The great 19th-century designer William Morris wasn’t thinking of a £2 floral iPhone cover when he wrote “Tomorrow, the civilised world shall have a new art, a glorious art, made by the people and for the people.” In his lifetime he failed in his dream of making art for all, while paying his workers fairly. Only the homes of the wealthy were decorated by Morris & Co. As he feared, he had simply been “ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich”.
But today his designs can be found everywhere, from John Lewis to Chinese online marketplace Temu. His Strawberry Thief print is the most popular item in the V&A museum shop, and the internet is awash with AI-generated posters for fake William Morris V&A exhibitions. A new show, Morris Mania, at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, explores how his botanical prints went viral, with a callout to the public to loan their own Morris ephemera.
