William Morris: Mazorca, Objects of Common Ceremony

"The first time I saw William Morris's idols I felt an electric thrill, not only because of the incredible artistic prowess each of them represents, but also because I recognized them. It was like finally finding myself before the intangible beings I had been looking for all my life, that I had glimpsed in dreams and evoked in my writing."--from the Foreword by Isabelle Allende For more than twenty years, William Morris has captivated and intrigued the art community with hauntingly evocative and beautiful glass sculptures. He has captured the imagination time and again by creating objects that appear to be ancient stone or wood carvings, not the modern glass sculptures they actually are. His art speaks of human origins, myth, ancestry, and ancient civilizations. It symbolizes a harmony between humanity and nature and provides a ghost-like bond to the world around us--a world that is often forgotten, ignored, and abused. Morris gathers much of his inspiration from ancient cultures from around the world--Egyptian, Asian, Native American--all peoples who respected and admired the land they inhabited. Because of this, Morris's artwork has become something all its own: culturally distinct and yet familiar to all cultures. His pieces embody a spiritual quality that sharply contrasts old beliefs with those of the modern world. These objects speak to our senses and continuously beg us to explore them further. William Morris: Mazorca, Objects of Common Ceremony does just that, exhibiting MorrisÕs most recent collections in detailed images that seemingly come to life on the page, just as his sculptures come to life in the studio. James Yood teaches modern and contem-porary art history and theory at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and writes regularly for Artforum, American Craft, and Glass magazines. Among his books are William Morris: Animal/Artifact and William Morris: Man Adorned. Isabel Allende is one of Latin America's foremost writers.