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
![Wallpaper featuring yearbook portraits in bright, colorful vignettes amid a background of roses in highly saturated red, blue, green, and orange.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/o80jydf0/production/b9f6ac7623ea18ac4ee1f7c7171adce739f655f5-629x629.jpg?auto=format&fit=max&q=75&w=315)
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.