Event category: Type

Exploring and problematising Morris’s connections with South Asia, this exhibition features new work by former artists in residence Priya Sundram and Nia Thandapani. Sundram and Thandapani have designed a new pattern based on Morris’s designs which is being made by traditional block printers in India and used to create a domestic-style space within the Gallery, where visitors can explore alternative resources around Morris and South Asia in various community languages. The exhibition will also feature interventions throughout the permanent galleries by artists with links to South Asia.

Featuring work by:

Vasundhara Sellamuthu
Shahed Saleem
Shehzil Malik
Studio Carrom
Kangan Arora
Rathna Ramanathan
Sofia Niazi and Aleesha Nandhra
Tiipoi

Image: Felicity Crawshaw

A display of wallpaper patterns designed by young people in the care of Waltham Forest in collaboration with Waltham Forest Virtual School and artist Angela Groundwater. Through workshops at the William Morris Gallery and via Zoom during lockdown, the young people made patterns using drawing and objects that are significant to them, creating designs that commemorate the stories of their lives. The design process was captured in a short film which will be shown in the exhibition.

Sacred Stories is a display celebrating young people’s lives and the unique paths they walk. It is a reminder that their —and our— sacred stories are everywhere.

The Black Artisans is a new photography exhibition by Jo Sealy that showcases Black makers and craftspeople, capturing traditional sectors of UK heritage crafts alongside areas of cultural heritage.

The 27 images feature disciplines that include ceramics, wood, brass instruments, stone, steel pan and calabash to name a few. There is also a series of recorded artisan talks where you can hear how each artisan selected their craft and how their experiences have shaped the type and style of their work. A selection of the featured display pieces will also be available to view throughout the exhibition.

The Black Artisans is funded by a Waltham Forest Council, Make It Happen grant, is supported by the Heritage Crafts Association and furniture maker, eco designer and broadcast presenter Jay Blades MBE.

Image: Jo Sealy

Young Poland: An Arts and Crafts Movement (1890 – 1918) is the first major exhibition to explore the decorative arts and architecture of Young Poland (Młoda Polska), an extraordinary cultural movement that flourished in response to Poland’s invasion and occupation by foreign powers.

Originating in Kraków and the nearby village of Zakopane at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, Young Poland sought inspiration in local folk traditions, wildlife and craftsmanship while collapsing the distinction between the fine and applied arts. Developing themes explored in a critically acclaimed book by its curators (Lund Humphries, 2020), the exhibition is the first in the world to position Young Poland as an Arts & Crafts movement, revealing strong stylistic and philosophical affinities with the work of William Morris and John Ruskin.

From furniture to Christmas decorations, intricate textiles to delicate paper cuttings, this landmark survey spans five galleries and brings together over 150 works, most of which have never travelled outside of Poland. Young Poland: An Arts and Crafts Movement (1890 – 1918) examines the ideas that propelled the movement and introduces the artists, designers and craftspeople whose decorative schemes and objects came to define it.

Artists featured in the exhibition include Józef Czajkowski, Zdzisław Gedliczka, Wojciech Jastrzębowski, Karol Kłosowski, Józefa Kogut, Bonawentura Lenart, Jacek Malczewski, Jan Matejko, Józef Mehoffer, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, Henryk Uziembło, Stanisław Wyspiański and Stanisław Witkiewicz.

Exhibition organised in partnership with the National Museum in Kraków and the Polish Cultural Institute, London. Co-financed by the Polish Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport within the framework of the Inspiring Culture Programme.

Image: Karol Kłosowski, At Bobbin Lacemaking (Legend), undated. Private collection. By descent from the artist

Althea McNish: Colour is Mine is a landmark retrospective of one of the UK’s most innovative textile artists and the first designer of Caribbean descent to achieve international recognition.

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, McNish (1924-2020) moved to the UK in 1950, completing a postgraduate textiles degree at the Royal College of Art before rising to prominence as a Black female designer. On graduating, McNish began designing bestselling furnishing and fashion fabrics for iconic firms including Liberty, Dior, Heal’s and Hull Traders, for whom she created one of her most famous patterns, Golden Harvest, in 1959. As her career progressed, McNish took on major interior design projects and mural commissions around the world, as well as creating wallpapers for leading companies.

McNish’s painterly designs incorporated natural botanical forms from Britain and the Caribbean, using a riotous colour palette that overturned the staid rules of mid-century British textile design. Her technical mastery gave her the freedom to create ever more complex prints. “Whenever printers told me it couldn’t be done, I would show them how to do it,” she said. “Before long, the impossible became possible.”

Drawing on extensive new research and her personal archive, Colour is Mine explores McNish’s extraordinary career, her transformative impact on mid-century design and her enduring influence today. Althea McNish: Colour is Mine is curated by the William Morris Gallery and Rose Sinclair, Lecturer in Design Education at Goldsmiths, University of London and is part of a three-year research, exhibition and archiving project generously supported by the Society of Antiquaries through its Janet Arnold Textile award.

Althea McNish: Colour is Mine is sponsored by Liberty Fabrics, who will also be reissuing a capsule collection of Althea McNish’s original fabric designs in Spring 2022 to coincide with the exhibition, available to purchase at Liberty in store and online.

Part of the BBC Art That Made Us Festival for Spring 2022.

To coincide with the exhibition The Legend of King Arthur: A Pre-Raphaelite Love Story, William Morris Gallery commissioned London-based contemporary artist Joy Gregory to create an installation exploring international myths and legends.

In response to King Arthur’s male-dominated round table of knights, Joy Gregory’s textile installation explores the role of women in folklore, myths and legends. The printed and embroidered textile forms a tent illustrated with stories where women are fierce protagonists.

A British photographer of Jamaican heritage, Gregory’s practice is concerned with social and political issues that reference cultural differences, language endangerment and overlooked histories. Her work encourages interaction, you are invited to read a book, share a story with others or engage with the illustrations.

Note: This temporarily installation will remain in place after the King Arthur exhibition closes in January (end date to be confirmed).

Image: Installation photography by Nicola Tree for William Morris Gallery 

The Legend of King Arthur: A Pre-Raphaelite Love Story explores the legend of King Arthur within the Victorian imagination, presenting national myths and legends through the eyes of Pre-Raphaelite artists.

King Arthur is a central figure in English folklore, a fictional 5^th century ruler who led his famous knights in various battles and quests. The Arthurian stories are told through numerous works by various authors from the 9^th century onwards. The telling and retelling of the legend culminated in the English author Thomas Malory writing down the stories in a single work in 1485, Le Morte d’Arthur.

The Arthurian legends fell out of interest at the end of the Middle Ages but were rediscovered in the early 19^th Century, initially by poets such as Walter Scott and Alfred Tennyson. William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones read these poems obsessively whilst at Oxford University and drew from them – and the myths that inspired them – for artistic projects throughout their careers.

This exhibition tells the Arthurian stories as presented by Malory, through the work of Pre-Raphaelite artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Arthur Hughes, John William Waterhouse and William Morris alongside lesser known female Pre-Raphaelite artists Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale and Elizabeth Siddal. The show will introduce audiences to the Arthurian legend within the context of reawakened interest in medievalism in Victorian England.

Curated by Natalie Rigby, Falmouth Art Gallery and Ainsley Vinall, William Morris Gallery, this is the exhibition’s first stop on a nationwide tour of locations associated with King Arthur. Following its debut at the William Morris Gallery, the exhibition will tour to Tullie House, Carlisle in February 2023 before finishing its run at Falmouth Art Gallery in Cornwall in June 2023. This exhibition was made possible with Art Fund support and is also kindly supported by Visit Cornwall, Visit England and Cornwall Museums Partnership.

To coincide with the exhibition, the William Morris Gallery has commissioned London-based contemporary artist Joy Gregory to create an installation exploring international myths and legends. Visit the installation upstairs in our Story Lounge. Read more

Image: The Arming and Departure of the Knights Tapestry, Morris & Co., (1891-4)