LOVE IS ENOUGHWilliam Morris & Andy Warhol

Curated by Jeremy Deller

6 December 2014 - 8 March 2015

Exhibition Guide

MODERN ARTOXFORDEVENTS

THE YARDThe Factory FloorWednesday to Saturday, 12-5pm, weeklyFor the duration of Love is Enough, the Yard will be transformed into a ‘Factory Floor’ in homage to William Morris and Andy Warhol’s prolific production techniques. Each week a production method or craft skill will be demonstrated by a specialist.

The Factory Floor is a rare opportunity to see creative processes such as metal casting, dry stone walling, bookbinding, weaving and tapestry.

These drop-in sessions provide a chance to meet makers and craftspeople working with these processes today. Please see website for further details.

TALKSArtist talk Saturday 6 December, 6pm Free, booking essential Jeremy Deller in conversation with Ralph Rugoff, Director, Hayward Gallery, London.

Perspectives: Myth Thursday 15 January, 7pm A series of short talks on myths and myth making from the roots of medieval tales to our collective capacity for fiction and how myths are made in contemporary culture. Speakers include: Prof. Lisa Bortolotti and Dr Finola Kerrigan, University of Birmingham.

Anthony d’Offay and Jeremy Deller in conversation Thursday 5 February, 7pm Free, booking essential Gallerist, collector and Warhol expert, Anthony d’Offay is joined by Jeremy Deller to discuss working with Warhol.

Perspectives: Love Thursday 12 February, 7pm A collection of unconventional perspectives on love in the lead up to St Valentine’s Day. Convened by Dr Anders Sandberg, Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford.

Perspectives: Fabric Design Thursday 19 February, 7pm A series of short talks on the history and production of English fabric design from historical landmarks such as the arrival of Huguenot silk weavers in the East End of London to the production of iconic designs on London Underground. Speakers include: Kirsty McDougall, Senior Tutor in Woven Textiles, Royal College of Art; Jenny Lister, Curator, Victoria and Albert Museum; Michael Parry, Morris and Co.

Love is Enough: Symposium Saturday 21 February, 12–5pm £10 / £5, booking essential An afternoon of talks, presentations and workshops on the themes explored in Love is Enough including the relationship between artisan and industrial production, fabric design, and politics and art in the work of Morris and Warhol.

TOURSWednesday 7 January, 1pmSally Shaw, Head of Programme at Modern Art Oxford discusses the development of the exhibition and introduces key works.

Wednesday 21 January, 1pmBen Roberts, Curator of Education & Public Programmes at Modern Art Oxford discusses education, collaboration and participation in relation to the work of Morris and Warhol.

Wednesday 4 February, 1pm Paul Teigh, Production Manager at Modern Art Oxford discusses manufacturing and design processes inherent in the work of Morris and Warhol.

Wednesday 18 February, 1pmCiara Moloney, Curator of Exhibitions & Projects at Modern Art Oxford discusses key works in the exhibition and their influence on artistic practices today.

BASEMENT: PERFORMANCELive in the StudioDecember 2014 – February 2015A short series of performance projects working with artists using formal structures of theatre from scripts and rehearsal to the cabaret stage. Through open studios and live events this programme will reveal the process of making live work for an audience. Please check the website for further details.

Basement.TVSunday 14 December 5:30-8pmPart documentary, part satire, part chat show, drawing on the work of William Morris to focus on ideas about the future. The evening will feature artists’ projects, comedy, performance and leading thinkers and commentators on futurology.This event will be streamed live at www.thisistomorrow.info. In collaboration with thisistomorrow.info and Wysing Arts Centre.

BASEMENT: FILM

Andy Warhol’s Factory People Inside the Silver Factory(Dir. Catherine O’Sullivan-Shorr, 2008)Thursday 8 January, 7pmAndy Warhol’s Factory People tells the story of the Silver Factory that Warhol founded in 1964 in an abandoned hat factory on East 47th Street in New York City.

Topsy: William Morris(Boxwood Productions, 2000)Thursday 5 March, 7pmArt Historian Douglas Skeggs presents a biography of William Morris – also known as ‘Topsy’ – one of the most influential figures of 19th century Britain

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15. William Morris, Monopoly or How Labour Is Robbed,Pamphlet, 19 x 13 cm, 1890

16. William Morris, Monopoly or How Labour Is Robbed, Pamphlet, 19 x 26 cm (open), 1890

17. William Morris, Chants For Socialists,Pamphlet, 19 x 26 cm (open), 1885

18. William Morris, Chants For Socialists,Pamphlet, 19 x 13 cm, 1885

19. William Morris, The Socialist League – The Manifesto, Hammersmith,Pamphlet, 18.8 x 12.5 cm, 1885

20. William Morris, How I Became a Socialist,Bound pamphlet, 18.8 x 12.5 cm,1896

21. William Morris, Morris’s Socialist League membershipcard, Card, 11.4 x 15.2 cm (opened), 1890

22. William Morris, Sheet of meeting minutes,Paper, 31.8cm x 20.1 cm, c. 1880s

23. William Morris, The Hammersmith Socialist League,Photograph, 21.5 x 27.3 cm, 1886 (original)

24. Andy Warhol, Woman with HatGold leaf and ink on paper 58.5 x 50.8 cm, 1957

25. Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co, The Story of Tristram and Isoude, Panel 13 ‘King Arthur and Sir Lancelot’ designed by William Morris, 79 x 80 x 4.5cm, 1862

26. Andy Warhol, Young Man with HeartInk, gold paint and dye on paper 49.5 x 35.5 cm, 1954

27. Map of Eastern U.S.S.R.Missile BasesAcrylic paint and silkscreen on canvas 183 x 203.2 x 3.2 cm, 1985-86

28. William Morris, The CommonwealBound book, 39 x 26.5 x 2.8 cm, 1885

29. William Morris, News from Nowhere: Or, An Epoch of Rest, Being some Chapters from a UtopianRomance, by William MorrisBound book, 21 x 15 x 2.5 cm, 1892

30. Shirley TempleHand-coloured sepia print 25.4 x 20.3 cm, 1941

31. Andy Warhol, Marilyn tapestryWool, 198.1 x 177 cm, 1968

32. Andy Warhol, JackieAcrylic and silkscreen on linen ,50.8 x 40.6 cm, 1964

33. Andy Warhol, JackieSilkscreen ink on linen 50.8 x 40.6 cm, 1964

34. Andy Warhol, Flash (Robert Kennedy)Screen-print on off-white board 53.3 x 53.3 cm, 1968

35. Andy Warhol’s copy of Portrait: the Emergence of John F. Kennedy (cover and inside pages)Hardcover book, 28.6 x 22.2 x 1.9 cm, 1961

36. Red Jackie (1964) in Andy Warhol Portraits (Ed. Tony Shafrazi, Phaidon)

37. Sir Edward Burne-Jones, John Henry Dearle, WilliamMorris, The Attainment; The Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir PercivalWool, silk, mohair and camel hair weft on cotton warp 695 x 244 cm, 1895-1896

38. Andy Warhol, Joan CollinsSilkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas101.6 x101.6 cm, 1985

39. Andy Warhol, Dame Elizabeth Tayloroffset lithograph, 55.8 x 55.8 cm, 1967

40. Andy Warhol, Pages from Andy Warhol’s photograph album, Leather on board, paper, assorted photographs, 29.2 x 38.7 cm,

c.1938-1942

41. Postcard (“Greetings from Paris,”from Charles HenriFord to Andy Warhol, dated July 1963), Color photo postcard with felt-tip ink inscriptions, 23.7 x 18.7 cm,1963

42. Anton R. Miriello, St John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic ChurchPhotograph 20 x 13 cm, 2014

43. William Morris, Reproduction from literary manuscripts, Vol.XLIIBound book with drawings in pencil 19.5 x 12 cm, after 1861

44. William Morris, Daisy Hanging,Woollen ground embroidered with wools in couched stitches, 167 x 299 cm, 1860

45. William Morris, A brass rubbing from Great Coxwell Church,Rubbing, 93 x 109 cm, c.1870s

46. Andy Warhol, Resting BoyInk on paper, 41.8 3 34.5 cm, 1955–57

47. William Morris, Quatrefoil carpetBodycolour and pencil, 12.7 x 53.4 cm, 1880s

48. William Morris, Clock Case DecorationDesign on paper 43.9 x 68 cm, 1881

49. William Morris, Ambassador’s Entrance Ceiling Decoration for St James’s PalacePencil and watercolour on paper 66.9 x 67.1 cm, c. 1880

50. William Morris, Queen’s Staircase Soffits Mural47.1 x 49.2 cm, c. 1880

51. William Morris, Art & The Beauty of the Earth: A lecture delivered by William Morris at Burslem TownHall on October 13, 1881Bound book, 21 x 15 x 5 cm, Published 1899

52. William Morris, Hope and Fears for Art. Five Lectures Delivered in Birmingham, London &Nottingham, by William MorrisBound book, 29.5 x 21 x 2.5 cm, Published 1902

53.William Morris, Art & Its Producers,and the Arts & Crafts of Today:Two Addresses Delivered Before theNational Association for the Advancement of Art by William MorrisBound book, 21 x 15 x 5 cm, Published 1901

54. William Morris, True and False Societypamphlet, 12.5 x 8.8 cm 1893

55. Andy Warhol, American Race RiotScreen-print, 76.5 x 101.6 cm, 1964

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15. William Morris, Monopoly or How Labour Is Robbed,Pamphlet, 19 x 13 cm, 1890

16. William Morris, Monopoly or How Labour Is Robbed, Pamphlet, 19 x 26 cm (open), 1890

17. William Morris, Chants For Socialists,Pamphlet, 19 x 26 cm (open), 1885

18. William Morris, Chants For Socialists,Pamphlet, 19 x 13 cm, 1885

19. William Morris, The Socialist League – The Manifesto, Hammersmith,Pamphlet, 18.8 x 12.5 cm, 1885

20. William Morris, How I Became a Socialist,Bound pamphlet, 18.8 x 12.5 cm,1896

21. William Morris, Morris’s Socialist League membershipcard, Card, 11.4 x 15.2 cm (opened), 1890

22. William Morris, Sheet of meeting minutes,Paper, 31.8cm x 20.1 cm, c. 1880s

23. William Morris, The Hammersmith Socialist League,Photograph, 21.5 x 27.3 cm, 1886 (original)

24. Andy Warhol, Woman with HatGold leaf and ink on paper 58.5 x 50.8 cm, 1957

25. Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co, The Story of Tristram and Isoude, Panel 13 ‘King Arthur and Sir Lancelot’ designed by William Morris, 79 x 80 x 4.5cm, 1862

26. Andy Warhol, Young Man with HeartInk, gold paint and dye on paper 49.5 x 35.5 cm, 1954

27. Map of Eastern U.S.S.R.Missile BasesAcrylic paint and silkscreen on canvas 183 x 203.2 x 3.2 cm, 1985-86

28. William Morris, The CommonwealBound book, 39 x 26.5 x 2.8 cm, 1885

29. William Morris, News from Nowhere: Or, An Epoch of Rest, Being some Chapters from a UtopianRomance, by William MorrisBound book, 21 x 15 x 2.5 cm, 1892

30. Shirley TempleHand-coloured sepia print 25.4 x 20.3 cm, 1941

31. Andy Warhol, Marilyn tapestryWool, 198.1 x 177 cm, 1968

32. Andy Warhol, JackieAcrylic and silkscreen on linen ,50.8 x 40.6 cm, 1964

33. Andy Warhol, JackieSilkscreen ink on linen 50.8 x 40.6 cm, 1964

34. Andy Warhol, Flash (Robert Kennedy)Screen-print on off-white board 53.3 x 53.3 cm, 1968

35. Andy Warhol’s copy of Portrait: the Emergence of John F. Kennedy (cover and inside pages)Hardcover book, 28.6 x 22.2 x 1.9 cm, 1961

36. Red Jackie (1964) in Andy Warhol Portraits (Ed. Tony Shafrazi, Phaidon)

37. Sir Edward Burne-Jones, John Henry Dearle, WilliamMorris, The Attainment; The Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir PercivalWool, silk, mohair and camel hair weft on cotton warp 695 x 244 cm, 1895-1896

38. Andy Warhol, Joan CollinsSilkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas101.6 x101.6 cm, 1985

39. Andy Warhol, Dame Elizabeth Tayloroffset lithograph, 55.8 x 55.8 cm, 1967

40. Andy Warhol, Pages from Andy Warhol’s photograph album, Leather on board, paper, assorted photographs, 29.2 x 38.7 cm,

c.1938-1942

41. Postcard (“Greetings from Paris,”from Charles HenriFord to Andy Warhol, dated July 1963), Color photo postcard with felt-tip ink inscriptions, 23.7 x 18.7 cm,1963

42. Anton R. Miriello, St John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic ChurchPhotograph 20 x 13 cm, 2014

43. William Morris, Reproduction from literary manuscripts, Vol.XLIIBound book with drawings in pencil 19.5 x 12 cm, after 1861

44. William Morris, Daisy Hanging,Woollen ground embroidered with wools in couched stitches, 167 x 299 cm, 1860

45. William Morris, A brass rubbing from Great Coxwell Church,Rubbing, 93 x 109 cm, c.1870s

46. Andy Warhol, Resting BoyInk on paper, 41.8 3 34.5 cm, 1955–57

47. William Morris, Quatrefoil carpetBodycolour and pencil, 12.7 x 53.4 cm, 1880s

48. William Morris, Clock Case DecorationDesign on paper 43.9 x 68 cm, 1881

49. William Morris, Ambassador’s Entrance Ceiling Decoration for St James’s PalacePencil and watercolour on paper 66.9 x 67.1 cm, c. 1880

50. William Morris, Queen’s Staircase Soffits Mural47.1 x 49.2 cm, c. 1880

51. William Morris, Art & The Beauty of the Earth: A lecture delivered by William Morris at Burslem TownHall on October 13, 1881Bound book, 21 x 15 x 5 cm, Published 1899

52. William Morris, Hope and Fears for Art. Five Lectures Delivered in Birmingham, London &Nottingham, by William MorrisBound book, 29.5 x 21 x 2.5 cm, Published 1902

53.William Morris, Art & Its Producers,and the Arts & Crafts of Today:Two Addresses Delivered Before theNational Association for the Advancement of Art by William MorrisBound book, 21 x 15 x 5 cm, Published 1901

54. William Morris, True and False Societypamphlet, 12.5 x 8.8 cm 1893

55. Andy Warhol, American Race RiotScreen-print, 76.5 x 101.6 cm, 1964

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SUPPORTED BY

Arts Council England Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through

Arts Council England’s Exceptional award programmeOxford City Council

Wallpaper*Sanderson

Morris & Co.Absolut Vodka

The Curtain Shop OxfordColin Stretton Decorator

DMC Creative

CORPORATE PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS

Bonham's Rise

HMG Law Wenn Townsend

The Modern InstituteGavin Brown Gallery

Contents1. Introduction 2. Warhol in Oxford - Christopher Gray3. Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules (1974-1987) - Matt Wrbican4. Off the Wall - Michael Parry5. An Enduring Brand - Alison Gee6. William Morris & Kelmscott Manor - Dr Kathy Haslam 7. The Relationship Between the Neural Plumbing and the Agape - Dr. Anders Sandberg8. Andy Warhol’s Fantasy Love - Jean Wainwright

9 & 10. Interview - Jeremy Deller interviewed by Rhys Coren

11 & 12. Piper Gallery - Map & list of works13 & 14. Middle Gallery i & ii - Map & list of works15 & 16. Main Gallery - Map & list of works

17. Events

1. Andy Warhol, Electric ChairScreenprints 91.9 x 123 cm, 1971

2. Andy Warhol, Electric Chair II.82Portfolio of ten screenprintsEdition of 250, 90.2 x 121 cm, 1971

3-8. Andy Warhol, MaoAcrylic and silkscreen ink on linen Each 61 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm, 1973

9. William Morris, Useful Work Versus Useless Toil,Pamphlet, 19 x 13 cm,1893

10. William Morris, Useful Work Versus Useless Toil,Pamphlet, 19 x 26 (open) cm, 1893

MAIN GALLERY

11. William Morris, A Summary of The Principles of Socialism written for the Democratic Federation,Pamphlet, 18.5 x 12.5 cm, 1896

12. William Morris, A Factory as it Might Be,Bound book, 22.2 x 29 cm (open), 1907

13. William Morris, The Tables Turned or Nupkins Awakened: A Socialist Interlude by William Morris,Pamphlet, 18.5 x 12.5 cm,1887

14. William Morris, True and False Society,Pamphlet, 19 x 13 cm, 1888

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Jeremy Deller has been invited by Modern Art Oxford to examine two of his artistic heroes in an unconventional exhibition that draws surprising connections between these two iconic cultural figures. LOVE IS ENOUGH is the title of one of Morris’s most significant literary contributions from the later end of his highly prolific career. It could equally have been an expression coined by Warhol, famous for his concise and knowing use of language through mass media.

The exhibition will occupy the full suite of galleries at Modern Art Oxford and will examine common interests that both artists shared across different periods of history and different cultural and political contexts. The core areas of focus for the exhibition revolve around the mass popularisation of contemporary art, design process and manufacturing techniques, shared mythologies and obsessions and politics and publications.

The selection of iconic works in Modern Art Oxford’s Upper Gallery will examine the treatment of nation, empire and mythology in both artists’ work. In this room Deller has chosen to present Andy Warhol’s famed portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Joan Collins and Liz Taylor alongside William Morris’s epic Holy Grail tapestries, which depict scenes from the legend of King Arthur. The heroism and beauty celebrated in the Camelot stories resonate with the tragedy of the Kennedy family told through a series of portraits in Warhol’s Flash Portfolio, made in the aftermath of JFK’s assassination.

Warhol’s obsession with celebrity is made further apparent through the letters and autographs from famous actors that the artist collected as a child. A range of vintage Interview magazines, the long-running publication established by Warhol in 1969, reveals his taste for candid conversations between the stars and

high impact design. This is contrasted with the Morris’s interest in medieval legends and iconography, shared with artists like Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones. Both artists’ interest in the politics of their times is explored in further detail through screenprints by Warhol drawn from newspaper cuttings alongside Morris’s strident socialist writings and speeches including showing items such as Morris’s own membership card for the socialist league as well pamphlets and correspondents.

Love Is Enough investigates the working practices of both artists in great detail, unearthing notes, works in progress, early designs and other ephemera to reveal the inner workings of Morris & Co. and The Factory, respectively. Neither artist worked alone. In fact, both of Warhol and Morris relied heavily on larger systems of production, working with teams of staff and developing mass-production technologies in order to execute their ambitious designs.

This interest in repetition is explored in more detail in the John Piper Gallery wherein the decorative patterns of Morris’s textiles, fabric swatches and wallpapers are contrasted with Warhol’s Flowers paintings and works on paper depicting soup cans, dollar bills and other imagery from mass media and advertising.

While seemingly disparate in their aesthetics, Deller argues that Warhol and Morris were both essentially printmakers keen to popularise art. As Morris once said “I do not want art for a few, any more than I want education for a few, or freedom for a few.” Both artists collaborated consistently with the most talented artists of their day. Never satisfied with just one discipline, they wrote, published and, in their embrace of commercial and fine art, had influence far beyond the art world.

LOVE IS ENOUGHWilliam Morris & Andy WarholCurated by Jeremy DellerModern Art Oxford6 December 2014 - 8 March 2015

INTRODUCTION

1.

1. A selection of magazines featuring Andy Warhol’s commercial drawings

2. Unknown photographer, Morris & Co., Oxford Street, LondonPhotograph Dimensions variable, c.1898 (original)

3. William Morris, Holy Grail original prints in Morris & Co. Oak framesPrint 20 x 63 cm; 20 x 8.3 cm, c. 1898

4. Morris & Co. , Morris wallpapersCatalogue 29.7 x 21 cm, c. 1912

5. Morris & Co. , Morris wallpapersCatalogue 29.7 x 42 cm (open), c. 1912

6. Morris & Co. , Morris chintzes, silks, tapestriesCatalogue 29.7 x 21 cm, c. 1912

7. Morris & Co. , Specimens of upholstered furnitureCatalogue 29.7 x 21 cm, c. 1911

8. Morris & Co. , Specimens of upholstered furnitureCatalogue 29.7 x 42 cm (open), c. 1911

9. William Morris, Morris & Co.Stand Book from Hanover Square ShowroomBound book 106 x 57 x 9 cm, c.1917

10. Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol with Heinz BoxesGelatin silver print 35.6 x 28 cm, 1964

11. Andy Warhol, Heinz Tomato Ketchup BoxSilkscreen ink and house paint on plywood 21.6 x 39.4 x 26.7 cm, 1964

12. William John Kennedy, Untitled (Warhol Holding Marilyn Acetate I)Gelatin silver fibre print 50 x 40 cm (framed), 2010

13-18. A selection of images of Andy Warhol’s Factory and Merton Abbey

19. William Morris, Designs and borders various, Ink on paper, 17.7 x 21.2 cm, 1896

20. William Morris, Lettering designs various, Ink on paper, 17.7 x 21.2 cm, 1896

21. Original drawing for Kelmscott Chaucer cover,Ink on paper, 65.7 x 50.2 cm (framed), c.1895

22. William Morris, Chaucer printed pages with Burne-Jones illustrations, Printed paper, 42.4 x 58.7 cm, 1896

23. William Morris, Psyche going into Hell, Woodblock, 1866

24. William Morris, The Procession to the Hill: Psyche and the King, Woodblock, 1866

25. William Morris, The task of the gold-wooled sheep: the reeds, Woodblock, 1866

26. William Morris, Sidonie the Sorceress, Bound book, 29.5 x 22 x 4.5 cm, 1893

27. Letter by William Morris to G. F. Campfield, Ink on paper, 20 x 12.5 cm, 1891

28. Campfield letters N and B for The Story of the Glittering Plain

29. William Morris, The Story of the Glittering Plain Ink and paper, 21 x 15 x 2.5 cm, 1891

30. William Morris, A Dream of John Ball and a King’s Lesson, Bound book, 21 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 1892

31. William Morris, The History of Godfrey of Bologne,Bound book 29.5 x 22 x 4.5 cm,1893

32. William Morris, Kelmscott ChaucerBound book 43.5 x 30 x 6 cm, 1896

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Andy Warhol visited Oxford only once during his life, for a party in February 1980 to promote Andy Warhol’s Exposures, his book of black-and-white photographs of celebrities at play.

This was held at 29 Charlbury Road, a large North Oxford property belonging to St Antony’s College and home to its Warden, Sir Raymond Carr, and his family.

Bigger than ever in Britain at the time, according to his biographer Victor Bockris, Warhol was on a three-day visit to London, staying at the Ritz Hotel. “[His trip] is riddled with interviews, bugged with TV cameras and tape-recorders and beset with people just longing to give parties for him,” wrote the journalist Emma Soames. One of these people was Raymond Carr’s son Matthew, a talented portrait painter and well-known figure on the Oxford student social scene, though six or seven years older than those he was mixing with. He heard on the grapevine that Warhol was eager to meet some of the University’s better-connected undergraduates and persuaded his father to allow use of the family home for the purpose. The college butler poured the cocktails.

I was present at the party both as a friend of Matthew and as a reporter for the Oxford Mail and Times. Rob Judges, one of the Mail’s photographers, was there as well.The hosts for the occasion were said to be The George Club, “an exclusive undergraduate society,” I reported, “which exists to promote Anglo-American relations”.

Was there really such a group? Certainly, until that night I had never heard of it, and the suspicion was that it might have been of very recent invention, like the exclusive (and supposedly decadent) Piers Gaveston Society, many of whose members were there to meet Warhol.

That the club had been formally established is asserted, however, by one of its founders, the Hon Valentine Guinness, the musician and playwright son of brewery heir Lord Moyne. He says: “The George Club did indeed exist. It was the brainchild of myself and an American post-grad called Jeffrey Leeds. We called it the George

WARHOL IN OXFORDChristopher Gray, Arts Editor, Oxford Times

Club after George III and George Washington. It was set up in 1979 as a one-off. No further members were elected. It was unlike all the other clubs in that we had both boys and girls. There was a lot of cross-over with the Piers Gaveston Society.”

Valentine, who is pictured chatting to Warhol in pictures taken at the event, was able to use family connections to bring the artist to Oxford. His sister Catherine was working at the time as a reporter for Warhol’s Interview magazine. Both Valentine and Catherine are pictured in Andy Warhol’s Exposures, she in a state of daring undress.

There were older people present at the Charlbury Road party, too, friends of Raymond Carr in the main, keen to cast an appraising eye over the American visitor. They included novelist Iris Murdoch, who lived just along the road, and Lord Goodman, the Master of University College, who was with his regular companion of the day, Ann Fleming, the widow of James Bond’s creator Ian Fleming.

They were given, as I reported, “a typically laconic performance” from Warhol. “For someone who admits to being a compulsive once-a-day party-goer and who owns a magazine called Interview, Mr Warhol was extremely reluctant either to be seen to enjoy the party or to be on the receiving end of Press questions.”

One of my friends, Andrew Lever, who is seen talking to Warhol in one of the Oxford Mail’s photographs, told me later that he was surprised to be asked: “Would you like to see my wounds?” The reference was presumed to be to the scars arising from the near-fatal shooting of Warhol by the radical feminist Valerie Solanas at the Factory on June 3, 1968.

In brief a conversation with me as he signed my copy of Andy Warhol’s Exposures, with some decorative heart-shaped flourishes on the cover and title page with his black felt-tipped pen, he admitted that he was impressed with his first glimpse of Oxford’s social life. “Oh, it’s grand.”

Andy Warhol in Oxford, 1980, Image courtesy of the Oxford Mail/The Oxford Times (Newsquest Oxfordshire), Photo: Christopher Gray

2.

MIDDLE GALLERY i & ii

1. William Morris, Self-portraitPencil drawing 28.6 x 22.2 cm, 1856

2. A selection of Andy Warhol and William Morris novels and Magazines

3. Andy Warhol, Shadow (from Myths) Ed.No.131/200Screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board, 96.5 x 96.5 cm, 1981

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The significant aspect of the Time Capsules is not their monotonous exterior appearance, but their greatly varied and voluminous contents. They are accumulation-as-concept (an aesthetic approach not uncommon among the artists of Warhol’s generation) and they occupied his interest for 13 years, and would have continued longer, but were halted by his unexpected death in 1987. Warhol assembled the TCs with the greatest frequency in the 1980s. Initially conceived as a method for cleaning up the mess in his studio, in preparation for moving it a few blocks away in 1974, the Time Capsules evolved into one of the artist’s many daily rituals.

Consisting of 610 containers, each TC box holds an average of more than 200 items. Many of these objects have multiple parts, so that each TC contains over 500 objects, resulting in approximately 305,000 objects in total. The objects include letters, photographs, publications, audio and video recordings, clothing, food, medicine, antiques, ephemera, kitsch, and even small works of art by Warhol and other artists (both unknown and well-known). Given that their creation date ends right before the personal computer explosion, they are loaded with paper ephemera, including obsolete communications such as telephone messages mailed to Warhol by his answering service, and good old telegrams.

At its face, this diverse and even bewildering quantity of materials is Warhol’s best creative expression of his response, when asked by an interviewer in 1963 to define the new art movement, “Pop Art is liking things.” Warhol described his Shadows paintings as a single work with 102 parts, referring to the 102 silkscreened canvases that constitute this work from 1979. By that model, the TCs can be thought of a single work with 610 parts, and 305,000 objects.

The Time Capsules are an equivalent of Warhol’s extraordinarily prolific output of documentary photography (numbering in the thousands), filmmaking (about 600), video recording (over 2500 tapes), and his habit of audio recording (over 3400 unique recordings). The TCs are also analogous with Warhol’s Diaries, particularly the as-yet unpublished sections, which are known only to a very small circle of people. The TCs can be closely compared with Warhol’s enormous and

astonishing personal collection of fine art, fine and antique furniture and objets d’art, of which 10,000 such objects were sold in his celebrated estate auction the year after his death.

These varied practices all reveal Warhol to be an obsessive documenter and collector of the world around him, in every manner that was available to him. Unlike many artists of his generation who exclusively explored Modernist abstraction, Warhol’s fine art practice was firmly rooted in reality, the tangible things of the world he inhabited, be they celebrity personalities (as in his portraits of Marilyn or Jackie), splendid masterpieces of art history (Mona Lisa, the Last Supper), or the everyday ephemera of his life (as in his paintings of newspaper front pages, food packaging, pamphlets, or corporate logos).

The TCs bear similarities to work not only by Warhol’s contemporaries (including Arman’s Poubelles, Dieter Roth’s Flat Waste, and others) but also his antecedents (such as Marcel Duchamp’s White Box [A l’Infinitif], an editioned collection of precise reproductions of the artist’s handwritten notes from 40 years earlier) and countless successors, including Song Dong’s Waste Not, which forms a portrait of the artist’s frugal mother through the bits and pieces that she obsessively saved.

Warhol owned many works by Arman, including several Poubelles and Accumulations. The Poubelles are literally trash that has been encased in clear acrylic; they were created from the detritus of individuals, and so they can be seen as strange portraits. Warhol was approached to contribute his waste to such a work, and is said to have gone out of his way to avoid giving Arman his actual garbage, but instead gave him what he wanted the public to believe was his trash, such as numerous common name-brand products. Perhaps his actual self-portraits are within his Time Capsules.Arman’s refuse is not meant to be handled. In contrast, Warhol’s method plainly indicates that he wanted the mountains of material in his Time Capsules to be perused as thoroughly as possible. He considered ways of selling them, during their exhibition in a commercial art gallery, each filled and sealed box displayed in a massive shelving unit. Each box would be for sale, but could not be opened for inspection prior to purchase.

ANDY WARHOL’S TIME CAPSULES (1974-1987)

Matt Wrbican, Chief Archivist, The Andy Warhol Museum

3.

1. William Morris, Windrush designDesign on Paper 131.5 x 99.6 cm, designed 1883

2. William Morris, Lecture scroll with repeat designs,Linen panel 182 x 162.8 cm, c.1880

3. Andy Warhol, Flowers Print 1Unique screenprint on white paper 96.8 x 96.8 cm,1970

4. Andy Warhol, Flowers Print 2Unique screenprint on white paper 96.8 x 96.8 cm, 1970

5. Andy Warhol, Collage (for 48-inch Flowers),magazine paper collage on heavyweight paper, with masking tape and ball- point pen inscriptions, 41.9 x 27.9 cm,1964

6. Andy Warhol, Flowers (unfinished),acrylic on linen, 29.5 x 29.2 cm,1965

7. Andy Warhol, Flowers (unfinished),acrylic on linen, 39.1 x 34.9 cm,1965

8. Andy Warhol, Source material for ‘Cow Wallpaper’,Offset lithography and ballpoint pen on coated paper, 27.9 x 17.1 cm,1965

9. William Morris, Kennet design for textile,Watercolour on paper, 101 x 66.7cm

10. William Morris, Kennet,Silk Damask, 64 x 67cm, Designed 1883

11. Andy Warhol, Foot with Flowers,Ink on Paper 43 x 35.1 cm, 1958

12.William Morris, Design for TulipPencil and Watercolour, 62 x 47cm,1875

13. William Morris, Tulip Printing blocks,Woodblocks, Dimensions variable, Late 19th Century

14. William Morris, Tulip fabric,Fabric, 140 x 97cm, designed 1875

15. Andy Warhol, Head with flowersInk and dye on paper 38.2 x 33.6 cm, 1958

16. William Morris, Acanthus design for wallpaper,Watercolour over pencil on paper 81.2 x 68.8 cm, 1879-81

17. Andy Warhol, Hand Holding Glass with Daffodil,Ink, gold leaf and graphite on paper 46 3 55.9 cm, 1957

18. Andy Warhol, Printing Screen (“Open This End”),Silk, wood, silkscreen ink, paper tape 18.1 x 28.3 x 4.4 cm, 1962

19. Andy Warhol, Small acetate (hand-drawn “Open This End”)Ink on acetate 8.3 x 22.9 cm,1962

20. Andy Warhol Small acetate (hand-drawn“This Side Up”)Ink on acetate 9.5 x 22.9 cm, 1962

21. Andy Warhol, Small acetate (hand drawn one - and two-dollar bills)Acetate silk, wood, silkscreen ink, paper tape 22.9 x 27.3 cm, 1962

22. Andy Warhol, Boy with FlowersInk on paper 42.5 x 35.1 cm,1955–57

23. William Morris, Pages from the original Jeffrey & Co.production log book showing Morris & Co.block-printed samples. In date order:Trellis Larkspur, New Scroll and AcanthusMallow, Pink & Poppy, St James, Bird & Anemone Net Ceiling, Compton, Net Ceiling, Granville,each: 37 x 24 cm, 1864-1895

24. William Morris, Pink and Poppy Machine Wallpaper designDesign on paper, 101.5 x 68.8 cm (framed), 1880

25. Andy Warhol, CamouflageAcrylic paint and silkscreen on four canvases Each 183 x 183 x 3 cm, 1986

26. William Morris, Bird fabric designDesign on Paper, 132 x 96.7cm, 1876-78

27. William Morris, Bird pair of curtainsWoven Wool, Each 178 x 120cm, Designed 1878

28. Morris & Co., Acanthus wallpaper match-piece,Handprinted sheet 58 x 1135cm, c. 1975

12.

William Morris attempted to print wallpaper within a year of establishing Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company in 1861. For Trellis, his first design, his plan to use zinc plates replicating wash tints similar to those achieved by print engraving proved to be neither practical nor commercial. Therefore he sought the services of Barrett’s of Bethnal Green to hand-cut traditional pear-wood printing blocks. These were used from 1864 by Jeffrey & Company who provided a separate block printing department solely for William Morris’ wallpapers under the personal supervision of its Managing Director, Metford Warner.

It was always Morris’ intention to design wallpapers within the constraints of manufacturing rather than creating one-off “wall paintings”. Of all his products of domestic ornamentation the “wallpaper hangings” became the most widely popular.

In the late 1860s Morris concentrated his decorative prowess on wallpaper and textile designs. His first three repeating wallpaper patterns were, most famously, Trellis, Daisy and Fruit, their popularity, enduring appeal and success continuing to this day. Trellis was inspired by the gardens at Red House (Morris’ first marital home). Daisy and Fruit, probably inspired by naïve medieval wood-cut illustrations, are less sophisticated than designs such as Acanthus (1875) which uses the complex layering technique for which Morris became famous.

Morris & Co. issued more than 100 block printed wallpaper patterns of which William Morris designed over half. This output was considered to be relatively insignificant compared to rival businesses yet these wallpapers continue to influence interior decoration throughout the world and were instrumental to the success of the company. Technology, however, eluded the business, wallpaper being the only product never to be manufactured by Morris & Co.

Whilst the resplendence of wallpapers brightened up many Victorian homes, their colours hid demonic

OFF THE WALLMichael Parry, Former Managing Director, Sanderson

ingredients. Children were overwhelmed and killed by fumes in bedrooms papered with materials containing arsenic green and other toxic elements. Their dangers were periodically reported in 1860s London newspapers which alleged that “the atmosphere of dwellings all over Britain was more or less poisoned with arsenic”. Nonetheless they continued to be used until the 1880s. Recent evidence verifies that early Morris & Co. wallpapers contained poisonous ingredients since William Morris rejected synthetic, new “chemical” dyes in favour of more customary mineral pigments. The unguarded dangers masquerading within Trellis, Daisy and Fruit wallpapers did not deter sales to affluent patrons; moreover, Trellis decorated the corridors and bedrooms of Morris’ own homes of Red House and Kelmscott Manor.

Following Morris’ death in 1896 the business, under successive new managements, suffered from the loss of its founder and guardian. Slowly and progressively Morris & Co. gained some of its lost reputation and credibility, most notably through the adaptation of earlier block printed wallpapers into printed textiles, together with a decision that would have incurred Morris’ wrath, namely the manufacture of five wallpaper designs printed by surface roller machine. The five designs were Carnation, Merton, Oak Tree, Tomtit and Thistle. The success of these patterns was, however, to be a short lived salvation for the business.During the 1920s Jeffrey & Company was acquired by the Wallpaper Manufacturers Limited to which Sanderson had joined on its incorporation in 1899. Subsequently in 1927 the entire Jeffrey & Co. production, including Morris & Company’s block printed wallpapers, was relocated to Sanderson’s manufacturing unit in Chiswick. Today Morris & Co. continues to block print, roller print and screen print its wallpapers and fabrics at Loughborough and Lancaster.William Morris’ enduring legacy continues to inspire, reassured by a commitment not to reinvent his iconic brand.

Acanthus wallpaper match-piece, c. 1975, Images courtesy of Morris & Co, Photo: Andy Stagg

4.

PIPER GALLERY

28

1

2

9

10

11

12

13

1415 16

27 26

25

3

4

5 -

8

23

24

22

1718 - 21

11.

1. William Morris, Windrush designDesign on Paper 131.5 x 99.6 cm, designed 1883

2. William Morris, Lecture scroll with repeat designs,Linen panel 182 x 162.8 cm, c.1880

3. Andy Warhol, Flowers Print 1Unique screenprint on white paper 96.8 x 96.8 cm,1970

4. Andy Warhol, Flowers Print 2Unique screenprint on white paper 96.8 x 96.8 cm, 1970

5. Andy Warhol, Collage (for 48-inch Flowers),magazine paper collage on heavyweight paper, with masking tape and ball- point pen inscriptions, 41.9 x 27.9 cm,1964

6. Andy Warhol, Flowers (unfinished),acrylic on linen, 29.5 x 29.2 cm,1965

7. Andy Warhol, Flowers (unfinished),acrylic on linen, 39.1 x 34.9 cm,1965

8. Andy Warhol, Source material for ‘Cow Wallpaper’,Offset lithography and ballpoint pen on coated paper, 27.9 x 17.1 cm,1965

9. William Morris, Kennet design for textile,Watercolour on paper, 101 x 66.7cm

10. William Morris, Kennet,Silk Damask, 64 x 67cm, Designed 1883

11. Andy Warhol, Foot with Flowers,Ink on Paper 43 x 35.1 cm, 1958

12.William Morris, Design for TulipPencil and Watercolour, 62 x 47cm,1875

13. William Morris, Tulip Printing blocks,Woodblocks, Dimensions variable, Late 19th Century

14. William Morris, Tulip fabric,Fabric, 140 x 97cm, designed 1875

15. Andy Warhol, Head with flowersInk and dye on paper 38.2 x 33.6 cm, 1958

16. William Morris, Acanthus design for wallpaper,Watercolour over pencil on paper 81.2 x 68.8 cm, 1879-81

17. Andy Warhol, Hand Holding Glass with Daffodil,Ink, gold leaf and graphite on paper 46 3 55.9 cm, 1957

18. Andy Warhol, Printing Screen (“Open This End”),Silk, wood, silkscreen ink, paper tape 18.1 x 28.3 x 4.4 cm, 1962

19. Andy Warhol, Small acetate (hand-drawn “Open This End”)Ink on acetate 8.3 x 22.9 cm,1962

20. Andy Warhol Small acetate (hand-drawn“This Side Up”)Ink on acetate 9.5 x 22.9 cm, 1962

21. Andy Warhol, Small acetate (hand drawn one - and two-dollar bills)Acetate silk, wood, silkscreen ink, paper tape 22.9 x 27.3 cm, 1962

22. Andy Warhol, Boy with FlowersInk on paper 42.5 x 35.1 cm,1955–57

23. William Morris, Pages from the original Jeffrey & Co.production log book showing Morris & Co.block-printed samples. In date order:Trellis Larkspur, New Scroll and AcanthusMallow, Pink & Poppy, St James, Bird & Anemone Net Ceiling, Compton, Net Ceiling, Granville,each: 37 x 24 cm, 1864-1895

24. William Morris, Pink and Poppy Machine Wallpaper designDesign on paper, 101.5 x 68.8 cm (framed), 1880

25. Andy Warhol, CamouflageAcrylic paint and silkscreen on four canvases Each 183 x 183 x 3 cm, 1986

26. William Morris, Bird fabric designDesign on Paper, 132 x 96.7cm, 1876-78

27. William Morris, Bird pair of curtainsWoven Wool, Each 178 x 120cm, Designed 1878

28. Morris & Co., Acanthus wallpaper match-piece,Handprinted sheet 58 x 1135cm, c. 1975

12.

‘Our role at Morris & Co. is to reproduce Morris designs as faithfully and authentically as possible. Drawing on our extensive archive, we are gradually reintroducing the original designs to our range. At the same time we look at other areas of original Morris & Co. work: tiles, stained glass, embroideries, tapestries and rugs and also his calligraphy, illuminations and writing to add new designs to the range.

With so much beautiful inspiration from Morris’ skills it is possible to create many new designs for our range. For example the “Forest” design from Archive II which combines the hare, the fox and the peacock from his tapestry, “The Forest Tapestry” – an iconic tapestry that is so beautiful and well known it made an obvious choice to be the starting point to a new design. I took the images of the three animals and worked out a repeat and scale that would work for a printed textile and then added the typical acanthus leaf scrolls and medieval style bunches of flowers to the background. I then painted the design out onto canvas, painting with quite dry gouache to reveal the texture of the canvas beneath, giving it the look of tapestry. I was very faithful to the original tapestry, only changing the rather serpent like look of the peacock head. There is a trend for big, pictorial designs and with digital printing it is now possible to recreate these large, multi-coloured textured designs.

For the same collection, I created the design “Love is Enough”, taken from the cover design of Morris’ book. The phrase is so lovely and the typography is so beautiful, it was an obvious choice for a new design; I

positioned the lettering and then filled in the design with a leaf and berry branch pattern taken from the designs in The Green Dining room of the V&A.

When I choose, or create new designs for the Morris collections, I am not thinking about current trends, I am thinking about what I think is really beautiful and works well as a design and in an interior, but as a designer, I am naturally influenced by the things around me, so hopefully they are timeless designs that fit into modern and traditional interiors.”

Through his company, Morris & Co., William Morris produced some of the most fashionable and exciting wallpapers of his era. His legacy continues today with Morris & Co. producing authentic versions of his original designs alongside new interpretations to create up to date fabrics and wallpapers.

The extensive archive is housed in a purpose-built, climate-controlled safe room and contains printing logs, wallpaper stand books, loose paper and printing blocks. As well as being the source of inspiration for new collections, it also enables the company to re-create the originals to special commissions.

Modern production techniques are used to ensure that Morris’s creations live on, and are accessible to a wider audience. All new designs are carefully considered to ensure that they stay true to Morris’ ideals and aesthetics. All prints and wallpapers are still manufactured in the UK and are environmentally sustainable.

AN ENDURING BRAND – MORRIS & Co. TODAYAlison Gee, Head Designer of the Morris & Co. studio

Acanthus wallpaper match-piece, c. 1975, Images courtesy of Morris & Co, Photo: Andy Stagg

5.

his career wasn’t where it could’ve been. But, of course, that’s all been re-evaluated now. But, back then, someone from New York may not have thought it was such a big deal, but for a teenager from London, it was a really big deal. It didn’t matter where his career was - it was him. That’s what mattered. He was still around, doing things. I was definitely interested in the mythology of ‘him’.

R: And that had quite an effect on you?

J: I think it did. I was studying art history at the time, and it makes art history look a bit dull having done that. I went back to college and finished my degree, but, after that, my heart wasn’t really in studying old masters’ drawings for the rest of my life. I’d seen what it was like to be a producer. That was very important.

R: It’s interesting that you take away from that the idea of a ‘producer’.

J: Well it is ‘producer’. I wouldn’t even say ‘artist’. It’s someone doing stuff, and whether it is art or not, it doesn’t really matter. It’s about doing things, and having what looked like an amazing life. And it was pretty amazing. He wasn’t necessarily very happy a lot of the time, but he was achieving most of the things he probably never thought he would as a kid from Pittsburg. I saw the possibilities that were there. That’s what was good about that experience - that art could be whatever it is you wanted. Warhol created his own world, literally.

R: Did being asked to curate this show make you imagine a diagram in your head like your Acid House / Brass Band one, linking these two artists together?

J: Yes, though I didn’t actually draw one. I’m surprised they didn’t ask me to do one. I get asked to remake that diagram quite a lot. But, yeah, I did. Morris is an artist of the industrial revolution, and Warhol is… well… almost internet. He’s on the cusp of the internet.

R: He did do those portraits of Debbie Harry on an old Amiga computer…

J: The Amiga, yes! Exactly. That’s around 1985 or 1986. He almost predicts the internet with his behaviour and what he does. Anyway, yes, for the first second or so of thinking about them, you may not think they have much in common. Hopefully, from seeing the show, you will see that they have tons and tons in common.

R: They were both writers.

J: Yes.

R: Both entrepreneurs.

J: Exactly. They both had their own business empires. They were both publishers, writers, propagandists… you could use that word quite happily, for their own art, and also for art in general. Their ambition for art is huge, for what art can be. They talk about it a lot. They’re not snobs, either. They were happy for their work to be seen by anyone. If anything, they wanted that. They both talk about art being part of daily life.

R: Did they both have an entourage?

J: They were both collaborators. They worked with people. They got the best out of people. They also fell out with people, but on a whole, they were around people. You have to if you’re doing eight jobs. You have to have really good people around to sustain a career like that.

R: Warhol’s renowned for being a draftsman in the early days, and Morris loved craft…

J: Yes, he was a great draftsman, and mastered the crafts he employed. Stained glass windows, dying, colour making, printing… he did everything himself first, then got other people to do it. From what I know, he was obsessive about quality control. The one thing he felt he couldn’t do, or the one thing he felt he wasn’t good enough at, was painting. But, everything else, from song writing to architecture, from poetry to translation - even typesetting - he was doing it.

R: What would Morris like about Warhol’s work, and what would Warhol like about Morris’?

J: I imagine that Warhol would like the over-the-topness of Morris… the colours… the craftsmanship. And maybe even the campness of it all, like the Holy Grail tapestry… there’s a lot of camp in that. The Knight in it has this chain-mail with these long sleeves…

R: Like some sort of prog rock sleeve?J: Exactly! Warhol would have got a kick out of that.

R: And Morris?

J: I imagine that he’d have been interested in Warhol’s large silkscreens, and how they were made. And how you can make a magazine.

R: What is it you want people to take away from the show? To celebrate them?

J: Yes, and to make both their careers be seen in a slightly different way. To make Morris seem contemporary and relevant, and revolutionary as an artist and as a thinker. And for people to think of Warhol as less of a money artist, and more as a true artist, and someone who had a very interesting career that took in many different elements. Unfortunately he’s become an auction house favourite, which I am sure he would have loved, but that’s not the only story. Put him back into art history… a traditional maker. Also, that they are key figures of their century. Warhol clearly is, I think we can agree on that, but Morris... still… people think he might have been hypocritical, being wealthy but going on about socialists, but actually his influence is so huge that it isn’t appreciated or understood. He’s a multimedia artist in the vein or Warhol.

Rhys Coren is an artist working in London.

10.

Kelmscott Manor with its many gables, clustered chimneystacks and leaded windows, was William Morris’s architectural ideal – the spontaneous product of traditional craftsmanship and knowhow, mellowed by time and nature until it appeared, in his words, to have ‘grown up out of the soil’. From 1871 it became his cherished country retreat, the antidote to city life. When not working on new designs, experimenting with vegetable dyes or writing poetry he fished, cooked, and observed the seasons amidst a domestic set-up which was simple in the extreme; as his wife Jane commented, the Manor was ‘barely furnished’, and life was like a ‘sort of perpetual picnic’. It embodied the atmospheric appeal of times gone by that had so fascinated him as a boy; he felt, for example, that its faded 17th-century tapestries ‘make the walls a very pleasant background for the living people who haunt the room…they give an air of romance…which nothing else would quite do.’

The impact made on Morris by the Manor, its landscape and the village community within which it stood, cannot be overstated; as his daughter May was later to recall, it was the ‘undertone’ to all his future activities, informing his developing ideas about politics, society and building conservation, and inspiring both designs and writings.

Morris found creative inspiration in abundance at the Manor, which had ‘the melancholy born of beauty…very stimulating to the imagination.’ Some of his most

WILLIAM MORRIS & KELMSCOTT MANORDr Kathy Haslam, Visitor Experience Manager, Kelmscott Manor

famous designs, amongst them ‘Willow Boughs’ and ‘Strawberry Thief’, came about in direct response to the Manor estate. The centrality of this setting is reflected in his lecture Some Hints on Pattern Designing (1881), in which he advocated patterns with ‘unmistakable suggestions of gardens and fields.’ But Morris’s interests and preoccupations were all bound up together in a fertile interconnectedness, and hand-in-hand with his deep love for the Manor and its setting went a growing concern to protect this and other precious examples of built heritage at risk of loss or irreversible change through development or over-enthusiastic restoration. And so, in 1877, he founded The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Similarly, he viewed rural life with appreciation overshadowed by concern; the Manor was at the heart of a remote farming community and Morris cared deeply for the welfare of the agricultural workforce and rural poor. In both London and Kelmscott he witnessed the painful inequalities brought about by a booming and merciless capitalist society, and in 1883 he ‘crossed the river of fire’, committing himself to the cause of revolutionary socialism. It was, perhaps inevitably, to the landscape and architecture of his beloved Kelmscott that he turned in formulating his vision of post-revolutionary England when he wrote his great Utopian romance News from Nowhere (1890). At the end of the book the Manor, ‘this many-gabled old house built by the simple country-folk of long-past times’ is described lovingly and in detail. It was truly Morris’s heaven on earth.

Chaucer printed pages with illustrations by Burne-Jones, 1896, Image courtesy of William Morris Society and Museum ©, Photo: Andy Stagg

6.

Rhys: Shall we start with…

Jeremy: The fact that they’re dead?

R: Yes!

J: That’s not a bad start. You’re right, I’m taking liberties with them. But, having said that, I imagine Warhol would have approved, as he always had a keen sense of art history, and he loved collecting things, and loved decorative art. I think he would probably have liked to have been reimagined like this, and put with another artist like Morris. I don’t think there’d have been a problem there.

William Morris? Well… I think he would have been more concerned with the state of the world than being put in a show with Andy Warhol. Actually, if he came back to life and saw the show, he’d probably be more interested in what was going on around the gallery. He’d be intrigued with what he saw.

R: So he’d have been more impressed with…?

J: Electricity. The spot lights. The lift coming in.

R: Then, once he’d seen all of that and did actually come over and ask you who Andy Warhol was, what would you say to him?

J: There’s a quote from William Morris that goes: “In the future, the best thing will be a mixture of the artist and the designer.” Basically, that’s what Warhol was. In a way, Morris was predicting the career of someone like Andy Warhol, who started off as a commercial artist; a graphic designer, and ended up being a fine artist who was very highly regarded. He might understand that idea, but might also have been slightly upset with the technical elements of it…

R: Because Morris was a real craftsman?

J: He was. He was a master craftsman. He might not understand that you can master a medium then play with it, and it not look so perfect. He would like things to look absolutely perfect.

R: Talking of that, I’d never seen how painterly Warhol’s Mao paintings are.

J: Yes! Consciously, Warhol may have wanted some sort of abstract expressionist revenge or something. Combining what was, apparently, at that particular moment, the most reproduced image in the world - every Chinese citizen had to have a portrait of Chairman Mao in their homes - with a big mess of mixed paint.

R: It is also interesting to see how delicate the William Morris designs are and how they can repeat and tile.

J: They’re very expressive, even though they are huge drawings. They’re quite instinctive. Actually, we also have this sheet of doodles Morris did of flowers and things. It’s just a piece of paper that he was taking notes on at a political meeting, and he obviously gets bored early on, and just does drawings all over it. It’s really quite beautiful.

R: Like the sort of thing you’d have had by the house phone when you were growing up? A doodle pad?

J: Exactly.

R: So how did you first encounter both Morris and Warhol?

J: Well… Morris was really just through growing up and being surrounded by it. He was just there. You grow accustomed to him.

R: Um, I don’t know about that actually…

J: Well, maybe not in everyone’s household, but in mine… we had cushions, curtains… I almost took it for granted. But the more you learn about him, and about the breadth of his career, how vast his career was, the more interesting he becomes. You realise that, maybe, you don’t know anything about him at all.

R: I grew up thinking he was just a writer.

J: Well, he was. He was known, originally, as a writer and poet. But he had about eight different careers. Actually, Warhol had half a dozen careers. They were actually very similar in that they weren’t content with one career. They were both always looking for other genres or media to master and explore.

R: And Warhol?

J: Warhol’s someone I knew about as a youngster, too. I don’t know how I first came across him, but I definitely knew about him as a teenager. I suppose a young person can totally relate to him, because he’s so contemporary. He had a rock band, he did films and he did TV. All those things you know of as a youngster means you can totally identify with him.

I was very into him at school. The idea of him and the humour of him. It’s funny; the work’s funny, he’s funny. He’s mucking about. Poking fun at the adult world, and that appeals to young people. Playing a fool, almost. Not talking much, but actually being the cleverest person in the room, and the most important person in the room. For me, that was something that was very appealing about him.

R: I was hoping that you’d talk a little bit about…J: Meeting him?

R: Exactly! How did you meet Warhol?

J: I met him in London in 1986, then went to New York to hang around The Factory, where I met him again a couple of times.

R: Did he remember you?

J: He did. I was with a friend and he remembered us. We just hung around, and he was there, doing his thing; working.

R: It was that easy back then? The Factory was that approachable? You could just go?

J: It kind of was, yes. It was passed its prime. Some people’s opinions were that he was a spent force, or that

INTERVIEWJeremy Deller & Rhys Coren

9.

his career wasn’t where it could’ve been. But, of course, that’s all been re-evaluated now. But, back then, someone from New York may not have thought it was such a big deal, but for a teenager from London, it was a really big deal. It didn’t matter where his career was - it was him. That’s what mattered. He was still around, doing things. I was definitely interested in the mythology of ‘him’.

R: And that had quite an effect on you?

J: I think it did. I was studying art history at the time, and it makes art history look a bit dull having done that. I went back to college and finished my degree, but, after that, my heart wasn’t really in studying old masters’ drawings for the rest of my life. I’d seen what it was like to be a producer. That was very important.

R: It’s interesting that you take away from that the idea of a ‘producer’.

J: Well it is ‘producer’. I wouldn’t even say ‘artist’. It’s someone doing stuff, and whether it is art or not, it doesn’t really matter. It’s about doing things, and having what looked like an amazing life. And it was pretty amazing. He wasn’t necessarily very happy a lot of the time, but he was achieving most of the things he probably never thought he would as a kid from Pittsburg. I saw the possibilities that were there. That’s what was good about that experience - that art could be whatever it is you wanted. Warhol created his own world, literally.

R: Did being asked to curate this show make you imagine a diagram in your head like your Acid House / Brass Band one, linking these two artists together?

J: Yes, though I didn’t actually draw one. I’m surprised they didn’t ask me to do one. I get asked to remake that diagram quite a lot. But, yeah, I did. Morris is an artist of the industrial revolution, and Warhol is… well… almost internet. He’s on the cusp of the internet.

R: He did do those portraits of Debbie Harry on an old Amiga computer…

J: The Amiga, yes! Exactly. That’s around 1985 or 1986. He almost predicts the internet with his behaviour and what he does. Anyway, yes, for the first second or so of thinking about them, you may not think they have much in common. Hopefully, from seeing the show, you will see that they have tons and tons in common.

R: They were both writers.

J: Yes.

R: Both entrepreneurs.

J: Exactly. They both had their own business empires. They were both publishers, writers, propagandists… you could use that word quite happily, for their own art, and also for art in general. Their ambition for art is huge, for what art can be. They talk about it a lot. They’re not snobs, either. They were happy for their work to be seen by anyone. If anything, they wanted that. They both talk about art being part of daily life.

R: Did they both have an entourage?

J: They were both collaborators. They worked with people. They got the best out of people. They also fell out with people, but on a whole, they were around people. You have to if you’re doing eight jobs. You have to have really good people around to sustain a career like that.

R: Warhol’s renowned for being a draftsman in the early days, and Morris loved craft…

J: Yes, he was a great draftsman, and mastered the crafts he employed. Stained glass windows, dying, colour making, printing… he did everything himself first, then got other people to do it. From what I know, he was obsessive about quality control. The one thing he felt he couldn’t do, or the one thing he felt he wasn’t good enough at, was painting. But, everything else, from song writing to architecture, from poetry to translation - even typesetting - he was doing it.

R: What would Morris like about Warhol’s work, and what would Warhol like about Morris’?

J: I imagine that Warhol would like the over-the-topness of Morris… the colours… the craftsmanship. And maybe even the campness of it all, like the Holy Grail tapestry… there’s a lot of camp in that. The Knight in it has this chain-mail with these long sleeves…

R: Like some sort of prog rock sleeve?J: Exactly! Warhol would have got a kick out of that.

R: And Morris?

J: I imagine that he’d have been interested in Warhol’s large silkscreens, and how they were made. And how you can make a magazine.

R: What is it you want people to take away from the show? To celebrate them?

J: Yes, and to make both their careers be seen in a slightly different way. To make Morris seem contemporary and relevant, and revolutionary as an artist and as a thinker. And for people to think of Warhol as less of a money artist, and more as a true artist, and someone who had a very interesting career that took in many different elements. Unfortunately he’s become an auction house favourite, which I am sure he would have loved, but that’s not the only story. Put him back into art history… a traditional maker. Also, that they are key figures of their century. Warhol clearly is, I think we can agree on that, but Morris... still… people think he might have been hypocritical, being wealthy but going on about socialists, but actually his influence is so huge that it isn’t appreciated or understood. He’s a multimedia artist in the vein or Warhol.

Rhys Coren is an artist working in London.

10.

ANDY WARHOL’S FANTASY LOVEJean Wainwright, Professor of Contemporaty Art and Photography,

School of Film and Media, UCAAndy used to say, “Do you know who that was there? I can’t get over it!” and yet he was far more famous than

they were. He made a movie with Liz Taylor in Rome and he told my wife and me that he had never met

anyone so attractive… he really looked up to them. John Warhola in conversation with Jean Wainwright,

2003

In 1966, while interviewing Warhol, Gretchen Berg asked him, “If we want to know about Andy Warhol [do] we just have to look at your paintings and your films…? Whilst he responded with a laconic ‘Yeah’, it is nevertheless in his childhood that we find many of the clues to the multifaceted artist that he became.

With the factories and coalmines of the polluted industrial city of 1930s and ‘40s Pittsburgh as a backdrop, the sensitive and physically weak Warhol and his two older brothers, Paul and John, grew up in a household dominated by Eastern European Carpathian Ruthenian influences. Construction-worker Andrej Warhola, Warhol’s largely absent father, and Julia Warhola, his affectionate, protective and talkative mother, taught him the importance of ‘bringing home the bacon’. An abiding and ever-present influence in Warhol’s life, Julia had her own artistic leanings, painting Psanky eggs, fashioning flowers from Del Monte cans or paper, drawing her own distinctive cats and angels and instigating drawing competitions for Warhol and his siblings around the kitchen table. But it was Warhol’s illness at the age of eight when his first bout of rheumatic fever developed into St Vitus’ Dance (Sydenham’s chorea), that changed the family dynamic and affected his personality, as he faced uncontrollable trembling, an obsessive-compulsive disorder and problems with skin eruptions and blotchiness (though his brothers suggested that happened later). Warhol spent his time confined to bed pasting ‘stars’ into an album, an activity he had begun a few months earlier, making collages, colouring and dreaming of a glamorous fantasy world.

There is a strong visual link between the escapism of the imagined stardom and the beauty of the St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church where Warhol and his family used to worship every Sunday: The rich colours of repeating grid-patterns of saints which caught the light, their flattened perspectives seeming to float

on their gold leaf backgrounds, had a profound effect on Warhol.

Then there was the toy film projector that Warhol begged for and received, buying 16mm films of Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Charlie Chaplin for 27cents and playing the role of projectionist as he decided what to screen on the wall. Coupled with his avid movie-going at the Leona Theater, where he could pick up 8” x 10” prints of the stars to add to his growing collection, or writing to them for their autographed photographs, this fuelled an obsession with stardom which continued his entire life. His most treasured photograph was one signed by Shirley Temple “To Andrew Warhola” in 1941, which was later delicately hand-tinted, possibly by his brother John. Temple, the same age as the thirteen-year-old Warhol, with her blonde pin curls, flawless skin, expressive eyes and habitual tap dancing with her leading men, inhabited a glamorous fantasy Hollywood that Warhol aspired to, though he suffered from acne and perceived his ‘blond cuteness’ to be evaporating. His brothers John and Paul recounted to me how they used to ‘develop’ their own pictures of Hollywood stars using sunlight on bought negatives in holders containing photographic paper, and also how Paul taught Warhol to rub left-over wax from candles onto a image in a comic and then reverse it and press with a spoon to transfer the image to paper, both influences evident in later work.

David Bailey suggested to me in 2001 the Warhol he knew was ‘like a sponge’ and it was this trait that enabled him to draw together the ordinary and the extraordinary, the soup can, the dollar bill, The Last Supper, Liz Taylor and Jackie Kennedy; the glamorous and the abject: religion, Hollywood and death being ‘grand’ themes that stayed with him his entire life. His niece Madalen Warhola also related in conversation how ‘Uncle Andy’ liked to “play jokes”: “When we would go up to see him in New York in the morning, he would tell us he was talking to someone famous on the other end of the phone. To this day we never knew if the famous person really was Bette Davis or just someone from the factory”. Warhol suggested that people think that the way things happen in the movies is unreal but “It is life that is unreal” because, as he protested in his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (from A to B and Back Again) in 1975, “Fantasy love is better than reality love”.

St John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church, 2014, Image courtesy of New Guild Studio Inc.U.S.A, Photo: Anton R. Miriello

8.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE NEURAL PLUMBING AND THE AGAPE

Dr. Anders Sandberg, James Martin Research Fellow, Future of Humanity Institute

Written in the model of a medieval morality play, William Morris’s Love is Enough suggests that love is more valuable and important than power or wealth. This phrase has the pithy sound of a Warhol aphorism though in that light sounds rather less earnest. He did worry, however, about the longevity of love:“I wonder if it’s possible to have a love affair that lasts forever.” Here, Dr Anders Sandberg considers which ingredients might constitute love.

Is romantic love just an illusion?We certainly seem to activate the same parts of our brains as prairie voles do when we are in love. Neuropeptides like oxytocin and vasopressin seem to influence the cuddliness of all mammals. Dopamine learning/pleasure signals update our behavior when we experience sexual union.

But saying love is just neurotransmission is like saying music is just sound: they certainly need patterns of chemicals or air vibrations to come into being, but they are not the raw materials. They are not the plumbing directing the raw material. Yet that mere plumbing in our brains and ears allows beauty and excitement to happen. We cannot love well without our lateral insula or caudate nucleus. Change them (or the qualities of sound) and strange things happen.

Looking at love from the top instead tells us that romantic love is a human universal: there is no culture in the world where it does not happen to at least some people. What differs is what the culture makes of it: is it

the supreme goal of all art, religion and individual life? Or a desirable result of a good arranged marriage? Or even a threatening madness that sweeps away reason and propriety, and should be urgently treated with bloodletting? But knowing that love is universal tells us little. Tickling is universal too.

Reducing things to “mere” biology or social construction does not tell us much. We can of course continue the round by looking at the phenomenology of love, examine the various love styles people have, the evolution of human love, the sociology or economics of love… blind men and an elephant. Except that sufficiently cooperative blind researchers can probably figure out the relevant picture after a while. Love might be awesome but it doesn’t have to remain an impenetrable mystery. In fact, we do know much about it.

To many that growing knowledge is far more threatening than the idea that it is just chemicals. The idea that something of huge human importance and meaning could be understood suggests to them that the Soul might be lost. Cue quotes from Keat’s “Lamia”. Yet, ignorance is not the same as sacred mystery. A proper Mystery will not vanish just because you know all its parts. In fact, it will be amplified tenfold: you see the mundane parts, you put them together, and something transcendent emerges. Your knowledge makes the wonder far more interactive and mysterious. Indeed, as Shelley noted, “true knowledge leads to love”: the minute, lowly details hide things that might be more than enough to fill us.

St John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church, 2014, Image courtesy of New Guild Studio Inc.U.S.A, Photo: Anton R. Miriello

7.