Anarchy and Beauty: William Morris and His Legacy 1860-1960

William_Morris_by_Frederick_Hollyer,_1884_©_National_Portrait_Gallery,_LondonANARCHY AND BEAUTY: WILLIAM MORRIS AND HIS LEGACY 1860-1960

National Portrait Gallery, London

16 October 2014 – 11 January 2015

Introduced by Gallery Director Sandy Nairne, curator Fiona MacCarthy announces the first exhibition to focus on William Morris and his influence on twentieth-century life, politics, thought and design.

Many extraordinary loans will be brought together in London for the first time.

Starting with late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, the exhibition will explore the ‘art for the people’ movement initiated by Morris and the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

It then focuses on the work of arts and crafts practitioners inspired by William Morris and ‘simple life’ philosophers such as Edward Carpenter and Eric Gill, before showing how Morris’s radical ideals developed through to the Garden City movement and from the Festival of Britain onwards to young post-war designers such as Terence Conran who took up William Morris’s original campaign for making good design available to everyone.

‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.’ – William Morris

Daisy Wallpaper William Morris

Daisy Wallpaper – William Morris Gallery Waltham Forest

With portraits, furniture, books, banners, textiles and jewellery this exhibition will not only explore what William Morris’s vision was, but will suggest ways in which his revolutionary thinking still affects the way we live our lives today.

npg.org.uk

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