EXHIBITION: Artist Textiles, from Picasso to Warhol [1940-1976]

 

Screen-printed rayon headsquare designed by Marcel Vertes 

for Wesley Simpson Custom Fabrics Inc., circa 1944.

At the London Fashion and Textile Museum

31 January – 17 May 2014

Comprising more than 200 rare pieces, many of which have not been on public display before, this exhibition traces the history of 20th century art through textile design. Highlights include work by Georges Braque, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Sonia Delaunay, Raoul Dufy, Barbara Hepworth, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Ben Nicholson and Andy Warhol.

The exhibit features examples of key European and American art movements: Fauvism, Cubism, Constructivism, Abstraction, Surrealism and Pop Art; as well as the work of leading fashion designers and manufacturers. Artist Textiles shows how ordinary people were able to engage with modern art in a personal way, through their clothing and home furnishings. 

On right, "Number, please?" 

  a silk scarf designed by Salvador Dalí

                                                              

Henri Matisse design for Ascher, ‘Echarpe No. 1’, 1947. 
One of two coral-based designs, it was produced in a limited edition of 275.

Unattributed design from exhibition catalog

On left, printed cotton dress made from a textile designed by Graham Sutherland, c. 1949. Sutherland worked with diverse materials, from carpets in the 1940s  to silk scarves in the 1960s. Top right: ‘Spring Rain’, a furnishing textile from Schiffer Prints’ ‘Stimulus’ collection, 1949.  Lower right: Detail of ‘Flower Ballet’ a textile designed by Salvador Dali, circa 1947, printed by Wesley Simpson on their ‘Pebble Crêpe’ rayon, giving this design a further surreal aspect.