Water House... William Morris Gallery...

In Walthamstow, north-east London, is the William Morris Gallery set in a grand Georgian house, that was briefly the Morris family home from 1848 to 1856. I decided to visit as I did not have the time to visit Red House - the stunning architectural work commissioned by William Morris in 1859 to reflect the aesthetic principles that would form the basis of the Arts and Crafts movement. Rossetti said of the home to which he was a frequent visitor - along with the other Pre-Raphaelites – that is was “more of a poem than a house”.

Water House (now the William Morris Gallery) in Walthamstow, situated at the entrance to Lloyd Park, is large and looming but I could not really imagine any type of family life there, probably because of the exhibition rooms and displays throughout. However, it is said that Morris spent time sitting in the tall window, on the main staircase... I hope it was this one!

William Morris, born in 1834, would have developed some of his ideas during the brief years there, since these coincided with his university studies at Oxford. As a student, he formed friendships and made acquaintances that exposed him to social, historical and artistic theories that would shape his vision and values in a radical manner. I wonder what Morris would think of the exhibition - Morris Mania? Or rather, how his work has been used by companies – past and especially present - whose values could not be further from his own?

Despite his mother’s yearning to see her son a bishop,Morris abandoned his theological pursuits and thus his initial goal to be ordained, just like Edward Burne-Jones, his closest friend and aesthetic ally. Yet turning towards architecture instead, he discovered that he possessed a greater drive still for interior decoration in its many aspects… and of course, poetry. Through Burne-Jones, Morris met Rossetti and, above all, read the writings of John Ruskin. These encounters led him to a quasi-religious life-long quest for social reform through design, rejecting the dehumanizing force of Victorian industrialized manufacturing and its dire effect on art and society on every level.

This virtually moral mission led him to revolutionize the design and production of wallpapers, textiles, ceramics, furniture, metalwork, and glass throughout his life, taking inspiration from Medieval art but also early Islamic work. Through Ruskin, Burne-Jones and Morris discovered the Pre-Raphaelite devotion to the purer age of Medieval art and workmanship and applied the tenets of this movement as a guiding principle, no more so than in Red House. In 1862, Morris and six partners founded an interior decoration business which was referred to as The Firm (Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co) and led a crusade against ‘Victoriana’ with its clutter and irrelevance. Commissions for church decoration and refurbishment brought in a wider clientele, as did work carried out for rooms in St James’ Palace and South Kensington Museum (the future V & A). Ironically, the production methods of The Firm – with handcraftsmanship and natural materials where possible - meant that only the wealthier members of the population could afford its offerings. Lower prices relied on mass volume production, which would bring in the very ills – aesthetic, social and environmental – that Morris was trying to combat. I cannot imagine how Morris would have welcomed the commercial deal between H&M and the modern-day Morris & Co in 2018. Fast fashion linked to the name of the father of socialist design methods; didn’t anybody see the irony? And then to quote William Morris himself to justify mass-manufacturing is quite something! "I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few".

In his time, Morris remained true to his vision and never knowingly sold his soul for financial returns, despite expanding the business through grand retail shops and seeking international recognition for the company. He was a prodigious writer – and ironically, was actually more famous in Victorian times for his writings rather than his art. This seems incredible today, when indeed Morris Mania has led his designs to be seen everywhere; anywhere and on anything… Kelmscott Press enabled him to design his own type and print beautiful work, as ever in line with his fascination for a pure brethren – the ideal community of traditional craftsmen and story-tellers. This did remind me of J.R.R Tolkien – and I was interested to learn that Morris’ poems and writing on myths and legends were indeed a significant influence on the younger writer.

In the same spirit, his rural atelier in Surrey, favoured a move away from the grime and grind of London in the 1880s for himself and his employees, and as such Merton Abbey provided a purer working environment, allowing Morris to study traditional textile production and dyeing techniques. Not sure that Morris could even have imagined today’s sweat shops that churn out the apparel that is readily ‘consumed’ and discarded… This could not be further from Morris’ optimistic vision of the future nor his faith in man’s progress. Indeed, aged 50, and already a successful businessman, Morris fully espoused Socialist values and for the rest of his life actively campaigned for social reform, expressing his beliefs widely. He condemned the exploitation of the underprivileged in an industrial age which brought about unprecedented pollution, poverty, disease and moral decay, stating that. "….there should be neither rich nor poor, neither master nor master's man, neither idle nor overworked, all men would be living in equality of condition, and would manage their affairs unwastefully…"

And what on earth would William Morris think of the use of Artificial Intelligence in art? When I see the AI'enhanced' Morris designs on offer, I could cry… Yes, artists may have used photography in the past/present to help them recreate a vision, yet that surely cannot be compared to AI, which does not simply reflect reality, but actively creates its own version of this, with or without the artist in question.