The William Morris Society Museum Virtual Tour

A virtual tour for those of us who want to wander the museum.

ONLINE Zoom Lecture April 1, 2020, 7am

Tune in 7:15 am Toronto time (12:15 UK time) WEDNESDAY APRIL 1, for a lecture by William Morris Gallery senior curator Rowan Bain as she discusses her new book William Morris’s Flowers, published by Thames & Hudson in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum.

William Morris’s sensitivity to the natural world combined with his innate talent as a designer enabled him to create patterns with endless combinations of flower forms. His ability to adapt, distort and combine them into harmonious patterns means a field guide to all his flowers remains frustratingly elusive. Yet through a deeper understanding of his early influences, his gardens, understanding of colour, favourite flowers and approach to their uses in his pattern, the visual language of William Morris’s flowers can be better revealed.

Joining instructions:

PURCHASE A TICKET BY DONATION: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/william-morriss-flowers-a-talk-by-rowan-bain-tickets-101621578878

This is a live talk on Zoom, a video conferencing platform. 

You can join the talk on a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) or a computer.

When you purchase a ticket by donation, you will be given a link, which will also be sent to your email address.

Follow this link shortly before the talk. Please allow a few minutes to set up Zoom on your device, if you haven't already.

If you're joining on a computer

When entering a Zoom meeting for the first time from a computer you will need to download a small application file. If you can't download the application, or don't want to, you can also join from your web browser.

If you're joining on a mobile device

If you are joining from a mobile device then you will be prompted to download the Zoom Cloud Meetings app from the App or Play Store.

POSTPONED: Morris' 186th Birthday Lecture and Party

POSTPONED UNTIL THE FALL

Join the WMSC THIS FALL for a lecture and birthday celebration (with cake!)

1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, ON

Munk School of Global Affairs, Campbell Conference Facility
(St George Subway Station)

Author Mark Osbaldeston (Unbuilt Toronto, Unbuilt Toronto 2) explores two centuries of never-realized building and planning proposals for Queen’s Park and the neighbouring University of Toronto campus. Using dozens of images drawn from provincial, municipal, and university archives, Osbaldeston discusses the fascinating origins and fates of Toronto landmarks that might have been.

Mark Osbaldeston is the author of three books on architectural and planning history. His first book, Unbuilt Toronto (2008), was a finalist for the Toronto Book Awards and was shortlisted for the inaugural Speaker’s Book Award. Both Unbuilt Toronto and its sequel, Unbuilt Toronto 2 (2012), received an Award of Merit from Heritage Toronto. His most recent book, Unbuilt Hamilton, was published in 2016. It was shortlisted for the Kerry Schooley Award.

Mark has curated exhibitions based on his research for the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Toronto Archives, and the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology.

What will be the cake pattern this year? Stay tuned!

The Art of Kehinde Wiley

Naomi and Her Daughters, 2013.

Best known for his portrait of Barack Obama, the artist’s first solo London show is inspired by a tale of insanity and the women of Dalston

While growing up in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s, the Nigerian-American artist Kehinde Wiley, 42, discovered the work of the 19th-century British textile designer, writer and social reformer William Morris.

“He’s not so well known in the US,” he says. “But my mom was what you might call a junk dealer. [Her store] wasn’t really an antique store, but it sold second-hand furniture, oftentimes from old estates. So as a kid, I grew up seeing a lot of floral patterns, some Morris-inspired, some actual Morris pieces, among the stuff she was selling. And from very early in my life, there was this ornate sensibility inscribed.”

...

Over the past decade he’s included literal representations of several familiar Morris designs – Honeysuckle, Iris, Blackthorn and Granada among them – in his portraits, though in Wiley’s hands the colours can be clashingly vibrant. “And it was only after working with that sort of decorative style that I began to take the DNA of Morris and build upon it to create hybrids of my own, these kind of all-over patterns that feel random and chaotic as opposed to that very rational order you see in traditional Morris prints.”

It’s appropriate, then, that his first solo show in a UK museum, a survey of portraits of women, will be at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, northeast London.

Read the full article here.

Members Only February 19th Tour: Crossing the Line: Political Satire from 1800 to Today

Crossing the Line: Political Satire from 1800 to Today

Wednesday February 19th, 2020. 6:30pm
MEMBERS ONLY EVENT

Art Gallery of Ontario

383 Huron St, Toronto

(St Patrick Subway Station)

Political satire delighted Morris and his circle. Humour can be a powerful weapon to fight hypocrisy and corruption. As political cartoons critique the antics of people in high places, they inspire debate and provoke a range of responses from amusement to outrage. While playful and witty, visual humour can also be biting and cruel.

Our tour will be led by the exhibition’s curator, Brenda Rix, Manager of the AGO’s Print & Drawing Study Centre. She holds a Master of Arts degree in art history from U. of T. Ms Rix has curated numerous exhibitions including Painting with Light, British Watercolours from JMW Turner to Beatrix Potter.

There is limited capacity for this tour, so we will have to restrict participation to 2020 members only, no guests please, and ask you to register with us at this e-mail address indicating how many members are coming. First-come-first-served. We will keep a waiting list once we’ve reached capacity. Please note, Wednesday evening AGO admission is free after 6 pm. There may be a bit of a line up outside to get in.


There is limited room so please keep an eye on your email to confirm your place!
PLEASE NOTE ALL SPOTS ARE FULL. WE ARE ACCEPTING NAMES FOR THE WAITLIST. THANK YOU.

Textile Museum Tour - Printed Textiles from Kinngait Studios

Our first event of 2020 is coming up on January 18 at the Textile Museum. 

Tour of Printed Textiles from Kinngait Studios

Location: Textile Museum of Canada

55 Centre Avenue (Dundas St. W & University Ave., St. Patrick subway)

When:  Saturday, January 18, 11:15 am tour of exhibit 

(Meet at 11 am, when the Museum opens).

Cost:  $12 (Payable to the Museum when you arrive at 11)

Printed Textiles from  Kinngait  Studios  presents the little-known story of a group of Inuit artists and printmakers who produced a collection of graphic textiles in Kinngait, (Cape Dorset, Nunavut) in the 1950s and 60s – a period of social change that disrupted traditional language and relationships to the land. 

Made for interior décor during a period when artist-designed textiles were popular in North America and Europe, these mid-century designs depict legends, stories, and traditional ways of life. They provide vital points of connection between contemporary Inuit community members and the creativity and resourcefulness of previous generations.  

Lecture: Guild Park and Gardens

Guild Park and Gardens: Past, Present, and Future

Thursday November 21st, 2019. 7:00pm

University College, University of Toronto, Room 140

15 King's College Circle, Toronto

(Queen's Park Subway station)

John Mason will present an illustrated lecture on the history and future of Guild Park and Gardens (formerly known as Guildwood Park) including the inspiration its founders drew from the Arts and Crafts movement and their own passion for natural and architectural heritage preservation. 

Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, Rosa and Spencer Clark in 1932 decided to model their recently purchased property into the Canadian equivalent of Roycroft. They duly founded the “Guild of All Arts” on the Scarborough bluffs, providing a home and a forum for artists and artisans. Many of these were contemporaries or students of members of the Group and Seven whose influence is evident in the work produced on the site. Over ensuing decades, the Clarks built a reputation as patrons of the arts and preservationists, amassing a huge art collection and preserving architectural fragments from dozens of demolished buildings in Toronto.