Anarchy and Beauty: William Morris and His Legacy, 1860-1960, National Portrait Gallery - exhibition review

This show that seeks to present William Morris as a proto-hipster misses the point that he was a socialist, not an anarchist; Morris & Co’s workshops stitched trade union banners as well as table runners
Domestic bliss: La Belle Iseult, 1858, with Jane Burden in a medieval dress — a year later Morris married her / pic: © Tate Images / Tate Images
© Tate Images / Tate Images
Robert Bevan30 October 2014

So many families are unaware that they have a radical infiltrating their homes, making revolution on their walls, investing their floral curtains with class warfare.

William Morris’s dictum — have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful — sounds breathily Nigella but this advice, his wallpapers, textiles, poetry and breadth of output, were created in the service of socialism. This message, that the darling buds of Morris are no mere whimsy, is central to this exhibition.

Morris was convinced that revolution was the answer to the alienation of workers under industrial capitalism. His devotion to ennobling craft was key to his socialist utopian dream where artisanal work was valued. As shown at the National Portrait Gallery, Morris & Co’s workshops stitched trade union banners as well as table runners.

It is an unlikely show for the NPG to host as images of Morris are few; the hairy, sensual, “dreaming beast” disliked seeing himself and banned mirrors at home. Exhibited here are portraits of his arty circle and the desirable products of their studios alongside the architectural, artistic and design inheritors of his ideas (with some dubious inclusions and omissions) plus the only significant painting he made: La Belle Iseult.

More unlikely still is the exhibition’s title: Morris was furious about anarchist infiltration of his socialist organisations. He’d also be frustrated to escape the tea towel brigade only to be seen as a proto-hipster. Morris was about changing lives not lifestyles.

Until January 11 (020 7306 0055, npg.org.uk)

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