William Morris (1834–96) was an English poet, decorative artist, translator, romance
writer, book designer, preservationist, socialist theorist, and political activist,
whose admirers have been drawn ...to the sheer intensity of his artistic endeavors and
efforts to live up to radical ideals of social justice.
This Companion draws together historical and critical responses to the
impressive range of Morris’s multi-faceted life and activities: his homes, travels,
family, business practices, decorative artwork, poetry, fantasy romances, translations,
political activism, eco-socialism, and book collecting and design. Each chapter provides
valuable historical and literary background information, reviews relevant opinions on
its subject from the late-nineteenth century to the present, and offers new approaches
to important aspects of its topic.
Morris’s eclectic methodology and the perennial relevance of his insights and practice
make this an essential handbook for those interested in art history, poetry,
translation, literature, book design, environmentalism, political activism, and
Victorian and utopian studies.
William Morris Clutton-Brock, Arthur
2012, 2012., 2007, 2012-05-08
eBook
Considered one of the most prominent actors of the Victorian era, William Morris (1843-1896) was a poet, artist, designer, and editor, and did not hesitate to express his socialist political views, ...which at the time were frowned upon by the estalishment. His encounters with Rossetti and Burne-Jones, as well as his religious studies, made him a man of manifold talents. From this mixture of genres, William Morris would go on to construct a remarkable career, applying his ideas through various enterprises he established under the name of the ?William Morris Companies,? revolutionizing both interior decorating and architecture. He quickly understood the advantage of industrial production techniques , which he used to design his creations. Together with John Ruskin, he also became a co-founder of the ?Arts and Crafts? movement. Despite his admiration for Ruskin, he did not hesitate to publish his own poems in 1858 in his publishing house, Kelmscott Press. His fascination with the pre-Raphaelite painters lead him to push aside the canons of English art, and, under the influence of Ruskin, to launch the rediscovery of the medieval style of decoration. While drawing tapestries, carpets, glasswork, and other fine elements of interior decor, he became a fervent defender of socialism and participated actively in the Socialist Democratic Federation, which later became known as the Socialist League. William Morris transformed his dreams and ideals into the deeds that still inspire our admiration today. Through a series of illustrations, this work examines the scope of Morris?s talent, which continues to have a major influence on our daily lives today.
To build a shadowy isle of bliss Weinroth, Michelle; Browne, Paul Leduc
To build a shadowy isle of bliss,
2015, 20150101, 2015, 2015-02-13, 2015-01-01
eBook
Focuses on the political radicalism and social thought of nineteenth-century artist, author, and revolutionary, William Morris. Standing on the cusp of a new wave of scholarship, this book presents ...an exciting convergence of views among internationally renowned scholars in the field of Victorian Studies.
William Morris was a Londoner and, in his day-to-day life, he looked out on an urban, polluted Thames River landscape at Hammersmith. However, he turned away from the metropolis to pursue a ...pastoralist vision of the English countryside in his designs, writings, and life. This essay explores the expression of that pastoral in Morris's printed repeating-pattern designs, arguing that those patterns are indirect representations of the landscape he most admired: the rural reaches of the Upper Thames and its tributaries. Morris's plant motifs and visual effects reflect the botany and physical forms of the riparian environment he encountered at his Thameside country home, Kelmscott Manor. A close inspection of that landscape and ecosystem reveals not only the inspiration for Morris's designs, but also the process by which he selected and elevated certain aspects of the countryside to create his personal pastoral. His patterns are more than decorations for walls and furniture: they are intentional, highly specific evocations of a place and an environment, deeply tied to his broader vision of a rural, equitable, and anti-modern England.
Abstract
This article discusses the album of early photographs of types belonging to Talbot Baines Reed (1852–1893), divided between St Bride’s Library and the library of the Victoria and Albert ...Museum, and offers some addenda. The collection has importance as the photographs were used by William Morris for the design of his own types, the earliest known use of photography for such a purpose.
This volume re-evaluates the position of William Morris regarding contemporary perspectives on his artistic and political endeavours. Special emphasis is placed on the concepts and territories that ...lie in-between, both literally and metaphorically. This "in-between-ess" is the most remarkable quality of Morris, and secures him a unique position among his contemporaries, as well as inspiring new generations of scholars. Paradoxically, however, this aspect also contributes to a certain marginalization of Morris in studies devoted to "Eminent Victorians". Instead of speaking of ruptures, gaps or lacunas, the point of view adopted here explores the undefined terrenes situated between art and politics, viewing them as vantage points and departure planes which cement Morris's universe. At the same time, the book also argues that this universe has always existed in its specific shape and form, while the "poetic upholster", as Morris was ironically labelled, only discovered and explored different points on the map of a space that could have no limits and boundaries. The book offers new insights and avenues to supplement existing scholarship on Morris, including spatiotemporal aspects of his work and the relationship between art and politics.
Reclaiming William Morris Weinroth, Michelle
Reclaiming William Morris,
c1996, 19960923, 1996, 1996-06-01, 19960101
eBook
Moving through theoretical, historical, and exegetical analyses of propagandist texts, Reclaiming William Morris brings out the aesthetic underpinnings of nationalist ideology. Combining the ...philosophical substance of Karl Marx, Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, and Ernst Bloch with Kantian aesthetics, Weinroth constructs a conceptual apparatus that explains the impassioned yet decidedly marginal rhetoric of early twentieth-century English communism.
