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The Beauty of Life:
Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art
The Beauty of Life: William Morris and the Art of Design showcases over 130 items of the decorative arts of 19th-century English arts-and-crafts founder William Morris and his firm. The exhibition focuses on designs for the home -- textiles, wallpaper, floor coverings, and stained glass, primarily those executed by Morris and his protege John Henry Dearle. It pairs these with actual samples of the products created, offering views of authentic Morris wallpaper, printed textiles, wool carpets, tiles and a variety of curiosities of the time, and of the firm, including an embroidered fire screen with a Morris motif, a stained glass window, the firm's book of dye recipes, and a wooden block used to print textiles. A section on the book arts also highlights rare volumes of fine art printing from Morris's Kelmscott Press. This is an intimate exhibition whose delights are found in a contemplative viewing of the lavish motifs of this decorative 19th-century movement. The arts-and-crafts movement itself was a reaction against the growing availability of industrially mass-produced goods in the Victorian era. Morris felt this cheapened goods to a commercially consumable level, a descent into vulgarity that would ultimately undermine the values of individual craftsmanship and artistic aesthetic, not just for artists, but for the individual on a daily level. He espoused, not only a deeply-felt approach to craft aesthetics based on his appreciation of the middle ages, but as well an integral approach to design, seeking to "transform domestic life into an aesthetic experience" by providing a coordinated series of wallpapers, carpets, tiles and stained glass with which to decorate "the beautiful house." Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. -- 'the Firm' -- founded in 1861, was reorganized as Morris & Co. in 1874 under Morris's personal direction. The items on exhibit, from both companies, are samples of the many offerings produced to his exacting standards of quality in both artistry and craft. Rolling, linear rhythms and the ability to find endless variation in botanic motifs make the work of Morris and his studio a pleasure to view under any circumstances. William Morris and the Art of Design offers the additional cachet of seeing the completed works placed side by side with their patterns as worked out on paper. Roughed out in graphite they are intricate rhythms of pencil-lines, a decorative synthesis of abstracted plant forms, Oriental motifs, and the rolling, twining linearity of Celtic knotwork. What impresses most is each artist's facility in conjuring such intricacy from the blank page with only a pencil, and his sure planning and even surer eye in adding the delicate watercolor hues that transform the skein of pencil-threads into a lively decorative pattern. Morris's Pimpernel (1876) is an example of the intricacies of construction. Pimpernel is built on a strong, rounded line (the 'vine') whose directness is complemented by the looser handling of the folded petals and the long, flowing, slightly limp leaves. A smaller pattern of flowers, vines and leaves, worked into the first, fills the empty spaces with a secondary motif. The result is a complexity of elements and rhythms, stems and blossoms, with, what's more, leaves overlapping in the impression of a pleasingly natural dishabille. Add to this the dimensions of color and tint, the practical concerns of duplicability and repetitive patterning, and one can begin to appreciate the skill of composition involved.
The Block's adjoining Print & Drawing Study Center exhibits another aspect of Morris's passion: the book arts. Twelve rare editions are on display. All are opportunities to see in original print the characteristically rich ornamental borders, graceful illustrations (many by Edward Burne-Jones of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a lifelong friend), and the Gothic typefaces Morris himself composed to complement the whole. The Kelmscott Press was founded by Morris in 1891 and produced over 53 titles; on display are works of poetry, new editions of 14th-century romance fiction, classics such as Beowulf and the Kelmscott Press's 1896 edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the most ambitious work of the Press and taking four years in the making. Six selections of individual leaves from various projects give glimpses into the production process, among them a page showing typeface design in progress, the hand-drawn graphite and ink version of a title page, and a proof bearing an alternative pencil sketch by Morris. A further part of the exhibition is given over to Morris & Co.'s designs for stained glass. These works include dozens of small color renderings, a variety of figure studies, and a striking set of full-scale cartoons on paper for a triptych of windows approximately six and eight feet tall. Here again the plain pencil delineation, without the rich coloration to be later added by the glass, allows an appreciative look at the graceful lines of the composition while also bringing a feel of the production process. If there is a regret, it is that the descriptive texts posted near the works do not delve more into the specifics of design and composition itself, to directly involve the viewer in the fascinations thereof. Still, there is much to see and appreciate. Morris's reaction against the commercial, the cheaply-made and vulgar, by creating objects of skilled craft and lyric beauty, is as valid now as it was over 100 years ago. The Beauty of Life: William Morris and the Art of Design offers the opportunity to glimpse the design processes involved in the enduringly elegant creations of Morris and his firm. Featuring over 130 drawings, prints, and produced objects, the exhibition will be at the Block Museum through March 13, 2005. A 176-page catalogue of the exhibition also available at the Block Museum. The Beauty of Life: William Morris and the Art of Design (Diane Waggoner, Ed.: Thames & Hudson 2003) is priced at $25 and includes several essays along with color plates of the exhibition pieces. --Katherine Rook Lieber Katherine Rook Lieber has edited ArtScope.net's Visual Arts reviews since 1998. Ms. Lieber is Editor and Associate Producer for ArtScope.net. Editorial Note: Quotes are reproduced from the museum's exhibition text. |
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