Press release, April 2014
Artist Textiles.
Textiles. Picasso to Warhol
Exhibition at the TextielMuseum from 14 June 2014
The TextielMuseum in Tilburg is proud to present ‘Artist Textiles. Picasso to Warhol’: a fascinating
overview of 20th20th-century textile designs from some of the world’s
world’s most renowned artists. More
than 200 home furnishing and clothing fabrics trace the history of textile design,
design, with examples
from Fauvism, Cubism, Constructivism,
Constructivism, Modernism, Surrealism and Pop Art.
Art. Featuring work
work by
artists
artists such as Pablo Picasso, Raoul Dufy, Salvador Dalí
Dalí, Henri Matisse, Sonia Delaunay, Marc
Chagall, Henry Moore, Fernand Léger, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nich
Nicholson, Joan Miró, Andy Warhol
and Alexander Calder,
Calder, the exhibition shows how modern art became accessible to all.
all.
Influenced by the English artist, political thinker and textile designer William Morris (1834-1896),
many turn-of-the-century artists looked for ways to make their work less elitist and more
appealing to a broader audience. Like Morris they discovered design, and in particular massproduced textiles, as a means to achieve this. Before the Second World War, many artists, mainly
from the Fauvist, Futurist and Constructivist movements, turned to textile design. Like graphic
design and book illustrations, printing their designs on fabric was a logical step. It also quickly
came to be regarded as an important and valuable component of an artist’s work. French
Modernist artists Raoul Dufy and Sonia Delaunay as well as Russians Liubov Popova and Vavara
Stepanova were pioneers of this trend. They sought to eliminate the distinction between fine and
applied art. Dufy was the first artist of this generation to achieve significant success with his
textile designs. His work inspired many other artists and textile companies in France, Britain and
the United States.
After the war, attitudes to art changed. The idea that art was the preserve of the wealthy and
that a masterpiece in the living room determined one’s status began to fade. The first art textiles
even went on to become commercially produced clothing, giving consumers access to a Joan Miró
dress or a Salvador Dalí tie.
The reasons for the successful engagement of fine artists with textile design in America following
the Second World War are many, but reinforcing all was the enormous vitality generated in the
triumphant resurgence of American society and culture in the post-war era. An enthusiasm for
modernity and new ways of living permeated American society, and nothing showed a commitment
to modernity more clearly than an association with modern art.
Various textile companies manufactured artist textiles. Henri Matisse and Henry Moore designed
shawls for Ascher Ltd in the UK and Marino Marini and Victor Vasarely for Edinburgh Weavers. In
the United States, the new, post-war élan led to commissions for artists such as Salvador Dalí
and the Hungarian Marcel Vertès.
In the mid-1950s, an ambitious collaboration between a textile company and artists produced to
the ‘Modern Masters’ series. New York-based Fuller Fabrics released a line of Picasso prints,
quickly followed by ‘Art by the Yard’ by Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Marc Chagall and Raoul Dufy.
Even Pop artist Andy Warhol turned his hand to textiles in the early 1960s, designing food-related
patterns that have only recently become widely known.
This exhibition presents an important and comprehensive overview of artist textiles from Great
Britain and the United States produced between 1910 and approximately 1975. Many have never
been on public display in the Netherlands before.
The exhibition runs from 14 June to 14 September 2014.
Note to editors (Not for publication)
ARTIST TEXTILES. Picasso to Warhol, organised by the Fashion and Textile Museum, London
Images and further information are available on the press section of www.textielmuseum.nl
For interview requests and additional questions, please contact Floor Westerburgen:
+31 (0)13 5494533 or +31 (0)6 13384265 or [email protected]
The exhibition is accompanied by the English-language book 'Artists' Textiles 1940-1976', written by
Geoffrey Rayner, Richard Chamberlain and Annamarie Stapleton. The book is available in the museum’s
TextielShop. Published by: Antique Collectors' Club.