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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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"

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

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

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

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.