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London is to get a new gallery and study centre based on the work of William De Morgan, the great ceramic artist of the Arts and Crafts era, and his painter wife Evelyn. Many of their pieces are currently displayed at Old Battersea House in Wandsworth, but this was always considered a temporary solution, as lack of space meant that only part of the collection could be shown, and the archive had to be housed elsewhere. The local authority has stepped in to offer the former West Hill Library as a home for the new De Morgan Centre for the Study of 19th-century Art and Society.
However, having abandoned its attempts to find sponsors for the project, the De Morgan Foundation has made the controversial decision to raise funds by selling some of the paintings in its collection by artists of De Morgan's circle, such as JM Strudwick and Spencer Stanhope (below), sparking a heated debate about the ethics of deaccessioning. The De Morgan Centre is expected to open next February.
[see Issue 34 for an Article about De Morgan and his Wandle connections].
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