May 27, 2014

Fashionblogger Walhalla


Watching  "The Collier Campbell Archive: 50 Years of Passion in Pattern" **

Oh did I feel like the luckiest girl on earth, not only could I make art in Cambridge and meet great people in the process. I could also see these great exhibitions and blog about them and make everyone jealous at home...!
Well I'm still a very lucky and happy girl, and I can still blog about what I saw, but the best thing: You can see this exhibition too!
The wonderful exhibition "Artist Textiles. Picasso to Warhol" is coming to the Netherlands. The TextielMuseum in Tilburg will present it from 14 June 2014 till 14 September. 

In April I went with artist and family member Surya de Wit to see this exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. It was a colourful feast with samba music playing loudly, projections of Picasso (who I normally don't like, but I did liked his textile designs) and a lot of fashionbloggers with their smartphones. I was amazed by that, and I felt a little proud, I'm a blogger too and I'm here! Surya comment, "You know, people here actually say it's their profession". 

Artist Textiles. Picasso to Warhol’: 
a fascinating overview of 20th-century textile designs from some of the world’s most renowned artists. More than 200 home furnishing and clothing fabrics trace the history of textile design, with examples from Fauvism, Cubism, Constructivism, Modernism, Surrealism and Pop Art. Featuring work by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Raoul Dufy, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Sonia Delaunay, Marc Chagall, Henry Moore, Fernand Léger, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Joan Miró, Andy Warhol and Alexander Calder, the exhibition shows how modern art became accessible to all.*

After Art Nouveau




"From William Morris onwards, many artists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries attempted to make their works more relevant to the lives of ordinary people... 
Between 1910 and 1939, many members of the Fauvist, Futurist and Constructivist movements in particular became involved with textile design, which quickly came to be seen as an important aspect of an artist's work"
- Exhibition text

The Fifties

"Running deer" and "Harvest time" by Rockwell Kent, 1950, made for Bloomcraft Inc

Detail of Harvest time" by Rockwell Kent, 1950, made for Bloomcraft Inc

"Fish", textile design by Pablo Picasso, 1955 

"The farmer's dinner" by Miro


The Sixties

"Buttons", textile design by Warhol

"Happy Bug Day", textile design by Warhol

"Wedding picture", textile design by Saul Steinberg


I didn't document all the names & titles, but from the titles I have, it's clear that the artists see their textile design as an artwork. A canvas that can be watch flat,  per meter, and shaped into a dress. 
"The Farmer's Dinner" by Miro, is for me a 'modern' interpretation of how the symbolic image of a chicken is used everywhere in the world. A symbol for good fortune: if you own chicken, you have food. And if you wish good fortune, you were something with chicken on it.
"The Wedding Picture" by Saul Steinberg, is a very funny, yet subtle design. Surprisingly not for dresses but to sit on...
Warhols buttons and bugs are simpel and very trendy. I think these fabrics would still be very populair for clothing or decorating the house.
This exhibition showed me that even if your medium as an artist isn't textile, you can definitely design for textiles. But you first have to be famous...

The Collier Campbell designs


A very nice part of the exhibition was in the last room. On the walls framed sketches, notes, prints and watercolours of the marvelous collection of designs made by Susan Collier & Sarah Campbell. This introductions for me was a mix of joy and envy. The colorful patterned seemed to be put on paper with such ease. Only a ton of talent could provide your hands with such skills. 
Silk scarves with jumping sheeps, greeting cards with butterflies and bed linen with birds. A patterned world sold not only for a few fans, but made for Marks & Spencer and other shopping giants. 
I hope they include this part of the exhibition in Tilburg!








Fashionista's and fashionbloggers ***

* More information on www.textielmuseum.nl and www.ftmlondon.org
*** Some Fashionblogger posts I found online about this exhibitions or textiles shown in this exhibition:
- by Historically Modern Modern Print Monday: Andy Warhol
- by The Clothes Maiden Artist Textiles: Picasso to Warhol
- by Monica D. Murgia Textile designs by Rockwell Kent
(If you posted or found a post about this subject, please share it in a comment! Thank you!)