It feels like forever since I went to an exhibition so you can imagine how excited I was when the ever-adorable Mr Walker, curator of the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery in Bournemouth, informed me that May Morris was arriving at the Russell-Cotes in time for my birthday! Now open at the glorious museum by the sea is May Morris: Art and Advocacy. And I also brought some friends...
I'll come to my friends in a bit, but this is a lovely exhibition. I mean, there was very little doubt that (a) any exhibition on Miss Morris and her art would be anything other than brilliant or (b) the Russell-Cotes would have anything other than a smashing exhibition up, but I was particularly delighted to see this light, pretty and fascinating show that is a breath of sunshine-y air through the chilly Spring we had been having. Occupying Galleries 3 and 4, this is jam-packed with May's work - drawn, painted, embroidered and written - shining a spotlight on William's Daughter and just how much of a modest powerhouse she was.
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As I've written before, it's easy for May to be overshadowed by her parents, especially her Dad. Within her lifetime and after, May's talent for design and writing was overlooked in comparison to William's and her looks were never considered a match for her mother, so it is unsurprising that we had to wait until the poor lass had been dead for the better part of a century to herald her glory. May herself didn't help in that respect, always deferring to the greatness of her father and spending so much of her life in preserving and celebrating his talent. From her birth, the second daughter of the Morris family, at the Red House, May was surrounded by the art and design that would consume her life. We move through to her management of the Morris & Co embroidery department at the age of only 23, which she led for over a decade. She liaised with clients, oversaw every step of the production process in as hands-on a manner as her father, and ultimately altered how embroidery was seen, raising it from being simply a household craft to an artform. In 1907, May founded the Women's Guild of Arts, opening up an art workers guild to women which had up to that point not been available.
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| Honeysuckle Fire Screen (1880-85) May Morris |
1909-10 saw May tour America, delivering talks on subjects like the history of jewellery and medieval embroidery. She left Morris & Co after William's death and found freedom in her freelance role of advisor and writer. She became the person writers visited to talk about her father's work and embarked on editing William's work in the last decades of her life, from Kelmscott Manor.
I don't think it is much of a surprise to the people reading this that May Morris was far more than just William's daughter, but the scale of her work is astonishing. She was clever, talented, determined and focused, working throughout her life. Her dedication to her work easily matches that of her father and she is a large part of why we remember William's work so clearly now. It is a pleasure to see the scope of her activities and also the value she placed on 'women's work,' clearly seeing that all craft and work is valid and valuable. In that way, the Russell-Cotes is a perfect place to see it as the collection in the rest of the house ably shows the talent of women artists, as collected by the founder, Sir Merton Russell-Cotes. It's a cracking show and a good excuse to see Bournemouth in the summer.
If you should find yourself at the Russell-Cotes, you might like to have a go at the children's activity. Six Morris print wombats have been released in the house and you have to track them down. Each has a print that connects to May and are named after people in her life, and are hand sewn by my good self. I hope May would have approved...
May Morris: Art & Advocacy is on until October and further information can be found here.
