A New Paradise
William Morris was in thrall to the natural world and its beauty, with these themes forming the basis of many of his written works as well as his design inspiration.
His fame sprang initially from his epic poem The Earthly Paradise, but his concerns with our approach to beauty coloured much of his socialist and literary writing, and his advocacy of the hand-made fed into the creation of his domestic fabrics and papers.
150 years on, Morris’s concerns seem to have a particularly strong resonance, with consumers railing against mass-production and waste and a desire to appreciate the beauty of our planet. A New Paradise presents work by five contemporary artists who share this quest, reinterpreting Morris’s vision of Paradise for the 21st century.
