Sir John Soane’s Museum opens its summer exhibition programme with two exhibitions: Visions in Porcelain: A Rake’s Progress and Architects’ Houses. Both exhibitions are on display until early September.
Visions in Porcelain: A Rake’s Progress
This exhibition presents a set of eight newly made vases inspired by William Hogarth’s series, A Rakes Progress. Created by London-based, Dutch artist Bouke de Vries, the eight ceramic vases are displayed in the Foyle Space and mirror the eight paintings in Hogarth’s famous work, housed in the Soane Museum’s celebrated Picture Room.
Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress follows the swift demise of Tom Rakewell, the heir of a rich merchant who squanders his inherited wealth, leading to his ruin and ultimately, madness. Visions in Porcelain begins with an immaculate celadon vase, representing the promise of Hogarth’s youthful subject. De Vries works explores the painting’s inherent theme of degradation through the ever-darkening palate of increasingly fractured vases. The result is a succession of cracked, slumped and eventually imploding vessels whose compromised state cannot be prevented, even through the artful employment of the artist’s increasingly drastic methods of restoration.
Throughout his career, de Vries has explored the themes of fragility and deconstructed beauty. Having trained as a restorer, he is known for working with broken historical pieces, expanding them to carefully ‘exploded’ assemblages.
A specially commissioned film will accompany the exhibition. This film will feature insights from the Soane’s curatorial team into the connections between de Vries’ work and Hogarth’s series, as well as an interview with the artist and independent curator and writer Kathleen Soriano.
Bouke de Vries said: “I first visited the Sir John Soane’s Museum almost 40 years ago and have long been inspired by the works of Hogarth. A Rake’s Progress is a captivating series and appeals to me due to its satirical and dark narrative. It has been a pleasure to reimagine this tale of woe in porcelain, displaying it only feet away from Hogarth’s original paintings.”
Bruce Boucher, Deborah Loeb Brice Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum, said “Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress has long been a focal point of the collection of Sir John Soane’s Museum. By presenting Hogarth’s narrative through his handsomely designed celadon vases, Bouke de Vries brings new perspectives and interpretation to this historic series. To see the work continue to inspire artists today goes to the heart of what John Soane envisaged for his collection.”
Architects’ Houses
This exhibition celebrates five London houses all of which (like the Soane Museum) have been designed by the architects who lived and, in some cases, still live in them. Soane’s home is considered a showcase for his architectural philosophy. This is also the case for each of the five exhibited houses, incorporating the most innovative, freethinking designs of five major figures of British architecture.
The houses featured in this new exhibition include William Morris’s Red House, Ernö Goldfinger’s 2 Willow Road, Charles Jencks’ The Cosmic House, Patty and Michael Hopkins’ Hopkins House, and Sarah Wigglesworth’s 9/10 Stock Orchard Street. Each of the houses will be explored through drawings, photographs, models and objects from the houses, reflecting a broad range of modern and contemporary architectural practices.
Sir John Soane built his house at 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields to reflect his own architectural ideals and interests. Soane was renowned for his experimentation with the forms of Classical architecture and inventive use of light. His house was home to his extensive collection of artefacts, models and paintings, arranged to create unexpected juxtapositions which inspired his own designs. Similarly, the coloured glass panels installed throughout the house stemmed from his fascination with light and the effects that it could create as part of an architectural setting.
Dr Erin McKellar, Assistant Curator of Exhibitions at Sir John Soane’s Museum, said, “Architects’ own homes can offer wonderful insight into their ideas because they aren’t trying to please anyone but themselves. Soane’s own home functioned this way, expressing his interest in the classical world, the use of light and the surprising manipulation of space. More recent examples of architects’ houses similarly engage with the architectural movements and concepts of their time, such as modernism, postmodernism and sustainable design.”
Soane’s house is one of the earliest English examples of a house designed by a professional architect and used for their own good. However, as explored in the exhibition, this is not an isolated phenomenon. Like Soane, each of the five exhibited architects designed their own homes to truly reflect their architectural beliefs –
Red House, William Morris
Red House was designed by Philip Webb and William Morris and built as a home for Morris and his family. A leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement, Morris believed in the importance of well-made, beautiful objects that were to be used in everyday life. The house reflects Morris’s visions of beauty: the designs drew inspiration from the architecture of French medieval churches and the wallpaper that filled the house was inspired by the surrounding rose gardens.
2 Willow Road, Ernö Goldfinger
In 1939, Ernö Goldfinger built 2 Willow Road, demolishing three neighboring terrace houses and causing controversy among local residents. However, his house embodied two important sources of inspiration for the architect: London’s Georgian architecture, reflected in the red brick façade, and the influence of his teacher, French architect Auguste Perret, evident in the visible load-bearing columns which express the building’s structure. A socially committed architect, Goldfinger believed strongly in opening up green spaces and in allowing ample natural light into spaces, enabled by the large bands of windows at 2 Willow Road.
The Cosmic House, Charles Jencks
Charles Jencks believed that the role of postmodern architecture was to create a symbolic architecture for the modern era. The Cosmic House, built in 1978 and home to Charles, his wife Maggie and two children, John and Lily, was designed to reflect the pattern of the earth’s rotation around the sun and the universe-at-large. On the ground floor, the rooms reflect each of the four seasons, rotating around the Solar Stair, representing the year. The garden, designed by Maggie and influenced by Chinese and Renaissance gardens, also features the idea of time with the months marked on a clockwise route, ending with a mirrored door inscribed ‘future’.
Hopkins House, Michael and Patty Hopkins
Hopkins House serves not only as a home, but also was the first office for Michael and Patty Hopkins’ architectural studio. Built in the late 1970s, at the height of ‘high tech’ architecture, the Hopkins House, built from industrial materials and with a focus on economical, efficient design. The house was intended as a ‘feasibility study’ in how to achieve maximum, flexible space. Nestled amongst a leafy garden, the house is a modular framework of steel columns and glass, allowing the interior space to be subdivided as needed. All structural elements are visible and painted blue to become the house’s main decoration.
9/10 Stock Orchard Street, Sarah Wigglesworth with Jeremy Till
Sarah Wigglesworth constructed 9/10 Stock Orchard Street as an urban eco-house. The hybrid space for living, working and gardening kept environment and sustainability at its core. Built in the early 2000’s, the house is naturally insulated using straw bales and sandbags, with a living roof that naturally regulates the interior temperature. These sandbags also provide a natural sound insulation for Wigglesworth’s office from the busy railway line which sits adjacent to the house. Wigglesworth considers the house a feminist project as it enables her to think about which role she plays in each part of the house – architect, housekeeper and occupant.
