Decoration or Devotion, a new exhibition at Watts Gallery – Artists Village, exhibits the ceramics and paintings of William and Evelyn De Morgan.
They were regular visitors to Limnerslease, the countryside studio-home of their friends, G F Watts and his wife Mary Watts, where the four would talk for hours about art and politics.
The new exhibition of De Morgan ceramics and paintings – which is on long term loan to the gallery – asks visitors to consider the symbols and symbolism used by Evelyn De Morgan in her paintings, and by William De Morgan in his ceramics.
Aside from their devotion to each other, William and Evelyn De Morgan were both utterly devoted to their practice. This exhibition compares William’s aesthetically driven designs with Evelyn’s narrative paintings, to reveal their different motivations and approaches to creating.
William De Morgan was inspired by the huge influx of Islamic and Persian decorative arts from across the Middle East and Asia being collected and exhibited in the late-19th century.
Evelyn’s ‘painted parables’ stray from the traditional depictions of classical stories, legends and myths, centralising the women and situating them as the leaders of their own plots. She is considered an early feminist, and this motive can be seen in her more independent approach to a Pre-Raphaelite style of depiction.
The De Morgans were once described together as ‘two of the rarest spirits of the age’ (Sir Edward Poynter, president of the Royal Academy) but as designer and painter they were lone, stalwart spirits.
For more information about the collection, visit www.wattsgallery.org.uk/about-us/artists-village/de-morgan-collection.
For information about visiting Watts Gallery – Artists Village, visit www.wattsgallery.org.uk.
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Contact: Martin Giles mgilesdragon@gmail.com
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