Both / And
Two Exhibition Reviews: A Marriage of Arts and Crafts and Discovery and Revelation
by Cheryl Sadowski
The Tao produces one,
One produces two.
The two produce the three,
and three produce all things.
All things submit to yin and embrace yang.
They soften their energy to achieve harmony.
—Tao Te Ching, Chapter 42
I read somewhere recently that taking offense has become a national pastime. The statement lingers with me for the way it aptly captures how social media, meme culture, and a 24/7 news cycle whipsaw our attention between issues and events, calling for demonstrative moral outrage and public admonishment. Less and less are we able to dwell in nuance and conversation; more and more are we pre-conditioned to singular, strident notes of absolutism. What a dull way to be, when so much of the good stuff in life tends to reside in the realm of Both/And.
The following two exhibitions ask us to leave room in our minds and hearts for more than one idea: the enjoyment of fine arts and decorative crafts, traditional mores and social change, religion and science. Whether you attend alone, or with a good friend or family member, each exhibition is a reminder that creativity, growth, and change thrive best at the precipice of possibility.
Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919), Earthbound, 1897. Oil on canvas. © De Morgan Collection. Courtesy of the De Morgan Foundation.
A Marriage of Arts and Crafts: Evelyn and William De Morgan
Through February 19, 2023, at the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
General Admission (includes this exhibition): $6–14 (children under 6 free)
So-called power couples are often referred to by their first names: Barack and Michelle, Bill and Melinda, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, John and Yoko, etc. This (somewhat annoying) tendency is a trite euphemism for marriages cloaked in celebrity and wealth. Beyond those attributes, many socially conscious “power” unions are propelled by something more—faith, both in one another and in a shared vision for the world.
Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919), Flora, 1894. Oil and gold leaf on canvas. © De Morgan Collection. Courtesy of the De Morgan Foundation
William Frend De Morgan and Evelyn Pickering De Morgan were such a couple during the Victorian era: influential artists whose marriage was grounded in equality and creativity. Together they produced bold, richly hued artwork that challenged and stretched the artistic ideals of their day, and spoke to broad themes of gender equality, pacifism, naturalism, and spiritualism.
In autumn of 2022, the Delaware Art Museum (DAM) in Wilmington debuted the first U.S. retrospective exhibition on the lives and works of the De Morgans. Designed in collaboration with the De Morgan Foundation in Barnsley, England, it celebrates the talents and unique expression of each spouse, while shedding light on ways their marriage supported and extended each other’s artistry.
Whether you are interested in the De Morgans for their art alone, or for their involvement in the social issues of their day, the exhibition is well worth traveling to see before it moves on from the DAM to its next destination after February 19, 2023. It is a magnificent braiding of dualities: fine art with decorative crafts, color with pattern, humanity and animals, worldly and otherworldly.
Evelyn De Morgan was connected to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of nineteenth-century English painters who rejected the British Royal Academy’s promotion of the classical ideal exemplified in the works of Renaissance painter, Raphael. Instead, they drew inspiration from the medieval era’s emphasis on naturalism and realism. The Pre-Raphaelites greatly influenced later development of the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau design movements.
Though she associated with them, Evelyn’s work diverges from the Pre-Raphaelites’ code in her feminist intent and messaging. Her paintings command attention for their expert use of color and mysterious, panoramic scenes drawn from mythology and the Bible. Originally trained in Aestheticism that exalted color, form, and composition (“art for art’s sake”), Evelyn considered painting an extension of her own consciousness. Gradually she shed aesthetic strictures, embedding her work with allegory and symbolism that forewarned the spiritual cost of patriarchal marital confines and industrial wealth.
Evelyn’s work attracted buyers and wealthy patrons who appreciated her technique, but who may not have picked up on the messages contained within her paintings. Her success helped to support her husband’s creative pursuits. William De Morgan designed stained glass, pottery, and textiles that celebrated playfulness in nature and the magic of imagination. His mathematical and technical prowess combined with glazing techniques from Italy and the Middle East resulted in stunning ornamental pieces that writhe and swim with fantastical creatures from mythology and his own imagination.
William De Morgan (1839–1917), Bear and Hare Dish, c. 1890. Tin-glazed earthenware. © De Morgan Collection. Courtesy of the De Morgan Foundation.
What is so exhilarating about the De Morgan exhibition is the way the DAM juxtaposes their individual styles: Evelyn’s paintings, imbued with symbolic meaning, alongside William’s pottery, dancing with fanciful, flamboyant creatures; Evelyn’s lushly draped classical forms next to William’s Eastern-inspired ornamental designs. To appreciate their complementary dynamics is akin to inhaling one and exhaling the other.
It wasn’t only their art that disrupted Victorian norms: the De Morgans’ concept of marriage as a working partnership was groundbreaking. Their shared quest to tackle issues of inequality, artistic fussiness, and industrialized society make them exceedingly interesting and relevant today as contemporary questions about gender, social media, and technology are hotly debated.
The DAM holds the largest and most significant collection of British Pre-Raphaelite works in the United States along with historical and contemporary American art and illustration. It has seventeen galleries, a labyrinthine sculpture garden, and a charming café. The museum is nestled in an attractive, affluent historic neighborhood, not far from the center of Wilmington, which has for decades grappled with a complex social history and lingering racial segregation.
The city’s new comprehensive plan promises to guide public and private investment dollars toward urban revitalization efforts focused on people, community building, and health services. It’s a fitting backdrop for an exhibition about the De Morgans, whose ultimate artistic statement may be the creative crucible of their own marriage, and the embodiment of parallel shifts in artistic expression and social consciousness.
Discovery and Revelation: Religion, Science, and Making Sense of Things
Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington, DC
Ongoing Exhibition, Free Admission
Discovery and Revelation is a small exhibition packing major punch. Located within the National Museum of American History, it reaches beyond topics in American history that typically appear in the Nicholas and Eugenia Taubman Gallery. “When you have big questions, where do you look for answers?” the exhibit asks, before channeling visitors through the myriad ways religion and science have shaped debates over ethics, justice, and the greater good.
A portrait of Henrietta Lacks, painted by Kadir Nelson, on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, centers the exhibition. Henrietta, an African American woman, wears a red dress adorned with flowers, pearls, and a single rose. It is a dignified portrait that belies the appalling reality that, while she was being treated for terminal cervical cancer, her cells were harvested without her consent—a continuation in the long history of medical exploitation of Black, Brown, and Indigenous patients.
The immortal “HeLa” cell line, as it became known in honor of Lacks, was used to develop the polio vaccine, and in breakthrough virology research that saved lives while yielding significant economic returns for biotech and pharma industries. Henrietta’s involuntary donation to science remained a secret until the 1970s.
Harriet Powers (1837–1910), Bible Quilt, 1885–1886. Cotton fabric, thread, and filling. 75 x 89 inches. Courtesy of the National Museum of American History.
Not far from her portrait, another display on ethics plays the audio recording of the Apollo 8 astronauts reading from Genesis as their rocket orbited Earth, spurring the group American Atheists to file a lawsuit. There are panels describing the ways technology helps people who are physically separated from their religious traditions and communities, as in the case of an app that uses GPS to orient users toward Mecca, along with pre-programmed prayer times. A photo of Buddhist Matthieu Ricard undergoing a neuroscience study accompanies insights into the structural effects of long-term meditation upon the brain.
The exhibition reaches back to early fossil discoveries and to the Renaissance idea of a divinely created “clockwork” universe governed by stars and planets. It discusses the impact of A Civic Biology, the text that challenged religious explanations of human origins and sparked the Scopes trial; and Victorian era spiritualism, in which Evelyn and William De Morgan were involved, trying to commune with the dead.
Adding levity of a different dimension are sparkling anecdotes on Benjamin Franklin’s defense of his electrical experiments by wishing to “not to ward off God’s lightning,” and Thomas Jefferson’s effort to design his own version of the Gospels by removing swaths of text that could not be proven by reason or science.
While the smaller gallery space affords an intimate experience, the headspace it occupies is immense. Fortunately, that depth is balanced in the form of tall pillars inscribed with the faces and words of famous botanists, scientists, authors, and philosophers, who play with big questions by leaving them delightfully open to interpretation. It is gratifying to learn the spiritual lives of many scientists are not in conflict with their professions, despite what we’ve been led to believe.
On one pillar is Fatima Jackson, an American biologist and anthropologist, who tells us that, “Science is how things change, not why: it does not mean there is no God.” On another façade is Emily Dickinson, who responds in poetic verse—
Faith is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!
And so it goes, this counterpoint between religion and science, between perceiving and knowing, that has echoed through the ages. It’s a wonderful space in which to dwell: one we ought not to shun, but seek out.
Cheryl Sadowski writes essays, reviews, and short fiction. Her writing explores the plain weave of everyday life with literature, art, and the natural world. Cheryl’s lyric poem “Tenants” was awarded a first place Grantchester Prize by The Orchards Poetry Journal. Other works have appeared in About Place Journal, EcoTheo, After the Art, and Bay to Ocean Journal. Cheryl lives in Northern Virginia where she works as a communications consultant. She is completing her Master of Liberal Arts degree at Johns Hopkins University.
