FWM Exclusive
Virgil Marti x FWM
For Oscar Wilde (yardage)
1
Description
Originally created as wallpaper for a larger installation at Eastern State Penitentiary by the Philadelphia-based artist Virgil Marti, this yardage features a repeated motif of white lilies against a green and tan grid of foliage.
Taking Oscar Wilde’s imprisonment in 19th-century England as his cue, Marti borrowed from the William Morris-inspired design of Wilde’s day and fashioned an aesthetically pleasing jail cell: one that the playwright himself might have found bearable during his own confinement.
Screenprinted pigment on cotton sateen
54-56 inch width
Price per yard
Meet the Artist
Virgil Marti
Virgil Marti’s installations use elements that blur the line between high culture and interior decoration, inviting the viewer to consider whether to regard a chandelier, a sofa, or a wallpaper as a fine art object rather than an element of interior design and to question whether a distinction is even necessary. He is interested in the tradition of the Merton Abbey textile atelier that William Morris established with his Pre-Raphaelite colleagues in 1881, one of Marion Boulton Stroud’s inspirations when she founded FWM; but he also expands further upon these influences, injecting them with cheeky flourishes and pop-culture allusions.