Abstract

POLO BLANCO, Jorge. Beauty and capitalism are incompatible. Degradation of the arts, aesthetic impoverishment and the right to beauty in the thought of William Morris. Andamios [online]. 2022, vol.19, n.50, pp.439-463.  Epub Sep 29, 2023. ISSN 2594-1917.  https://doi.org/10.29092/uacm.v19i50.987.

In this paper we will explore some of the most relevant aspects of William Morris’s thought. We will verify that his reflections on art are intimately connected with his political ideas. The Morris who is a designer and artist is inseparable from the political Morris. His concern for the social was accentuated over the years. He was an avowed enemy of industrial civilization, blaming it for having made the world a more inhospitable and uglier place. The exploitation of workers, the destruction of nature and the degradation of the arts were caused by the same economic logic, inherently perverse. He considered that social misery and aesthetic misery went hand in hand. Morris was also an enemy of cultural elitism, and raised on many occasions what we have called a “right to beauty”.

Keywords : William Morris; industrialism; capitalism; art; beauty.

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