Event category: Type

For Jeremy Deller, William Morris’s art and politics are inseparable, both being expressions of his rage against the excesses and iniquities of Victorian Britain.

In English Magic, the Turner Prize-winning artist brings Morris “back from the dead”, encouraging us to turn the mirror on ourselves and ask questions of the society in which we live.

English Magic was commissioned by the British Council for the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2013. The UK tour of the exhibition is supported by the Art Fund – the national fundraising charity for art.

The tour is the first of its kind and will enable audiences across the country to see the exhibition at the William Morris Gallery, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and Turner Contemporary, Margate in 2014.

Image: We sit starving amidst our gold, painted by Stuart Sam Hughes, 2013. © Cristiano Corte

At the start of World War 1, more than a million Belgian refugees fled the advancing armies, seeking sanctuary abroad. Around 250,000 made it to England – one of the largest groups of refugees in British history – and found a sympathetic welcome. Local relief committees formed all over the country, raising funds to sustain them during their time in exile.

The exhibition takes its title from a poster designed by Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) for the Belgian & Allies Aid League. “Will you help these sufferers from the war to start a new home”, it asks. “Help is better than sympathy.”

Bruges-born Brangwyn, already a well-known and successful artist before 1914, became a prolific poster-maker during the war and his designs became synonymous with First World War propaganda. Many present the horrors of the war, while others aim to recruit soldiers and vilify the enemy.  One propaganda poster in particular was so violent that the German Kaiser allegedly put a price on Brangwyn’s head.

Help is Better Than Sympathy presents some of Brangwyn’s best known posters, including ‘The Retreat from Antwerp’, alongside lesser known work. Shown together they offer an opportunity to examine Brangwyn’s attitude to the First World War, and the Belgian refugees in particular, using the gallery’s rich collection.

Find out more about Frank Brangwyn by exploring the Frank Brangwyn permanent exhibition or by browsing the collection online.

The exhibition is kindly supported by Farrow & Ball’s Islington showroom and the Heritage Lottery Fund

Both shows focus on Brangwyn’s concern for Belgium, and the powerful propgaganda posters the artist created to support the war effort.

The Belgian & Allies Aid League poster and the Rebuilding of Belgium poster highlight the little known story of Belgian refugees in Britain.

Image: David Brangwyn, William Morris Gallery.

Find our more about Help is Better Than Sympathy: Frank Brangwyn and the First World War here.

Jane Morris (née Burden, 1839-1914) was the wife of William Morris, and the favoured model of Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882).

In his maturity, Rossetti drew and painted Jane with an obsessional intensity and she was cast in many literary and mythological roles, including Dante’s Beatrice, Pandora, Proserpine and Astarte.

Whether in direct or symbolic guise, Jane’s features are depicted with a sombre intensity that offer a glimpse into Rossetti’s troubled soul. The exhibition, marking the centenary of Jane’s death, brings together compelling and rarely seen drawings and pastel studies of Jane by Rossetti, shown with images of Jane as herself, and explores her life and interests beyond modelling.

Jane was a talented embroiderer, linguist and musician and played a role in the family business Morris & Co. The recent publication of her letters (The Collected Letters of Jane Morris, edited by Jan Marsh and Frank C. Sharp, 2012), gives an unparalleled insight into her interests and personality, balancing the sullen and silent impression that Rossetti’s paintings have immortalised.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was the leading member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His depictions of Jane Morris ensured that her face became the iconic image of Pre-Raphaelite womanhood.

A touring exhibition in partnership with Bradford Museums and Galleries.

The exhibition is kindly supported by Farrow & Ball’s Islington Showroom.

Image: detail of painted portrait of Jane Morris, Bradford Museums and Gallery.

Each work in Tangled Yarns examines a different episode in the cotton trade’s complex – and often brutal – history, combining found fabrics with painting, stitch or print. Using both narrative and more abstract approaches, Alke Schmidt reveals how the trade is intertwined with issues of race and gender, exploitation and violence.

The earliest story is that of the violent campaign by English weavers against imported Indian cotton in the early 18th century, when gangs attacked women wearing patterned cotton gowns or petticoats. Elsewhere, classic William Morris prints have been subverted to remind us how Morris & Co, through its supply chain, was linked to the cotton mills of 19th century Lancashire. Recent events explored by Schmidt include the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building, which killed 1,138 Bangladeshi garment workers.

Each piece incorporates a different fabric, chosen for its association with the story being told and used as a canvas, sculptural medium or object in itself.

Schmidt deliberately cultivates the tension between the works’ provocative subject matter and their delicate, often decorative, appearance.

Rather than presenting a definitive political statement, she invites us to consider the contradictions and ambiguities of a trade that spans centuries, and every part of the globe.

The exhibition and associated educational programme is kindly supported by Arts Council England.

Special thanks to Morris & Co for supplying fabrics used in the show.

The work was developed at the gallery in August 2014 and involved exploration of Alke Schmidt’s art work from the exhibition Tangled Yarns and William Morris’s interest in employment rights.

This exhibition will take place in the Discovery Lounge.

The Victorian age, the legacy of Empire and the global textile trade are central themes in the work of Yinka Shonibare.

In this new exhibition, the internationally acclaimed British Nigerian artist turns his attention to William Morris. By inviting Waltham Forest residents to help recreate photographs of Morris’s family, he encourages viewers to reflect on the realities of equality in both Morris’s time and our own.

The free exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive education and events programme.

Image copyright the artist. Courtesy of the artist, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and The Church of England Record Centre. Commissioned by William Morris Gallery.

This exhibition is the result of textile artist Lucille Junkere’s residency at the gallery.

All Blues examines the complex, often painful, history of indigo dye. On display is a sample book documenting Junkere’s artistic journey into this complex and culturally significant colour.

This exhibition takes place in the Discovery Lounge.

With words like ‘twerk’ and ‘selfie’ making entries for the Oxford English Dictionary it is clear that textspeak has moved beyond the confinement of a computer screen. In a series of etchings and floral tributes, Adam Hogarth considers the impact on the English language.

An exhibition in the Discovery Lounge and Tea Room.

William Morris and Russian artist El Lissitzky both wanted to change people’s lives through their art. While Morris saw beauty in the past, Lissitzky sought a new visual language for the future.

In this work, British artist David Mabb celebrates the utopian ideas of these two men through their seminal book designs: Morris’s Kelmscott Chaucer and Lissitzky’s For the Voice, a revolutionary book of poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky considered one of the finest achievements in Russian avant-garde bookmaking.

Comprising 30 canvasses, Announcer takes over the gallery space, interweaving and contrasting the two designs so that Morris and Lissitzky’s graphics are never able to fully merge or separate.

Want to know more? See our Tumblr for images, quotes and short articles relating to Announcer.

Announcer is a touring exhibition from Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea.