Artist, craftsman, conservationist and political theorist, William Morris was a man of prodigious energy and versatility. He not only created hundreds of designs for wallpapers, printed and woven textiles, stained glass, tiles, printed books, embroideries and tapestries, but also inspired subsequent generations to follow the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement based on his teachings. His opposition to the ugliness and conspicuous consumption that characterised Victorian interiors led him to champion the idea that interiors should contain nothing that was not both beautiful and useful. And his conviction that art should be available to everyone, not just the rich, first encouraged his development of handicrafts of all kinds, and then inspired his desire to overthrow the inequalities and inhumanity of capitalist society through the spread of socialism.
Many Arts and Crafts makers and designers were greatly influenced by Morris’s ideas but few tried to copy his designs. In fact, the Movement had no single style, no manifesto and no formal membership, and was more about a shared approach to design and making than about a shared aesthetic. But its emphasis on handwork, honest construction and high quality materials represented a radical new approach to design. And although the Arts and Crafts was predominantly an urban movement, a yearning for the countryside and the idea of the simple life lay at the heart of much arts and crafts thinking. Several leading figures actually moved to the countryside to establish new lives and pursue traditional workshop practices.
These lectures will explore the origins of the Movement’s ideas in the reaction to industrialisation in the 1830s and 1840s, then the development of Morris’s work from his early obsession with the Middle Ages to his later interest in nature and other periods of history. The final session will examine the different ideas and practices associated with the Arts and Crafts, and the spread of the Movement to Europe and the USA.
