I Am. We Are. Liberty

Cloth-covered box containing catalogues, postcards and posters celebrating and exploring the 150th anniversary of London's iconic store.

The Liberty story begins 150 years ago when Mr Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened his first store on Regent Street, May 15th 1875. To mark this special anniversary year Liberty are embarking on a non-conventional program of cultural activities, starting with an exhibition within their landmark Tudor-inspired Arts & Crafts building, curated by independent consultant and art historian Ester Coen. The exhibition is entitled 'I Am. We Are. Liberty' and is designed to invite visitors into a journey through the often unseen aspects of the Liberty Archive and Design Studio, presenting new historical and cultural perspectives alongside the well-known and much-loved prints and fabrics, with a story that reveals Liberty to be more than an enterprise, more than a store, and more than a design company.

The strength of Liberty's cultural relevance will also be shown alongside several external partner collaborations throughout this year, including at the William Morris Gallery, the Wallace Collection, the Sir John Soane Museum and the Imperial War Museum.

Accompanying the exhibitions will be a publication designed to weave together the various strands of Liberty's cultural offering. Also slightly unconventional in approach, the publication will be not so much a book, as a box filled with individual publications and objects that relate to the various histories, collaborations and archive materials involved, including postecards, posters and swatches of original Liberty fabric.

Ester Coen is an art historian and curator. She is an expert on Italian Futurism, the Metaphysical artists, and the international avant-gardes, and her research for her numerous essays and publications extends from the 1960s to the contemporary scene. She has curated many exhibitions, their subjects ranging from Giorgio de Chirico, Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, and Henri Matisse, to Richard Serra and Gary Hill. She recently edited the book Futurliberty: Liberty Fabrics and the Avant-Garde (Thames and Hudson, 2023).

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