William Morris Gallery

David Mabb: Announcer. At the William Morris Gallery, London, until 27 September 2015

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In 1921 El Lissitsky moved to Berlin to work for the Soviet Government establishing contacts between Russian and German artists. Whilst there he met the poet Mayakovsky and together they created For the Voice a masterpiece of avant-garde book design.

This photograph shows El Lissitsky (standing, second from right) at the International Congress of Progressive Artists in Dusseldorf, May 1922.

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I want the work to project Morris out of ‘heritage’ as a concrete example of how he is useful today. This is very Morrisian, looking to the past for ideas for the future.

David Mabb on Announcer

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William Morris’s edition of The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896) took four years to complete - the title page alone took two weeks. His collaborator on the project, the artist Edward Burne-Jones, was constantly worried they would both die before it was realised. In fact, Morris died just four months after it was published.

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My pages are more or less to the poem as a piano is to the violin it accompanies

Lissitsky describing how his designs complimented Vladimir Mayakovsky’s verse in the revolutionary book of poems For the Voice (1923)

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Despite never having met in person, William Morris and the Russian artist El Lissitsky both shared the belief that it was better to learn by doing. Lissitsky wrote in 1921 that it is "more beneficial to be an apprentice than a professor".

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"Dutch wax" fabrics are used throughout West and Central Africa, including Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana and the Congo.

The prints have their origin in batik, a technique that produces intricate surface patterns through the process of applying molten wax to cotton cloth. The cloth is then dyed, after which the wax is removed to reveal the pattern. The technique most likely originated in India, where it then spread to other parts of Asia and the Middle East. The most significant development was on the island of Java in Indonesia; by the 13th century the Javanese had attained a high standard of batik artistry and due to the colonisation of various trading powers, had incorporated motifs and symbolism from Indian, Chinese and Islamic culture.

The arrival in Indonesia of the Dutch in the 15th century saw a significant increase in the awareness of batik cloth in Europe, due in part to the trading links established by organisations such as the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The time-consuming nature of the craft meant that batik was very expensive but by the 19th century textile mills in Holland had started developing techniques to mass produce batik cloth for the European and Asian markets.

Although not readily accepted in Europe due to their often bold imagery, the export of these imitation batik fabrics in Asia flourished. This ended in 1872, however, when Dutch products’ exemption from import duties was removed - significantly decreasing the profitability of trading in Asia. Textiles companies were forced to seek new markets for their textiles, so they began trading in Africa.

The trading of Asian textiles in Africa has a long history. Textiles from Gujarat and other parts of India were traded in the Horn of Africa as well as East Africa as early as the 1st century. It is uncertain when Javanese batik cloth was introduced to Africa but it could have been as early as the 17th century by VOC crew members trading fabric which included cotton chintz as they went along their trading routes.

Following the introduction of Dutch mass produced batik to the African market, companies - particularly P.F Vlissengen & Co (now Vlisco) and Haarlemsche Katoen Maatcheppij - began to adapt and modify the designs to local African tastes.  By the late 19th century, the development of a roll printer made the production of batik cloth even more efficient.  As different communities held certain colours in high regard, the new roller method of printing allowed for the adaption of designs to local tastes with greater proficiency.

By the early 20th century there was a rapid increase in the export of “African prints” to West and Central Africa. The popularity of these designs led many textile companies to start producing designs that were created specifically for the African market based on trips to Africa rather than being modified versions of Indonesian batik designs.

Although an amalgamation of Javanese, Indian, Chinese, Islamic, Persian and European aesthetics and African tastes, post-World War II the use of “African prints” took on a new significance: the wearing of these prints became a sign of African identity as many African nations sought independence from colonial powers. Text by Dalia James

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One of the Morris family photographs restaged by Yinka Shonibare MBE is of William's sister, Isabella. Krzysztof Adamiec from the Church of England Record Centre describes her remarkable achievements.

Isabella Gilmore (1842-1923) is best remembered not as William Morris’s sister but as a philanthropist and Church of England deaconess.

At the age of 40, after her husband’s death and to a strong opposition of her family she decided to become a nurse. In 1886 her life took another turn when she was recruited by the Bishop of Rochester to become the leader of the Rochester diocese deaconesses. As such she made a valuable contribution to the work of the Church of England by establishing, in principle and practice that trained deaconesses and lay workers could work with a parish priest, licensed by the bishop, but independent of any religious community.

From the start she understood the importance of improving the role of the women in the Church. She insisted that all her deaconesses should be "ladies"but at the same time they needed to be "an effective combination of nurse, social worker and amateur policemen". She established a training house for deaconesses in South London and oversaw development of training, ordination and a work assignment system for new deaconesses.

Isabella and her trainees worked (often up to 18 hours a day) in the most deprived areas of Battersea running a soup kitchen, distributing clothes and blankets, teaching basic sanitary methods and arranging referrals to hospitals. Her brother, William Morris, commented on this: "I preach socialism. You practise it."

Isabella also managed to create a system of rural deaconesses to work among poor agricultural workers and appointed a deaconess to serve the needs of the families of sailors. Another important project was establishment of the training house for underprivileged girls. She was also very active in fundraising for the Deaconesses Institution. She retired in 1906 but until the end of her life she took strong interest in the development of the deaconesses’ houses and role of the women in the Anglican Church.

Arguably, the acceptance of the ordained ministry of deaconesses was an important step towards the eventual admission of women to the Anglican priesthood in November 1992.

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William Morris Gallery curator Rowan Bain considers Jane Morris's influence on dress reform.

The flapper girls of the Roaring Twenties famously rejected corsetsin favour of loose fitting clothes that allowed freedom of movement. Yet this defiance of convention was preceded in the previous century by the women of the Aesthetic Movement. None more so than the Pre-Raphaelite muse Jane Morris, whose un-corseted sartorial style echoed the mythological and historical characters she posed as.

Aesthetic dress became the defining look for Jane and others like her; women who mixed among the most fashionable of artistic sets. The Aesthetes favoured fabrics in rich jewel-like colours such as ruby red, peacock blue, emerald green and amber yellow; the material of their skirts was allowed to drape naturally, rather than be supported by a scaffold of crinolines; and they discarded corsets, the undergarment that had dominated women’s fashion for so many centuries.

The writer Henry James wrote of Jane in a letter to his sister in 1869, “It’s hard to say…whether she’s an original or a copy…Imagine a tall lean woman in a long dress of some dead purple stuff, guiltless of hoops (or anything else, I should say)”. The unconventionality of Jane’s dress and personality left a lasting impression on James.

Others were less measured in their comments, in one diary entry from 1883, Jeanette Marshall cattily remarked “the three Morris women looked more like witches than ever” and described Edith Holman Hunt in “an awful embroidered garment of doubtful cleanliness”.

Yet by the 1880’s Liberty, the most fashionable of London shops was promoting the Aesthetic look to its customers in the form of tea gowns- loose, long flowing dresses that were to be worn at home when receiving guests. Jane and the other women of the Aesthetic Movement established a new style of dress that made the unconventional fashionable and paved the way for women’s bodies finally being released from restrictive clothing.

Image: Jane Morris 1865, posed by D G Rossetti, photo by J Parsons, © William Morris Gallery, London Borough of Waltham Forest

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In the first of our exclusive videos, we go behind the scenes to see how The William Morris Family Album was created.