Webb and William Morris to transform his magnificent house, No. 1 Holland Park (now the Greek Embassy) into a showpiece of the decorative talents of William Morris and his circle. In the photograph of the Marble Hall (from the Studio, 1897) a magnificent Morris and Co. carpet may be seen. Ionides and Morris had a shared interest in Middle Eastern design, and Morris and Co bought dyes used for dying carpets from Ionides & Co., the family;s textile firm.

Ionides's son, Alexander Ionides, inherited the house, which was sold ten years later his widow to the trustees for the sixth Earl of Ilchester. After damage by incendiary bombs in World War II the property passed to London County Council in 1952. When the council decided to demolish what remained of the house in 1953 nothing of value was found in the interior.

Of the original furnishings in the house, a piano designed by Burne-Jones, a Morris carpet, and a tapestry designed by William Morris, Philip Webb and J. H. Dearle, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. A second Morris and Co. carpet is now on the market. A second Morris and Co. carpet, bought from Bonhams, London a number of years ago and listed in Malcolm Haslam's book, Arts and Crafts Carpets (1991), is currently for sale. It dates from ca. 1883 and measures 508 x 131 cm. For a private viewing in the Holland Park area contact Dominic Woods, alliedcentral@yahoo.com.

Facing the Late Victorians Exhibition at the Henry B. Plant Museum, Tampa, FL

2010-01-16T10:44:00.015-05:00

When the Tampa Bay Hotel opened in 1891, hotel guests were reading Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Hardy, and George Eliot and talking about the latest paintings by James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. They congregated on the veranda and in the Grand Salon to recite the poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson and chuckled with amusement at Oscar Wilde’s witticisms. These celebrities and their works were part of their lives. Today, Museum guests will laugh and gossip as they explore the world made relevant by these famous artists and writers.

The Henry B. Plant Museum will soon present an exhibition that examines noted Victorians through portraits. Facing the Late Victorians: Portraits of Writers and Artists from the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection will provide the opportunity for visitors to come face to face with famous British poets, painters, novelists, playwrights and illustrators. The exhibit opens 5 March and continues through 5 June 2010.

This exhibition will take audiences back more than one hundred years to explore a phenomenon that will seem astonishingly modern and familiar. Like the world we know now, Britain at the end of the nineteenth century was a nation filled with images. Whether circulating by means of posters, books, newspapers, magazines, cards, and advertisements, or hanging on the walls of art galleries and of private homes, images were everywhere. As is true today, what people most wanted to see then were images of faces and bodies, especially those of celebrities. A visual industry arose in the late Victorian period to satisfy the demand for portraits in every medium and to reproduce these on a mass scale. Pictures of monarchs and stage performers, of course, were in great demand; more surprisingly, so were portraits of what we might call cultural celebrities—that is, writers and artists. Figures such as Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Aubrey Beardsley, James McNeill Whistler, W. B. Yeats, "George Eliot," and the feminist "New Women" writers were as famous for the way they looked and dressed as for anything they created.

Writers and artists trafficked in commodities, and they became commodities. Their portraits also provided material for other workers in this industry, such as caricaturists, who knew that the public took just as great a delight in seeing its cultural heroes skewered as idealized. These caricature artists, in turn, became celebrities themselves thanks to the "New Journalism," which was eager to circulate unflattering images of the same poets and painters it made famous.

Facing the Late Victorians features portraits of dozens of well-known figures such as George Bernard Shaw, J. M. Barrie, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, and John Singer Sargent, who dominated the world of the arts, along with pioneering children’s book authors and illustrators, such as E. Nesbit and Kate Greenaway. Many of these are rarely seen images, such as Max Beerbohm’s savage caricature of Oscar Wilde’s head, which seems to decay before our eyes faster than did Dorian Gray’s face. But the show ranges widely to include photographs and drawings of many lesser lights whose work was important in advancing British art and literature—once celebrated writers such as the feminist novelist Olive Schreiner and the Catholic poet Alice Meynell, as well as the artists Ida Nettleship and William Rothenstein.

Of special note is a rare etching of famous actress Sarah Bernhardt, who gave her farewell performance at the Tampa Bay Hotel’s casino in 1906.

The show draws its sixty items from the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, on loan to the University of Delaware Library. Margaret D. Stetz, the exhibition’s curator, is the Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women’s Studies and Professor of Humanities at the University of Delaware.

5 March–5 June 2010
Henry B. Plant Museum
401 West Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL
(813) 254-1891

Media Contact: Sally Shifke
(813) 258-7302, sshifke@ut.edu

Related events

Facing the Late Victorians Roundtable Talk

Thursday, 11 March 2010, 4.00-5.15 pm, Reeves Theatre, Vaughn Hall, University of Tampa
In conjunction with the annual Nineteenth Century Studies Association conference, hosted at the University of Tampa, this roundtable discussion will include exhibition curator and noted scholar, Margaret D. Stetz, Professor of Women’s Studies and Humanities at the University of Delaware. Conference registrants and Museum members only. The NCSA conference, "Theatricality and the Performative in the Long Nineteenth Century" takes place 11–12 March.

Talk on "Collecting the Late Victorians"
Saturday, 13 March 2010, 12 noon-12.45 pm, MacDonald Kelce Library, University of Tampa
Illustrated talk by collector Mark Samuels Lasner, Senior Research Fellow, University of Delaware Library. Sponsored by the Friends of the Tampa Book Arts Studio and the Friends of the University of Tampa Library. Free and open to the public.

A lavishly illustrated book by Margaret D. Stetz, published by the University of Delaware Press, accompanies Facing the Late Victorians. Copies are available for purchase in the Henry B. Plant Museum Store.

For an illustrated review of the Grolier Club version of this exhibition, see Maureen E. Mulvihill's essay for the Victorian Society in America's March-April 2008 e-newsletter.

Facing the Late Victorians is underwritten by Mrs. (Jean) Joel Mattison and by J. Thomas and Lavinia W. Touchton.

The Henry B. Plant Museum interprets the turn-of-the-century Tampa Bay Hotel and the lifestyles of America’s Gilded Age. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm Sunday, noon to 4 pm. Closed Monday. Admission is a suggested donation of $5 per adult, $2 for children under 12.

Illustrations: Sidney Starr and James McNeill Whister, James McNeill Whistler, ink, 1890 (Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, on loan to the University of Delaware Library); photograph of the Henry B. Plant Museum, Tampa, FL.

Morris Society Calls for Papers—MLA 2011 Updated

2010-01-16T10:38:00.002-05:00

William Morris Society
CALLS FOR PAPERS (updated)

2011 Modern Language Association Annual Convention
6-9 January 2011, Los Angeles, CA

1. "Morris and the Arts: Books, Painting, Crafts, Architecture"

This is a regular session sponsored by the William Morris Society in the United States. We seek 15-minute papers which deal with William Morris and his close associates' work in, and connections to, the decorative and fine arts, crafts, architecture, printing/book arts, and architecture. Proposals to Florence S. Boos, florence-boos@uiowa.edu, by 20 March 2010.

2. "Pre-Raphaelite Uses of the Past"

Proposed session co-sponsored by the William Morris Society in the United States and the Society for Arthurian Literature. This session would examine aspects of Victorian historicism, especially neo-medievalism in painting, book design, poetry, romance narrative, translation and other genres. Papers might consider ways in which the Pre-Raphaelites and their associates and successors reshaped the works of Dante, Chaucer, Boccaccio, Froissart, the Icelandic sagas, Malory and other Arthurian sources for a middle-class Victorian audience. Reflections on the different forms of Victorian medievalism, variant uses of the same legends (e. g., of Launcelot and Guenevere), and the social context and psychological motivations of Victorian medievalism are also welcome. Proposals for 15-minute papers should be be sent to Michelle R. Warren, michelle.r.warren@dartmouth.edu, and Florence Boos, florence-boos@uiowa.edu, by 20 March. Notice of the MLA Program Committee's decision regarding this proposed session will be posted on the William Morris Society website in late Spring 2010.

Huntington Library and LACMA Acquire Mackmurdo Chair

2010-01-08T08:56:00.004-05:00

The Huntington Library and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art recently announced the joint purchase of an iconic chair designed by Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo (1851–1942). One of only five chairs known to exist, the piece is one of only two in the United States went on view in the Design Reform movement rooms of the Huntington Art Gallery in late November. After two years at the Huntington, it will shift to LACMA’s newly reinstalled galleries dedicated to the Arts and Crafts movement.

Elaborately carved from mahogany with fluid tendrils forming the back, the chair is considered a key precursor of the Art Nouveau movement.

“When this extremely significant piece of revolutionary design linking the social and aesthetic thinking of William Morris with European Art Nouveau became available, we knew we should try to bring it to public view in Southern California,” said John Murdoch, the Hannah and Russel Kully Director of Art Collections at the Huntington. “And the most sensible way to do that was to join forces with LACMA. It simply seems the smartest way to build strength in depth when neighboring institutions collect in the same area.” The Huntington has a significant Arts and Crafts collection, with many works by William Morris and the architcts Greene and Greene.

“The word iconic has been so overused that it takes a work of art like this chair to restore its meaning,” said Wendy Kaplan, department head and curator of decorative art at LACMA. As Kaplan explained, the chair created a sensation when it was presented to the public at the landmark Inventions Exhibition in Liverpool in 1885. The press at the time generated an immediate buzz. Fifteen years later, they were still writing about it: the Studio magazine declared in 1899 that its “elaborately fretted back . . . and type of floral form” was the precursor of Art Nouveau. The renowned art historian Nikolaus Pevsner included Mackmurdo in his 1936 work Pioneers of Modern Design.
Mackmurdo was both an architect and designer who traveled with John Ruskin, one of the inspirational forces behind the Arts and Crafts movement. By the early 1880s he was a disciple of William Morris and the predominant founder of the Century Guild in 1882, an association of artists and entrepreneurs that attempted to realize the ideals of Morris by bringing the highest levels of artistic creativity to objects for the ordinary home. The chair dates from the very beginning of this enterprise and is one of relatively few pieces to bear the CG stamp.
“It is both a ravishingly beautiful and fascinating object,” said Catherine Hess, chief curator of European art at The Huntington. “This chair represents the first manifestation of a new design movement that emphasized sinuous, organic forms. Amazingly, it dates a full ten years before this movement, the Art Nouveau, emerged on the European continent. It also provides an extraordinary educational opportunity for all our audiences—including visitors looking to better understand how art movements evolved and why things look the way they do.”

[text adapted from the Huntington's website]

Upcoming Events at Kelmscott House Museum

2010-01-01T15:18:00.003-05:00

The next upcoming events at Kelmscott House Museum, the home of the William Morris Society in the UK are:

Saturday, 16 January, 2.15 p. m.
Antiscrap: A Campaign for the William Morris Gallery
The artist Roger Huddle, who was an organiser of the campaign against the running down and threatened closure of the Gallery, will talk about the campaignâ€™s achievements and the latest developments. A short film will be shown.

Sunday, 31 January, 7.00 p. m.
Recital by Zadok Baroque Trio

Unless otherwise stated events are at Kelmscott House starting at 2.15 p. m. Tickets: members and seniors £6; non-members £8; students and unemployed £4. All applications for tickets to William Morris Society office: Kelmscott House, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, London W6 9TA, marking the envelope "tickets" and enclosing a stamped addressed envelope. Please pay for visits with a separate check for each visit. For more information about any event please call the office on 020 8741 3735 or email william.morris@care4free.net.

The Coach House
Kelmscott House Museum
26 Upper Mall
Hammersmith
London W6 9TA UK
020 8741 3735
william.morris@care4free.net

Call for Papers: Morris and the ArtsWilliam Morris Society Session at the MLA Convention 2011

2010-01-01T15:07:00.002-05:00

After many years of holding its conventions in late December, the Modern Language Association (MLA) has changed the time of its annual meeting to early January, and will meet next on 6–9 January 2011 in Los Angeles, CA. Changes in Allied Organization session procedures mean that the William Morris Society has only one confirmed 2011 session, on "Morris and the Arts: Books, Painting, Crafts, Architecture." Proposals for 15-minute papers for this session should be sent to Florence S. Boos by 20 March 2010. We also hope to co-sponsor a second session on "Pre-Raphaelite Audiences: Editors, Readers, Critics"; details for this will be announced on the Society's website after 1 February 2009.

Useful & Beautiful: The Transatlantic Arts of William Morris and the Pre-RaphaelitesCall for papers—proposals due 15 March 2010

2010-01-01T13:41:00.008-05:00

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
WINTERTHUR MUSEUM & COUNTRY ESTATE
DELAWARE ART MUSEUM
7–9 October 2010

"Useful and Beautiful: The Transatlantic Arts of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites" will be the subject of a conference and related exhibitions to be held 7–9 October 2010 at the University of Delaware (Newark, DE) and at the Delaware Art Museum and the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate (Wilmington, DE). Organized with the assistance of the William Morris Society, "Useful and Beautiful" will highlight the strengths of the University of Delaware's rare books, art, and manuscripts collections; Winterthur's important holdings in American decorative arts; and the Delaware Art Museum's superlative Pre-Raphaelite collection (the largest outside Britain). All events will focus on the multitude of transatlantic exchanges that involved Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic movements of the late nineteenth century.

We seek 250- to 500-word proposals for short papers (15 minutes reading time, maximum) that explore relationships and influences—whether personal, intellectual, political, or aesthetic—connecting William Morris, his friends, associates, and followers in Britain and Europe with their contemporaries and successors in the Americas. The "arts" will include not merely those at which Morris himself excelled—i.e., literature, design, and printing—but also painting, illustration, architecture, performance, and anything related to print culture in general. Papers that examine transatlantic politics, social movements, and environmental issues in light of Morrisian, Pre-Raphaelite, and Arts and Crafts perspectives are also welcome.

Possible topic areas include:

William Morris's Influence in and on the Americas • The American Ruskinians • Transatlantic Arts and Crafts Architecture • British Connections to the American Aesthetic Movement • Designers Traveling, East to West or West to East • Arts and Crafts Places, Real and/or Imaginary • British Aesthetic Ideals and American Domestic Interiors • The Kelmscott Press and Transatlantic Print Culture • Aesthetic Periodicals and/or Little Magazines Crossing the Atlantic • Publishing the Pre-Raphaelites in the Americas • American Book Illustrators and Pre-Raphaelite Influences • The Transatlantic Poster Craze • Exhibiting the Pre-Raphaelites in the Americas • Americans Collecting Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites • Selling Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts Goods Across the Atlantic • Pre-Raphaelite Imagery and American Advertising • The Morris Chair as a Transatlantic Object • Morris and American Needlework • American Dress Reform and Pre-Raphaelite Influence • The Pre-Raphaelites and the Literature of the Americas • Oscar Wilde Visits America • Whitman and the Pre-Raphaelites • Morris and American Socialism • Morris & Co. Stained Glass in the Americas • American Drama and Pre-Raphaelite Figures • Pre-Raphaelitism and American Art Education • Photography and the Circulation of Pre-Raphaelite Images • Pre-Raphaelitism and American Music

The deadline for 250- to 500-word proposals is 15 March 2010. Please forward electronic submissions to:Mark Samuels Lasner.

Limited funding may be available for speakers whose papers focus specifically on William Morris and who are in need of financial assistance. To be considered for support, explain your circumstances when submitting your paper proposal.

In addition to conference sessions, there will be a keynote lecture, demonstrations by leading practitioners who make and design Arts and Crafts objects, special exhibitions, and related film, theater, and musical performances. The following exhibitions are anticipated at the time of the conference: Delaware Art Museum (May Morris, also permanent display of the Samuel and Mary Bancroft Pre-Raphaelite collection); University of Delaware Library (American literature, 1870–1916 exhibition and William Morris); University Gallery, University of Delaware (Ethel Reed: Transatlantic Artist of the 1890s); Winterthur (Arts and Crafts archival resources); and Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts (David Mabb: The Morris Kitsch Archive).

For more information go to www.morrissociety.org or contact Mark Samuels Lasner, (302) 831-3250.

"Useful and Beautiful" is supported by the Delaware Art Museum, Winterthur Museum and Country Estate, the William Morris Society in the United States, the William Morris Society (UK), and the following University of Delaware departments and programs: College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Delaware Library, Art, Art Conservation, Art History, English, History, and Material Culture Studies. Illustration by Helen O’Kane from William Morris, Pre-Raphaleite Ballads (New York, 1900), Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library.

William Morris Society Activities at the MLA Annual Convention27–30 December in Philadelphia

2009-12-04T20:46:00.002-05:00

This year the Modern Language Association's annual convention—a major happening in the wold of academic literary studies and college and university hiring—will take place 27–30 December in Philadelphia. As an official allied organization of the MLA, the William Morris Society has the privilege of sponsoring two sessions of scholarly papers at the convention. The topic of the first session is "Musical Pre-Raphaelitism: Defining the Area"; the second focuses on "William Morris's Later Friends and Associates." Attendance is restricted to those who register for the convention or who are members of the Society. Interested members of the public are, however, welcome to join us (space permitting) at two other activities, a special visit to the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, a research and lending library located in a nineteenth-century building, and the Society's annual meeting/dinner which follows. Members and non-members must rsvp by 24 December to Mark Samuels Lasner, (302) 831-3250.

For more information click here.

"Ernest Gimson and the Inspiration of William Morris" Lecutre in New York 10 December

2009-12-02T16:54:00.006-05:00

"Ernest Gimson and the Inspiration of William Morris"
Mary Greensted

This talk will look at the links between William Morris and the Gimson family from the 1880s. The direct influence of Morris, father-figure of the Arts and Crafts movement and its impact on the ideas and work of Ernest Gimson, one of the most important British designers of the turn of the century, will be illustrated with examples of the latter's work in furniture, metalwork, embroideries, plasterwork and architecture.

Mary Greensted is a curator, lecturer, and writer, who was for many years responsible for Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum's nationally important Arts and Crafts movement collection. A trustee of the Court Barn Museum, Chipping Campden, and the chairperson of the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen, she is the author of numerous books, including Craft and Design: Ernest Gimson and the Arts and Crafts Movement and The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds, along with three catalogues on Cheltenham's Arts and Crafts collections (as joint author/editor). Her most recent publication was An Anthology of the Arts and Crafts Movement, published by Lund Humphries in 2005. She is currently a recipient of a Leventis studentship for researching links between Greece and the Arts and Crafts movement at Birmingham University.

Thursday, 10 December 2009
6 p. m., reception to follow
The Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street
New York, NY

Sponsored by the William Morris Society in the United States, the American Friends of Arts and Crafts in Chipping Campden, the Grolier Club, the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, and the Victorian Society in America.

Tickets: $12 reduced rate for members of the Society and the other sponsoring organizations; $18 for others.

For more details and to purchase a ticket, click here.

Contact: Mark Samuels Lasner, (302) 831-3250.

Christmas Craft Fair, 12 and 13 December at Kelmscott House

2009-11-26T21:01:00.007-05:00

Don’t miss the William Morris Society’s first Christmas Craft Fair in the newly refurbished Coach House at Kelmscott House Museum! Celebrate the festive season with a mince pie and glass of wine in the unique setting of the historic Coach House at William Morris's magical riverside home in Hammersmith as you browse for those extra special gifts designed and made by quality craftspeople. Come and see designer crafts people at work as well as a range of beautiful handcrafted gifts for sale including ceramics, jewellery, stone carving, fabric bags, scarves, Christmas tree angels, embroidered and woollen items, Christmas cards, small garden creations and soft furnishings at the home of the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Christmas Craft Fair
Saturday, 12 and Sunday, 13 December 2009
11 a. m. to 5.30 p.m.
The Coach House
Kelmscott House Museum
26 Upper Mall
Hammersmith
London W6 9TA UK
020 8741 3735
william.morris@care4free.net

New Book The History of Kelmscott House by Helen Elletson published by the William Morris Society

2009-11-21T07:56:00.013-05:00

The William Morris Society has just published The History of Kelmscott House by Helen Elletson. This new book by the cuator of the William Morris Society and Kelmscott House Museum, tells the story of the "most beautiful house in London" in Hammersmith which Morris bought in 1879. While living there he set up the Kelmscott Press, established the Hammersmith branch of the Socialist League (in the Coach House, where speakers included George Bernard Shaw and W. B. Yeats), and continued his innovations in design, printing and dyeing techniques. This is the first fully-illustrated book about this most magical of Morris’s homes. Helen Elletson’s carefully researched and absorbing text, complemented by beatiful images—photographs and original prints, most in color—faithfully conveys the atmosphere of Kelmscott House, which Morris and his family welcomed some of the most influential minds of the late-Victorian period. The book also examines the history and the occupants of the house before and after Morris.

An exceptional value at only £5, due to generous sponsorship and the wish of the William Morris Society to make it affordable, The History of Kelmscott House is a must-have book for anyone interested in Morris and his circle.

64 pp., 34 illus., most in color. November 2009

£5 per copy, plus £1 packing and postage (in the UK)
$15 per copy, plus $5 package and postage (in the US)
Enquire for shipping costs to rest of world

Order from:

William Morris Society
Kelmscott House
26 Upper Mall
Hammersmith
London W6 9TA UK
020 8741 3735
william.morris@care4free.net
Kelmscott Bookshop
32 West 25th St.
Baltimore, MD 21218
(410) 235-6810
info@kelmscottbookshop.com

The Days of Creation Lecture 18 November at Harvard

2009-10-30T09:37:00.005-04:00

On Wednesday, 18 November, Miriam Stewart, assistant curator, Department of Drawings, Harvard Art Museums, will speak on The Days of Creation - In-Sight: Looking Deeper and Differently at Harvard's Sackler Museum. When Henry James saw Edward Burne-Jones's watercolor series The Days of Creation exhibited in 1877, he noted the artist's "imagination, his fertility of invention, his exquisiteness of work, his remarkable gifts as a colourist." Photographic replicas (called platinotypes) of The Days of Creation were available starting in the 1870s. Oscar Wilde had a set of platinotypes in his rooms at Magdalen College, Oxford. This splendid series in the Harvard Art Museum's collection invites close examination of painting materials, iconography, collecting, and reproduction. Tickets $18 (members of Harvard Art Museum $12, students with valid ID $8). Space is limited, and registration is strongly encouraged.

Wednesday, 18 November 2009
6.30 p. m.
Arthur M. Sackler Museum Lecture Hall
485 Broadway
Cambridge, MA

To register, call (617) 495-0534.

The Kelmsoctt Chaucer in Miniature

2009-10-26T20:29:00.009-04:00

The Kelmscott Chaucer, the masterpiece of William Morris's Kelmscott Press, published a few months before Morris's death in 1896, was described by its illustrator, Edward Burne-Jones, as a "pocket cathedral." How big a pocket might hold the original (a folio) is hard to imagine but we have received word that there is a version which will fit into a reticule—and leave room to spare. In a world where Morris products of all sorts abound, B. B. Miniatures, of South Africa, has produced one of the smallest--and oddest, an "open book" version of the Chaucer measuring ca. 1.5 in. wide and 1.25 in. wide. Described as being "bound" (quotation marks ours) in leather, the volume joins the maker's little library suitable for a dolls' house. Other titles available include the Gutenberg Bible, Mrs. Beeton, various medieval manuscripts, and albums kept by a naturalist and a stamp collector. The charm of the miniature Chaucer is slightly lessened when one learns that because of the reduction, the open pages can't be read. But then critics of the real Chaucer have, on occasion, said the same thing. For more information go the B. B. Miniatures web site.

(Thanks for Matthew Young for the photograph.)

Edward Burne-Jones: The Earthly Paradise at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

2009-10-26T19:57:00.006-04:00

The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart has on through 7 February 2010 an exhibition of Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898), It's a major show, but not, as claimed, the first on this artist’s work ever to be presented in Germany. Some idea of the content and theme can be found in the web announcement:

Myths, legends and sagas come to life in his splendid narrative cycles which, as the focus of the show, will lure visitors into magical worlds. The tale of Sleeping Beauty, the saga of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the myth of the demigod Perseus who beheaded the horrible Gorgon Medusa and liberated Princess Andromeda from the clutches of a sea monster: it was not only in large-scale paintings and tapestries that Burne-Jones depicted these and other stories. Literary motifs of this kind also figure in his designs for stained-glass windows, ceramic tiles, furniture, book illustrations and other three-dimensional and textile works. Each of the new exhibition rooms on the ground floor of the Old Staatsgalerie will be devoted to a different sphere of his narrative universe.

As they note, "Burne-Jones shared his appreciation of the applied arts as an agent unifying art and life with William Morris, one of the fathers of modern design. Not only were the two men close friends throughout their lives; they also worked side by side at Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., founded in 1861." The title of the exhibition comes, of course, from Morris's epic poem, The Earthly Paradise (1868–1870), from which Burne-Jones derived inspiration for his narrative cycles

The exhibition is "being realized under the sponsorship of the British ambassador to Germany, Sir Michael Arthur." It will be on view at the Kunstmuseum Bern from 19 March to 25 July 2010.

Another 175th Anniversary—at William Morris House, Wimbledon

2009-10-08T07:15:00.005-04:00

William Morris is unique among British historical figures in that there are no fewer than four buildings associated with him have been preserved and are open to the public: Water House, Walthamstow (now the William Morris Gallery), Red House, Bexleyheath (owned by the National Trust), Kelmscott House, Hammersmith (home of the William Morris Society), and Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire (Society of Antiquaries). We have just learned of a fifth, William Morris House, located in Wimbledon, South London, not far from where Morris and Co. operated its Merton Abbey works. The building is used for local community meetings and arts events.

William Morris House is presenting a public celebration of the 175th anniversary of the birth of William Morris, described as "Wimbledon's internationally renowned former employer, designer, and radical," on Saturday, 24 October. The event will feature a short llustrated talk by local Morris biographer Dave Saxby (Museum of London), the author of William Morris in Merton. Saxby will show previously unpublished pictures of the Morris & Co works at Merton Abbey. Visitors will also be able to see two original stained glass windows designed by Edward Burne Jones and produced by Morris at Merton Abbey. The windows were presented to William Morris House by a local family and were recently restored.

Saturday, 24 October
7.30 p. m.
Free admission (complimentary wine and pizza)

William Morris House
267 The Broadway
Wimbledon SW19 1SD UK
(opposite the Polka Theatre)

For more information contact:
Peter Walker
Chair of William Morris House
07715 749 373 mob
020 8542 8223 work
peter@vistaevents.co.uk

Apostles of Beauty: Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago

2009-10-04T20:54:00.003-04:00

Having seen a proof of the catalogue, I can't say enough good things about Apostles of Beauty: Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago, which opens on 7 November at the Art Institute of Chicago. The press release only tells half the story:

This is the first Arts and Crafts exhibition mounted at the Institute in more than 30 years, and it's worth the wait. You'd Apostles of Beauty presents designs by the movement's most notable practitioners, from William Morris and Charles Robert Ashbee to Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright. Highlighting a wide range of objects, including ceramics, furniture, metalwork, paintings, photographs, and textiles, the exhibition offers the chance for a large audience to see some of Chicago's spectacular holdings with works from the Art Institute, the Smart Museum, the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Crab Tree Farm, and other private and public collections. The exhibition traces the history of the Arts and Crafts movement through its complex stylistic and philosophical influences. Galleries explore the movement's early roots in Britain and the impact of William Morris and his group on the next generation of architect-designers; its intersection with the phenomenon of Japanism in both British and American design; the development of American Arts and Crafts style and its popularization through specialized periodicals; the connections between the movement’s philosophies and pictorialism in photography; and Chicago's early acceptance of the British model and its later role in uniting hand and machine in the service of beauty

What they don't say is how wonderful the objects are. One would expect that Wright and Sullivan would be well represented (after all, this is Chicago) but the British work could make you think you are in the V. and A. In a sense, this exhibition builds on last year's show at Northwestern University (some of the lenders and items are repeats), but the curatorial thinking is less dogmatic and the concept more wide-ranging. Very much recommended; note that this is not a traveling exhibition—just one venue. if you ever needed an excuse to visit the United States "second city" this is it. For more information click the link above or go to the Art Institute of Chicago's web site,

www.artic.edu.

Ezperiments in Colour: Exhibition at the William Morris Gallery

2009-10-04T16:33:00.005-04:00

From 10 October through 24 January 2010, the William Morris Gallery, London has on a most interesting exhibition which explores the remarkable collaboration between William Morris and the Victorian textile entrepreneur, Thomas Wardle (1831–1909). Together they experimented with natural dyes and printing techniques and their interest in color led them to a joint fascination with the textiles of India. The exhibition explores the fruits of this partnership, a unique moment in British textile history. Experiments in Colour, drawn largely from the gallery's own collection and curated by Brenda King, forms part of a series of exhibitions celebrating Wardle’s centenary.

Society Web Site updated

2009-10-04T16:12:00.005-04:00

The Society's web site, www.morrissociety.org, has been updated with updates to the events listings and other information. There are now details of William Morris Society activities through January 2010—and in a first, we've added a preview of events and activities to take place next year. If you know about a lecture, exhibition, or other meeting you believe of interest to members of the Society please let us know. Contact Mark Samuels Lasner.

William Morris Society on Facebook!

2009-09-27T12:42:00.002-04:00

The William Morris Society has joined the rest of the world and inaugurated a Facebook page. This means of communication will be updated frequently with news of Society events in the United States and in Britain. We aim to make the page a special resource for scholars by posting announcements of publications, conferences, and relevant fellowship and grant opportunities which often are hard to deal with on the William Morris Society web site. Finally, to keep the spirit of William Morris alive we'll be using the "discussion" function on Facebook to facilitate lively and academic conversation.

Become a fan by searching "William Morris Society" from your own Facebook page or by following this link.

Pre-Raphaelite Society Essay Prize

2009-09-27T12:37:00.004-04:00

The Pre-Raphaelite Society invites anyone with an interest in nineteenth-
century art to submit a manuscript of not more than 2000 words for The John
Pickard Essay Prize. The topic may relate to any individual connected to the
Pre-Raphaelite circle. The winner will receive a £100 prize and publication in the Spring 2010 issue of the Society's Review. Essays by runners-up may also be published. The selection will be made by the committee of the Pre-Raphaelite Society. Entries are to are due 31 December 2009, and may be sent to Serena Trowbridge, serenatrowbridge@bcu.ac.uk.

Morris in The Time Traveller's Wife

2009-08-23T19:02:00.004-04:00

I didn't see the film, The Time Traveller's Wife, nor did I particularly want to. Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 novel is he kind of book which would only be ruined in by cinematic treatment. Leave it in my memory as a wonderful read, unsullied by a director's interpretation, actors' voices, and the simplification and manipulation which must come in an adaptation. Sorry . . . this is a William Morris blog, not an outlet for film critics. What's worth mentioning here is the Morris connection. It's small, but noteworthy. It consists of one bit of dialogue. Clare, the wife of the title, becomes reacquainted with Henry, the time traveller (they had met and fallen in love before) when she comes to the Newberry Librarary on a research trip. Claire, asks Henry, who is a rare book librarian, "Hi, I'm looking for a book on papermaking at the Kelmscott Press. . . ?" This line is not in the novel—in which Claire simply states:

I'm writing a paper for an art history class. My research topic is the Kelmscott Press Chaucer. I look up the book itself and fill in a call slip for it. But I also want to read about papermaking at Kelmscott. The catalogue is confusing. I go back to the desk to ask for help.

after stating that she's filled in a request slip for the Kelmscott Chaucer. The scene was filmed in Toronto’s Osgoode Hall Law Library, which stood in for Chicago’s Newberry.

Audrey Niffenegger is not only a bestelling novelist but also a noted book artist and designer who has an admittted to a love of Aubrey Beardsley (and, presumably, William Morris). So we assume the passage is autobiographical.

The Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource

2009-08-04T22:35:00.007-04:00

It is almost inconceivable that one institution could have as many as 2,300 works by the Pre-Raphaelites and their associates, and perhaps even more unbelievable that all of them could be digitized and made available online. Yet it's true. All of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery's massive collection—paintings and drawings major, minor, iconic, and forgotten—is now on the Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource. I can't say too many good things about this remarkable "resource." The images are superb (produced with Microsoft's Silverlight technology which captures minute detail, even when zoomed in at almost microscopic levels). Access is by a first-rate search mechanism simultaneously providing ease-of-use and an elaborate filtering mechanism, enabling both casual viewing and research by specialists. A search for Rossetti returns 385 items, for Morris over 600, and for Burne-Jones an astonishing 1,035. There are detailed notes and thematic introductions which use selected works to focus on gender and sexuality, history, particular figures, wood engraving, illustration, and other subjects. (You can also set up and publish your own personal collection of images and their is a built-in discussion area.) Rebecca West once wrote that Max Beerbohm's broadcasts alone justified the invention of radio; Birmingham's site perhaps does not by itself justify the existence of the internet but it does show what can be accomplished when talent, scholarship, good design—and money—are applied to art and culture. Visit and you may be stuck there for hours.

Save the Date! Useful and Beautiful Conference in Delaware, October 2010

2009-08-04T21:53:00.005-04:00

Save the Date!
Useful and Beautiful:
The Transatlantic Arts of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites
7–9 October 2010
Newark and Wilmington, DE
A conference and related exhibitions, 7-9 October 2010, at the University of Delaware (Newark, DE) and at the Delaware Art Museum and the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate (Wilmington, DE). Organized with the assistance of the William Morris Society, Useful and Beautiful will highlight the strengths of the University of Delaware’s rare books, manuscripts, and art collections; Winterthur’s important holdings in American decorative arts; and the Delaware Art Museum’s superlative Pre-Raphaelite collection (the largest outside Britain). This conference will focus on the multitude of transatlantic exchanges that involved Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the arts and crafts and aesthetic movements of the late nineteenh century. We will invite papers that explore relationships and influences—whether personal, intellectual, political, or aesthetic—that connect William Morris, his friends, associates, and followers in Britain and Europe with their contemporaries and successors in the Americas. The “arts” will include not merely those at which Morris himself excelled—i.e., literature, design, and printing—but also painting, illustration, architecture, performance, and anything related to print culture in general. A formal call for papers and other details will follow in Fall 2009.

For more information, please contact Mark Samuels Lasner, marksl@udel.edu, (302) 831-3250.

William Morris 175 Anniversary Celebrations

2009-08-04T21:25:00.007-04:00

To mark the 175th anniversary of William Morris, the William Morris Society is holding William Morris 175 Anniversary Celebrations on the weekend of 4–6 September at Kelmscott House in London. Combining elements of a scholarly conference, a museum visit, a music and drama festival, an arts workshop, and a social gathering, this one-of-a-kind event is open to members of the William Morris Society and the general public.

British Labour politician Tony Benn (better known as Anthony Wedgwood Benn), the guest of honour, will speak on "The Legacy of William Morris."

The opening night features a very exciting theatrical event, a special performance of the new play Alexandra Kollontai in London by Penelope Dimond. First performed on 8 March at the Torriano Meeting House to celebrate International Women’s Day, the play concerns Alexandra Kollontai, was a leading figure in revolutionary Russia and the only woman in Lenin’s government. Dimond’s was inspired by Kollontai’s visits to London between 1899 and 1913— she encounters a number of leading English Socialists, learns of William Morris, visits Upper Mall, Hammersmith, and sees the meeting place of the Hammersmith Socialists.

The playwright, Penelope Dimond, said: "I am thrilled that my play is to be performed in the historic Lecture Room that was the meeting place of the Hammersmith Socialists, and which the characters in my play knew and spoke about. When I wrote the scene in my play where a character pays homage to the memory of William Morris I had no idea that it would one day be performed for the William Morris Society. I am delighted by this highly appropriate and fortunate opportunity for my play to be performed during the Morris 175 celebration."

4–6 Septmeber 2009
Kelmscott House
26 Upper Mall
Hammersmith
London W6 9TA UK

Weekend tickets (Friday evening, all day Saturday & Sunday): £50 members & concessions; £63 non-members. Friday evening only: £10 members & concessions; £13 non-members. Saturday only: £36 members & concessions; £45 non-members. Sunday only: £24 members & concessions; £30 non-members. Priority will be given to those booking weekend tickets. When booking, please state whether you have any special dietary requirements.

The full pogram may be downloaded here (PDF format). For further information please e-mail william.morris@care4free.net, or telephone 020 87413735 on
Tuesday, Thursday, or a Saturday afternoon.

Morris Society Visit to the Greene and Green exhibition, 23 May in Washington, DC

2009-05-10T13:42:00.008-04:00

On Saturday, 23 May, the William Morris Society is organizing a visit to the exhibition, The Art and Craft of Greene and Greene, at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC. We'll gather for lunch afterwards at a nearby restaurant. Open to all--you do not have to be a member of the society to come.

About the exhibition: the architecture and decorative arts designed by Charles Greene (1868–1957) and his brother Henry Greene (1870-1954) a century ago in California are recognized as among the finest of the American arts and crafts movement. The Greenes carefully considered every detail of the buildings and objects they designed, incorporating European, Asian and Native American influences. Like Frank Lloyd Wright, they believed architecture to be a design language for life, imbuing their projects with a sensitivity for geography, climate, landscape and lifestyle. The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene, the most comprehensive exhibition of the brothers' work to date, examines their legacy with 127 objects, including furniture, stained glass and metalwork, as well as rare architectural drawings and photographs. The exhibition commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Gamble House, constructed between 1907 and 1909 in Pasadena, CA, which is one of the Greenes' best-known commissions.

Saturday, 23 May 2009
11 a. m.
Renwick Gallery
1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (at 17th Street)
Washington, DC

Last Chance at the De Morgan Foundation

2009-05-03T19:57:00.006-04:00

The De Morgan Foundation has long been one of the little-known treasures among London's art museums. Located in Wandsworth, south of the river, its collection focuses on the work of William De Morgan, a ceramicist associated with William Morris who late in life had an unexpected second career as a novelist, and his wife, Evelyn, née Pickering, a talented painter. There is now a last chance to see the foundation's stunning installation of art and pottery before it all leaves its present home on 25 July 2009. Combined with a memorial exhibition of paintings by the late Jon Catleugh, on display from 17 June, the exhibition will culminate in an auction sale on Friday, 24 July 2009 at 6.30 for 7.30 p. m. For more information: info@demorgan.co.u k.

De Morgan Centre
38 West Hill
London SW18 1RZ
020 88 71 11 44

The Sleeping Beauty: Victorian Paintings—in Madrud

2009-04-20T07:57:00.005-04:00

Until 24 April the Prado in Madrid is featuring The Sleeping Beuaty: Victorian Paintings from the Museo de Arte de Ponce. The highlights are, of course, Leighton's Flaming June and Burne-Jones's Arthur in Avalon (displayed with two equally stunning works from the Briar Rose series). In addition, there are also paintings and drawings by Millais, Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and the rarely-seen Thomas Seddon, to name just a few. It is interesting to note that this year, Victorian art is found outside of its normal home-ground, Britain. Consider that Holman Hunt is in Minneapolis, the Royal Holloway paintings are traveling to Delaware and Connecticut, Waterhouse has been to Montreal, and now two major shows are on in Spain and Sweden. A cynic might say that the British are becoming tired of the period and the artists, that they've moved on, that the Victorians have been so overexposed as to become almost a joke. And perhaps now only "foreign" museums have the money and inclination to put on large loan exhibitions. I certainly have noticed on our annual June trips to London—prime museum season—that nineteenth century art has been harder to find in recent years. Last year there was Tate Britain's exploration of the Middle East, but that was about it.

Blood, Absinthe, and Aphorisms: New Currents in Aestheticism and Decadence

2009-03-16T22:42:00.007-04:00

The unusual and catchy title above is that of a conference to be held 30 April–1 May in New York. Organized b Richard Kaye and Talia Schaffer and held at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, "Blood, Absinthe, and Aphorisms" brings together scholars in a variety of disciplines to examine aestheticism and decadence in late Victorian literature, art, theater, politics, and popular culture. Reginia Gagnier is the keynote speaker and the opening roundtable, "What's New in Decadence and Aestheticism,"represents a "who's who" of experts in the field—Dennis Dennisoff, Joseph Bristow, Linda K. Hughes, Richard Dellamora, and Margaret D. Stetz. Longer presentations concern C. R. Ashbee and British utopias, Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, and romanticism; Aubrey Beardsley and the art of the poster; Edward Carpenter and domestic interiors, and Black decadence in the work of M. P. Shiel. (Although not specifically named as the subject for any of the papers, one senses that William Morris or Edward Burne-Jones might be mentioned form time to time.)

Thursday, 30 April 2009
5.30 to 8 p. m.
Friday, 1 May 2009
8.45 a. m. to 6 p. m.
Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY

Open to the public without cost or registration.

Illustration: William Nicholson, James McNeill Whistler, woodcut touched with watercolor, 1897 (Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, on loan to the University of Delaware Library)

Pre-Raphaelites in Stockholm: Report by Jan Marsh

2009-03-15T19:39:00.009-04:00

What is billed as the first major show of Pre-Raphaelite art ever held in Scandanavia is on until 24 May. Titled (obviously) The Pre-Raphaelites at the National Musuem, Stockhilm, consists largely of loans from UK museums and galleries, but there are several unusual twists to the exhibition. For one thing, the arrangement is not strictly chronological; for another, there is a representation of Northern artists influenced by the PRB; and finally, among the highlights are several works from the National Museum's own collection, some of them--such as this Rossetti sketch of Elizabeth Siddal sketching--purchased quite recently.

Jan Marsh, the noted biographer, editor, and Pre-Raphaelite scholar, has kindly sent us a report on this large and important exhibition, click here for a link.

Anna Sui's "favorite artists"—Beardsley, Burne-Jones, and Waterhouse

2009-03-15T19:25:00.004-04:00

We were watching CBS Sunday Morning--arguably the only program on US television which pays regular attention to design, the book arts, and visual culture in general--and were transfixed when the fashion designer, Anna Sui, said that inspiration for a recent collection came from "late nineteenth century artists." A visit to the biography posted on her website reveals that under "Favorite Artists" she lists the following (and only the following):

George LePape
Christian Berard
Aubrey Beardsley
John William Waterhouse
Edward Burne-Jones

Just how much influence Beardsley and Burne-Jones have on Sui's unconventional and interesting fashion lines you can judge for yourself. But if Ms. Sui happens to be reading these words, we want to say--join the William Morris Society!

"The Art of the Book": Design and Craft in 19th-century Britain and 21st-century Canada

2009-03-15T18:56:00.007-04:00

This year's William Morris Society of Canada symposium, "The Art of the Book: Design and Craft in 19th-century Britain and 21st-century Canada, " will be held on Saturday, 21 March, at University College, University of Toronto. In keeping with Morris’s own belief that books are the product of diverse talents working in cooperation, our 2009 symposium brings together printers, publishers, artists, and scholars to discuss the material form of the book as it is, has been, and might be. In the morning, William Whitla of York University will speak on the relationship between Morris’s calligraphy, book collecting, and printing practices, followed by William Rueter describing the work of his own Aliquando Press and its recent edition of the diaries of the artist and bookbinder T. J. Cobden-Sanderson. The afternoon will feature presentations on the past, present, and future of printing and book design. Speakers include Don Taylor, bookbinder and artist working in Toronto since 1980; and Reg Beatty, bookbinder, book artist, and teacher at York University and the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Immediately following the symposium, a party in University College’s Croft Chapter House will celebrate William Morris’s 175th birthday.

Saturday, 21 March 2009
9.30 a. m. to 4 p. m.
Room 179
University College
University of Toronto

Registration (includes lunch):
Paid in Advance, before March 14: $40 (members); $50 (non-members); $20 (students)
Paid at the Door: $50 (members): $60 (non-members); $30 (students)

Please note “pre-registration” is strongly recommended because “At he Door” registration may be very limited.

Tennyson Bicentenary

2009-02-09T07:42:00.002-05:00

It does seem remarkable that 2009 marks the bicentenary of Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe, and Alfred Tennyson. (Darwin and Lincoln were, in fact, born on the same day.) Although an exhibition last year sought to explore the ties between Darwin and William Morris, and while Morris's politics and ideals might owe something to Lincoln's, the real connection—for Morrisians at least—is with Tennyson. William Morris was a reader and admirer of the poet laureate; his own early poems owed much to Tennyson in theme and manner; in due course the two men became acquainted; finally, Tennyson's Maud was reprinted by the Kelmscott Press in 1893.

There are many events scheudled to mark the Tennyson anniversary, and a full schedule will be found on a site maintained by the Lincolnshire County Council. Two of particular interest are a lecture, on "Morris and Tennyson," by Peter Faulkner, to be given at Kelmscott House in Saturday, 3 March (see 2009 William Morris Events in the UK for details) and an exhibition, Tennyson Transformed, taking place 30 May - 31 August at The Collection, in Lincoln. Alfred Tennyson's influence on Victorian culture was not just literary: he inspired an extraordinary range of artists and designers. This major exhibition at The Collection will assemble vivid examples of artistic responses to Tennyson's poetry and person by some of the best known artists of the period. Unique objects from Lincoln's Tennyson Research Centre will be displayed alongside loans from major national collections.

Other events include an International conference to be held at Cambridge, concerts, a country dance program, and lectures at various locations throughout Britain. One thing that caught our eye is The Lady of Shalott Film, produced by WAG, a group which seems to have expanded an interest in local archeology into movie-making, What is striking about the film is how clearly its visual look is influenced by spefic Pre-Raphaleite paintings—the "teaser" trailers include the death scene on the boat straight out of J. W. Waterhouse. To see for yourelf go to www.theladyofshalott.co.uk.

"Why Victorian Art?" Symposium at CUNY, 6 February

2009-01-28T08:22:00.007-05:00

A symposium, open to the public, organized by the Department of Art History,
the City University of New York, Graduate Center.

Friday, 6 February 2009
9 a. m. to 5 p. m.
Martin E. Segal Theatre, Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY

In American academia, British Victorian art has been perceived pejoratively as regressive relative to French art's trajectory toward modernism. In sharp contrast, English departments in the United States have encouraged the study of British Victorian literature since it was first set down on paper, with postmodern scholars championing Victorian literature's handling of issues from colonialism and racism to aspects of gender and sexual identities. The Victorians were the dominant imperial power and leaders of the industrial world at the dawn of the twentieth century, but the study of Victorian visual art and culture is still largely looked upon unfavorably in the United States, with American museums only rarely mounting exhibitions about Victorian art. Recently, this trend has been slowly changing. More students are pursuing dissertation topics in the areas of British Victorian painting, sculpture, architecture, and photography. Furthermore, conferences such as the 2008 annual meeting of NAVSA acknowledge the rising importance of Victorian art, including interdisciplinary panel sessions on topics such as sculpture and global contexts, queer visualities, and Darwinism and the arts. "Why Victorian Art?" will bring together scholars to address two critical issues: why the study of Victorian art has been overlooked in the U.S., and how a closer examination of Victorian art can provide new or alternative perspectives in the study of nineteenth-century art and culture.

For more information download the symposium announcement.

"Vernon Lushington: Pre-Raphaltie" Lecture in New York on 12 March

2009-01-25T09:35:00.014-05:00

Although he was a friend and colleague to many famous artists, authors, and activists, the lawyer and positivist Vernon Lushington (1832–1912) remains virtually unknown today. In “Vernon Lushington: Pre-Raphaelite, Friend of William Morris, and Father of ‘Mrs. Dalloway,’” historian David Taylor will draw upon previously unavailable materials from the Lushington archive to shed light on the interesting and influential figure who arranged the first meeting between Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti and who visited with William and Jane Morris at Kelmscott Manor. Taylor will also discuss the connection between the Lushingtons and the Stephen family. After the death of Mrs. Lushington, Vernon's three daughters (above) were taken under the wing of Julia Stephen, wife of Leslie Stephen and mother of Virginia Woolf. Vernon Lushington’s eldest daughter, Kitty, became the model for the title character of Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway (1925). The Lushingtons also spent summers with the Stephen family at Talland House in Cornwall, which provided the setting for the Ramseys’ summer home in Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927). Letters in the archive offer insight into Woolf’s fiction.David Taylor is a historian, writer, and lecturer living in Cobham, Surrey.

A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Taylor has published several works on the history of Cobham and presented lectures to the Virginia Woolf Society, the Pre-Raphaelite Society, and the William Morris Society. Vernon Lushington is the subject of Taylor’s doctoral research.

Thursday, 12 March 2009
6 p. m., reception to follow
The Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street
New York, NY

Tickets: $12 reduced rate for members of the Society and the other sponsoring organizations; $18 for others.

For more details and to purchase a ticket, click here.

Contact Mark Samuels Lasner, (302) 83-3250.

Virginia Woolf's Freshwater to be Presented in New York on 19 November

2008-08-31T17:49:00.009-04:00

On Wednesday, 19 November, the William Morris Society will join with other groups to hold the first American peformance of Virginia Woolf’s comedy, Freshwater, in New York. The play, a hilarious send-up of Woolf’s great-aunt, the famed photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, and her friends poet Alfred Tennyson, painter G. F. Watts, and actress Ellen Terry, was written for a private Bloomsbury theaterical party in 1931. It is presented in conjunction with the Grolier Club’s exhibition, This Perpetual Fight: Love and Loss in Virginia Woolf’s Intimate Circle (17 September–22 November 2008).

This reading is sponsored by the William Morris Society in the United States, the Grolier Club, American Friends of Arts and Crafts in Chipping Campden, the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, and the Victorian Society in America.

Arthur Giron, the director, is a playwright and former head of the Graduate Playwriting Program at Carnegie Mellon University. A founding member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, the nation’s foremost play development organization, Giron had been called "One of our best contemporary dramatists" by critic Rosette La Mont. His latest play Emilie’s Voltaire won the Galileo Prize and will open in New York in 2009. The cast includes Liza Vann as Julia Margaret Cameron. A recipient of the Clarence Ross Fellowship from the American Theatre Wing, she has performed extensively in regional theatre. Her latest work is Good Ol’ Girls, which airs on PBS later this year.

This event is now sold out.

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

6 p. m.
The Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street
New York, NY

Click here for more information.

William Morris Society Website Updated

2008-06-29T12:48:00.005-04:00

We recently updated the William Morris Society website. You will find lists of Society events in the UK and US through the end of the year, the Summer 2008 William Morris Society in the US newsletter, corrected visitor information for Kelmscott Manor and Kelmscott House, and--perhaps most important--the full text of the Journal of William Morris Studies from 1963 through 2000. Soon to come: direct online ordering for publications, updated lists of Morris-related products and services, and improved images.

Eminent Pre-Raphaelites Symposium at Birmingham, 21 June

2008-06-13T09:49:00.004-04:00

This is late notice, but we have just learned of an event of outstanding interest. "Eminent Pre-Raphaleites: Rosseti, Holman Hunt, Millais, and Ruskin" a symposium sponsored by the Pre-Raphaelite Society and the School of Humanities, University of Birmingham, will take place on Saturday, 21 June, 9.30 a.m. - 5 p. m., at the Library Theatre, Birmingham Central Library. The speakers include Judith Bronkhurst, Stephen Wildman, Christopher Newall, Paul Barlow, and Simon Cooke. For more detials go the Pre-Raphaleite Society website, where a pdf with full detials and registration form may be downloaded.

Advance News: Walter Crane in Manchester

2008-05-24T14:49:00.014-04:00

The Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester will open a new display on 16 August 2008 entitled "Art and Labour’s Cause is One": Walter Crane and Manchester, 1880-1915. A close associate of William Morris, Crane was one of the most important, versatile, and radical artists of the nineteenth century—illustrator, painter, designer of decorative objects, wrier, and socialist. This exhibition explores the central role played by Manchester in Crane’s fusion of art, labor, and politics.
On 5 and 6 December the Whitworth Art Gallery hosts a conference, “Envisioning Utopia: British Art and Socialist Politics, 1870-1900,” to examine the dynamic between the urban and the pastoral in utopian visions of a socialist future and explore the role of visual art in formulating and articulating these political ideals. Keynote address Friday at 5.30 p. m. by Tim Barringer (Yale University). Speakers include Matthew Beaumont (Univeristy College London), Jo Briggs (Yale Center for British Art), Michael Hatt (Warwick University), Ruth Livesey (Royal Holloway College, University of London), Sarah Turner (Courtauld Institute), and Anna Vaninskaya (King’s College, Cambridge University).

For more information, email Morna O'Neil,waltercranearchive@gmail.com. This event is supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

William Morris Society Attains Tax-Exempt Status

2008-05-22T20:54:00.003-04:00

It's not every day that one opens a letter from the Internal Revenue Service which begins: "We are pleased . . .." After much work and the help of two lawyers (one of them our member, David Lowden, who helped pro bono. Thanks, David!) the William Morris Society in the United States has been granted tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. This means that gifts (financial and in-kind) to the society and dues may be deducted from income tax up the amount allowed by law. It also allows the society to escape paying sales tax on the purchase of goods and services—such a printing—and, not to put too fine a point on it, gives us a certain pride and prestige. The change in status will reqiore additional accounting records, also a yearly filing with the IRS (the first one goes out next week), but the benefits will surely outweigh the chores. We of course will welcome any and all contributions, especially those directed towards the society's fellowship program.

William Morris Society Visit to the Delaware Art Museum

2008-05-01T22:06:00.005-04:00

WILLIAM MORRIS SOCIETY EVENT
Join us at the Delaware Art Museum for an afternoon of art and fellowship. Our visit begins at noon with a special group tour of the reinstallation of the largest Pre-Raphaelite collection outside of England. On view are more than 100 paintings, works on paper, books, photographs, and decorative objects. Lunch follows at 1 p. m. in the museum's cafe. Then stay for a lecture (2 p. m.), "Flora Symbolica: Floral Symbolism in the Pre-Raphaelites" by Debra N. Mancoff, noted art historian and the author of Flora Symbolica.
Museum admission and the $15 lecture fee are waived for members of the William Morris Society (you are responsible for paying for lunch).

Saturday, 17 May 2008
12 noon
Delaware Art Museum
2301 Kentmere Parkway
Wilmington, DE

To reserve a place or for more information contact: Mark Samuels Lasner, (302) 831-3250.

A Chance to See Some Rarely-Seen Pre-Raphaelite Art in London

2008-04-29T21:07:00.011-04:00

For one week, from 23 May to 1 June, there is an unusual exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite art in London. The 53 works on view at Fulham Palace are drawn from the Cecil French Bequest, a group of paintings and drawings given to the borough of Fulham in 1953. A few of the paintings are usually on display at Leighton House, but this is an opportunity to see the whole collection, including no fewer than 26 paintings and drawings by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (who lived in Fulham) and representative paintings by such late nineteenth and early twentieth century British artists as Lord Leighton, Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, and George Frederick Watts. Two aspects of this exhibition strike us as odd. First, the admission proceeds benefit the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust–-a charity that seeks to "raise public awareness about the nature, symptoms and dangers of depression." A worthwhile cause, but is Pre-Raphaelite art the right art to promote it? Consider the subjects of some of the paintings on display--The Widow's Prayer (Leighton), The Wheel of Fortune (Burne-Jones, see image at left), Mariana in the South (Waterhouse). Beautiful images, but not always cheerful, to say the least. More surprisingly, the exhibition is on for far too short a period. The expense alone of moving the works to Fulham Palace would seem to justify a showing of some length--a month at least. Why not extend the exhibition into in June, when London is the center of the international art world, with major museum shows, antiques fairs, and auctions? Still, we should be grateful for even a brief chance to see such rarely available--and wonderful-- art.

Burne-Jones Research Site

2008-04-27T14:05:00.005-04:00

Birmingham Museums and Arts Gallery has the largest and most representative collection of works by the major nineteenth-century artist Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), who was born and grew up in Birmingham. The collection is in every sense an international public resource with over 1200 works, 1138 of which are works on paper and related material. Its unique range and depth has provided the theme and impetus for the Burne-Jones Research Site. This demonstration project is the result of a three-year research project to catalogue the complete Burne-Jones collection of drawings, watercolours, prints, sketchbooks, paintings designs, applied art and archive at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, led by Elisa Korb, a postgraduate doctoral student at the University of Birmingham. It sets out to expose and access this unique art collection to a world-wide audience. Nearly a third of the works have been photographed to date and the project led to the recent exhibition (and publicaiton), Hidden Burne-Jnes. The aim is to complete the digitisation of this collection in 2009, as part of the creation of a Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource Site.

We are Not Alone: William Morris in the Blogosphere

2008-04-26T11:47:00.001-04:00

Since inaugurating News from Anywhere we wondered what other blogs there might be which touch on William Morris, the Pre-Raphaleites, and the Arts and Crafts movement. A quick search in Google Blogs resulted in a plethora of references but only a relative handful of blogs primarily devoted to these subjects.

William Morris Unbound, written by Tony Pinkney, editor of We Met Morris: Interviews with William Morris, 1885-96 (2005) and author of William Morris in Oxford: The Campaigning Years, 1879-1895 (2007), contains varied and interesting comments "on and around William Morris and his work."
William Morris Gallery & Vestry House Museum, Walthamstow covers the current situation at the gallery, aiming to "Keep Our Museums Open."
Margaret, in Canada, has The Earthly Paradise: William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement . There is a strong interest here in the gothic revival.
Art Magick has a blog (see under "Forum") with comments and announcements, but the great value of the site is in the truly comprehensive listings of exhibitions of nineteenth century art.
The Beautiful Necessity, the work of Grace, from Ohio, is among the better (and most active) blogs devoted to the Pre-Raphaelites.
Stephanie Pina maintains two "companion sites," Lizziesiddal.com and The Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood. Both include commentary, many images, and lists of links.

If you know of other blogs worth noting, please let us know.

William Morris Lantern Slides Digitized

2008-04-25T11:44:00.000-04:00

The University of London Computing Center is working with the William Morris Society to digigitize their unique collection of lantern slides. According to a post on the ULCC's da blog, "Digitising the slides will finally help to open up their access to a wider audience, who may then be able to help provide important information about the provenance and content of individual slides. It's suspected that one of the images may even be a unique portrait of William Morris's daughter, May Morris, and that lantern slide images of . . . Kelmscott House . . . may be the only surviving photographic depiction of the residence. . . . The slides were originally kept in a wooden box, seemingly adapted from cheddar cheese packaging (i.e. from the sizes of the labelling fitting the box as it stands, it seems that these were the original "Maypole" cheddar box dimensions); an artifact in itself that will be preserved as part of the William Morris Archive." In due course, a detailed case study of the project will appear on the ULCC website.

A Morris Exhibition--and More--in New Zealand

2008-04-24T21:37:00.000-04:00

From 14 March to 29 June 1008, Christchurch Art Gallery will be the host of Morris & Co. The World of William Morris, the largest exhibition of Morris & Co. furnishings ever seen in New Zealand. Morris & Co. features more than 100 pieces, including furniture, carpets, tapestries, wallpapers, embroideries and tiles. The exhibition, organized by the Art Gallery of South Australia and curated by Christopher Menz, is accompanied by lectures, performances, mechandise, and an auxillary display of local fine printing inspired by the Kelmscott Press. William Morris and the Art of Everyday Life, a one-day conference convened by the Australasian Victorian Studies Association and the University of Otago, is scheduled for 10 May. This conference will explore the relationship between Morris and the art of everyday life--from the design of beautiful domestic interiors to his advocacy of a utopian socialism. Professor Florence Boos of the University of Iowa, distinguished Morris scholar and former president of the William Morris Society in the United States, is the keynote speaker.

From Puerto Rico to London

2008-04-24T12:48:00.000-04:00

Two major Victorian paintings, Burne-Jones's The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon and Leighton's Flaming June (left), have traveled from Puerto Rico to London, where they will be on view at Tate Britain until February 2009. "How did dozens of fabulous British works of art, most of them Pre-Raphaelites, end up in an obscure museum on a Caribbean island?" asks Alastair Sooke in an article published today in the Daily Telegraph. The answer is simple: they were acquired by "a far-sighted Puerto Rican industrialist, politician and philanthropist called Luis Antonio Ferré . . . In 1963, he bought Arthur in Avalon for 1,600 guineas at Christie's. In the same year, he also acquired Sir Frederic Leighton's voluptuous 1895 painting Flaming June." Ferré served as governor of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1972. "He bought Arthur in Avalon and Flaming June as the crown jewels of a new museum in his home town of Ponce. The first stone of a stunning white modernist building, designed by celebrated American architect Edward Durell Stone, was placed in 1964, and the Museo de Arte de Ponce was officially inaugurated the following year. . . . Working on a limited budget, he targeted unfashionable pictures, and collected pieces representing every major school of Western art. 'The scholars and critics all called it kitsch,' he recalled in 1993, referring to his extensive collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings and drawings. 'Everyone thought I was crazy to buy them.'"

"J. W. Waterhouse & Theatre" Lecture by Peter Trippi

2008-04-21T08:52:00.001-04:00

WILLIAM MORRIS SOCIETY EVENT
A reminder about "J. W. Waterhouse & Theatre," the lecture by Peter Trippi to take place on Tuesday, 22 April, at the Grolier Club in New York. This is the second in a series of events arranged by the William Morris Society and its partners, the American Friends of Chipping Campden, the Stockley Museum at Craftsman Farms, and the Victorian Society in America. Tickets are $12 for members of the William Morris Society, the Grolier Club, and the sponsoring organizations, $18 for others.

Tuesday, 22 April 2008
6 p. m., reception to follow
Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street, New York

For more details and to purchase a ticket, click here

Welcome to the William Morris Society Blog

2008-04-21T08:02:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the William Morris Society Blog. Here you will find announcements of William Morris Society activities, news of members, notices of exhibitions, publications, and events, and comments on items of interest concerning the life and works of William Morris, his friends, associates, and followers. Suggestions for discussion and entries and comments from members of the Morris Society and others on matters relating to Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the Morris Society are welcome. Please send communications to the society's webmaster, Mark Samuels Lasner.