Why Oscar Wilde is to blame for TV’s fixation with home improvement
15th September 2010
A new exhibition at the Victoria & Albert museum celebrates the Aesthetic Movement, the late 19th century ‘cult of beauty’ which transformed Britain into a nation of design lovers. It includes works by the painters Whistler, Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones, the writer Oscar Wilde and the textile designer William Morris.
Aestheticism prized beauty above all else and was the first artistic movement to inspire an entire lifestyle, encompassing interiors, fashion, sculpture, painting and literature. Where once the notion of decorating one’s house with beautiful pieces was the preserve of the upper classes, Aestheticism introduced it to the masses.
Today’s glut of makeover shows and magazines devoted to home decor can be traced directly to the Aesthetic movement, according to Stephen Calloway, curator of the exhibition.
‘The Picture of Dorian Gray, starring Bob Vila’. Nope, doesn’t work for me
September 15th, 2010 at 12:45
Perhaps not the “This Old House” type of show, but the home decoration shows fall right in line with Oscar Wilde’s reported last words: “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.”