William Morris: Man AdornedFor thousands of years humans have adorned themselves. Adornment figures among the constellation of traits that signify the arrival of modern human behavior in the archaeological record. Werever they ventured, wherever they lived, people have made art and adorments to accompany them in life and death. In this book, artist William Morris celebrates this ancient and universal human quality and continues his exploration of the themes of origin and myth that permeate all his work. At first glance, these glass sculptures signal a striking departure from Morris's oeuvre of canopic jars, animal vessels, assorted artifacts, and imaginative burial installations. Here Morris depicts the people only imagined before. He has put flesh on the bones, and covered the bodies with costumes, jewelry, headdresses, and tattoos. These figures spring forth full of vibrant life in the present, rather than recalling a distant past. The faces and artifacts evoke and sometimes blend elements of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas, tracing the global migrations of distant ancestors. Morris aims less for realism than for an essence of ethnicity. For more than 20 years, in a career that has brought Morris to the forefront of the modern Studio Glass movement, he has perfected a repertoire of techniques that virtually no other American glass artist can equal. Blake Edgar, an editor at the University of California Press, writes about science and culture. James Yood teaches contemporary art theory and criticism at Northwestern University and is a contributing editor to Glass magazine. |
What people are saying - Write a review
William Morris: man adorned
User Review - Not Available - Book Verdict"Man adorns in both the world we live in and in the spirit we create and leave behind," asserts American glass artist Morris. What the sculptor offers in these pages are mesmerizing reconstructions of ... Read full review
Common terms and phrases
Bibliographic information
| Title | William Morris: Man Adorned |
| Authors | Blake Edgar, William Morris, James Yood |
| Photographs by | Robert Vinnedge |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Marquand Books, 2001 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Dec 2, 2009 |
| ISBN | 0295981849, 9780295981840 |
| Length | 150 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |