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<DIV><FONT face="Book Antiqua">Thought this might be of interest to you all. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Book Antiqua">Best,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Book Antiqua">Sura Levine</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Book Antiqua"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 10/4/2004 3:18:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, elisabeth.fairman@YALE.EDU writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT size=3><FONT face=Arial>"“The Beauty of Life”: William Morris and the Art of Design<BR>October 14, 2004-January 2, 2005<BR>Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT<BR> <BR>William Morris (1834-1896) was among the most creative artists Britain has ever produced. A man of tremendous energy, he was a revolutionary interior designer and book printer, a staunch socialist, a famous and prolific poet, a weaver, embroiderer, dyer, calligrapher, translator, businessman, and architectural preservationist. He devoted his life to the decorative arts as the head of the internationally successful firm, Morris & Company, which he ran for over thirty years. Late in life, he established the Kelmscott Press to produce books that were beautiful objects in their own right. Morris defined art and beauty as integral to life itself and wrote in his 1880 lecture, <I>The Beauty of Life</I>, “Beauty, which is what is meant by art, using the word in its widest sense, is, I contend, no mere accident to human life, which people can take or leave as they choose, but a positive necessity of life, if we are to live as nature meant us to; that is, unless we are content to be less than men.” <BR> <BR>Organized by the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, <I>“The Beauty of Life”: William Morris and the Art of Design</I> presents almost 200 items from the Huntington's collection of William Morris materials, the largest of its kind outside of the United Kingdom. Additions have also been made from the Center’s collections, and from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Yale University Library’s Arts of the Book Collection. Included are original designs for stained glass, wallpaper, textiles, embroidery, tapestry, and books, as well as correspondence, a selection of rare editions published by the Kelmscott Press, and the manuscript for Morris's major poetic work, <I>The Earthly Paradise. </I>A spectacular 18-foot tall stained glass window designed by Morris’s partner and life-long friend Edward Burne-Jones will be featured in the Center’s entrance court. <BR> <BR>Morris founded Morris & Company in 1861 with Burne-Jones, the artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown, and the architect Philip Webb. Morris took an active role in the firm's creative enterprises, mastering all aspects of the production and design of stained glass, wallpaper, printed and woven textiles, and tapestry. The Huntington's collection in particular demonstrates the design and production processes of the firm, from pencil and watercolor sketches to the company's original Minute Book. In addition<BR>to showcasing Morris and his partners' genius for design, the exhibition explores Morris's fashioning of new forms and styles based upon his passion for the art and culture of the past, building a modern art upon medieval foundations. Morris's idealization of a medieval model of life that integrated creativity and labor led him to become a committed socialist, and a selection of material related to Morris’s political activities will be on<BR>view. A final section of the exhibition is devoted to the lesser-known activities of the firm after Morris’s death until its dissolution in 1940, represented in the work of John Henry Dearle, Morris's chosen successor as primary designer. Morris’s lifework inspired the Arts and Crafts movement on both sides of the Atlantic and has proven lasting in its visionary transformation of interior design into art.<BR> <BR>A fully-illustrated companion publication, entitled <I>“The Beauty of Life”: William Morris and the Art of Design,</I> edited by the exhibition curator Diane Waggoner and published by Thames & Hudson, is available in the Museum Shop.<BR> <BR>For more information, visit the Center’s web site at </FONT><A title=http://www.yale.edu/ycba href="http://www.yale.edu/ycba"><FONT face=Arial>www.yale.edu/ycba</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial> or call 203-432-2800.</FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial> </FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
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