I realised last night that I was in danger of missing Fiona MacCarthy’s admirable exhibition Anarchy and Beauty:  William Morris and His Legacy 1860-1960, which closes this weekend.   So, I made my way back to the NPG amidst the Friday evening crowds (there’s a lot of reading as well as looking to be done).   What comes across very forcefully is the amazing range of his activities:  writer (now neglected);  weaver;  printer;  manufacturer;  political agitator;  designer.   Of course, he was helped by having a private income, but it’s still an amazing record.   Not least, I hadn’t realised the extent of his influence on the Garden City movement, Ebenezer Howard, Henrietta Barnett, George Lansbury et. al.

We went to a brilliant lecture by Edmund de Waal on the influence of William Morris on himself and others.   He traced the influence of Morris’s writings and teachings on generations of craft practice, based on the example of a rock solid medievalising table which Morris constructed for himself when he was living in one room in Red Lion Square (hand built and communal).   De Waal went on to describe the ways in which the writings of Morris were absorbed by Bernard Leach and other members of the Japanese craft tradition in Kyoto, including Shoji Hamada; Continue reading →