Another favourite artist: William Morris.
Art Nouveau arose and flourished in Britain and Europe for a relatively short period in the second half of the 19th century, and until World War 1. Its signature is a flowing, sinuous, organic and often rather erotic style which is based on nature, and was a reaction against the Victorian's rigid attitudes and styles. The female form figured often in Art Nouveau, sometimes naked or scantily clad - a celebration of natural feminine beauty, erotic but never vulgar. Jewellery, glassware, furniture, posters and illustrations in published material all reflected this "new art". William Morris was one of the originators of Art Nouveau in Britain. He must have influenced many younger artists to follow in his footsteps. Charles Rennie Mackintosh, already described in an earlier post, was one of these. In Europe Alphonse Mucha was a wonderful representative of the Art Nouveau style - another of my own favourites. Other well-known artists on this genre are Aubrey Beardsley (erotic), Rene Lalique (glass), and Tiffany (glass, jewellery).
I'm beginning to notice something I hadn't appreciated previously: my favourite artists are not artists in the narrowest sense of the word. They all used their talent in practical ways. Norman Rockwell as a magazine illustrator, Charles Rennie Mackintosh as architect and designer, William Morris, remembered most for his wonderful fabric designs,
Alphonse Mucha for posters and illustrations.
William Morris designs have attracted me from the first time I discovered them back in the 1970s. Over the years his work has appeared in my various homes as wallpaper, cushion covers, or wall hangings. Sadly, as yet he isn't represented in my home in the US, but in due coure he will be!
William Morris was born 24 March 1834 in Walthamstow, Essex, England.
Before I looked at his natal chart I just knew there'd be Aquarius in there somewhere. He was a pioneer of socialism and ecological thinking in Britain as well as being a multi-talented artist, member of the Pre-Rafaelite Brotherhood, and Arts and Crafts artistic movement in Britain. He believed that art should be affordable and available to all and that every craftsman was an artist - he eschewed any form of elitism.
Before I looked at his natal chart I just knew there'd be Aquarius in there somewhere. He was a pioneer of socialism and ecological thinking in Britain as well as being a multi-talented artist, member of the Pre-Rafaelite Brotherhood, and Arts and Crafts artistic movement in Britain. He believed that art should be affordable and available to all and that every craftsman was an artist - he eschewed any form of elitism.
"My hero" on all counts !!
Extract from http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/online/morris/
"When William Morris (1834-1896) died at the age of sixty-two, his physician declared that the cause was "simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men." This multi-faceted man was at one time or another (and sometimes simultaneously) a designer and manufacturer of furniture, stained glass, tapestries, wallpaper and chintzes; an accomplished weaver; a pioneering preservationist; an active Socialist and social reformer; a successful poet and novelist; and in his last years, the founder of the Kelmscott Press. Yet all of these activities were of a piece, unified by several threads in the tapestry of Morris's life.
One continuity, dating from early childhood, was his love of nature, evidence of which may be found in the fond natural descriptions of his letters and poetry, the patterns of his tapestries, and the vining borders of the Kelmscott book. There was also his passionate devotion to the Middle Ages and to everything they represented; romantic Medievalism informs Morris's literary output, as well as his arts and crafts work and the books from his Kelmscott Press.
A third thread was his belief that it is impossible to separate esthetic issues from social and political ones. Morris often contrasted the social organization of the Middle Ages with the present condition of England, which led him to advocate a complete reform of industrial society. At first, he advocated an overhaul of the flawed esthetics of the age and later, realizing that such reform alone was insufficient, a thoroughgoing political revolution."
Extract from http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/online/morris/
"When William Morris (1834-1896) died at the age of sixty-two, his physician declared that the cause was "simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men." This multi-faceted man was at one time or another (and sometimes simultaneously) a designer and manufacturer of furniture, stained glass, tapestries, wallpaper and chintzes; an accomplished weaver; a pioneering preservationist; an active Socialist and social reformer; a successful poet and novelist; and in his last years, the founder of the Kelmscott Press. Yet all of these activities were of a piece, unified by several threads in the tapestry of Morris's life.
One continuity, dating from early childhood, was his love of nature, evidence of which may be found in the fond natural descriptions of his letters and poetry, the patterns of his tapestries, and the vining borders of the Kelmscott book. There was also his passionate devotion to the Middle Ages and to everything they represented; romantic Medievalism informs Morris's literary output, as well as his arts and crafts work and the books from his Kelmscott Press.
A third thread was his belief that it is impossible to separate esthetic issues from social and political ones. Morris often contrasted the social organization of the Middle Ages with the present condition of England, which led him to advocate a complete reform of industrial society. At first, he advocated an overhaul of the flawed esthetics of the age and later, realizing that such reform alone was insufficient, a thoroughgoing political revolution."
I was right! William Morris has Sun, Venus, Mercury and Pluto in Aries AND Neptune, Mars and Uranus in Aquarius!! Jupiter in Taurus, Moon in Virgo, Saturn in Libra. No birth time available.
Wow! Is there any wonder he was such a dynamo, physically and mentally ? And is there really any wonder that I admire him so ? My Sun and Moon are where his two stelliums appear, Aquarius and Aries.
A quote from Mr Morris which is equally valid today in the USA , long after these words were spoken or written in England:
"I hope that we shall have leisure from war, -- war commercial, as well as war of the bullet and the bayonet; leisure from the knowledge that darkens counsel; leisure above all from the greed of money, and the craving for that overwhelming distinction that money now brings: I believe that, as we have even now partly achieved liberty , so we shall achieve equality , and best of all, fraternity , and so have leisure from poverty and all its griping, sordid cares.”
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