\nDenver Post, CO
\nDesigners introduced colorful prints into post-war Britain
\nBy Kyle MacMillan
\nDenver Post Fine Arts Critic<\/p>\n
When conceiving temporary exhibitions, art museums tend to play to the strengths of their permanent collections or fall back on proven crowd-pleasers, such as impressionism or Egyptian antiquities.
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\nBut with its latest large-scale presentation, a show that is set to close Jan. 25, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center has veered in a completely unexpected and wonderfully audacious direction.<\/p>\n
Titled “Designing Women of Postwar Britain: Their Art and the Modern Interior,” it offers a definitive look at the work of three top textile designers in post-World War II Great Britain \u2014 Lucienne Day, Jacqueline Groag and Marian Mahler.<\/p>\n
The exhibition has no connection to the museum’s permanent holdings, which are focused on Latino, Southwestern and modern art, and that’s the point: something offbeat and startlingly different.<\/p>\n
While it has not generated a surge of attendance, it has gained the institution heightened credibility nationally. The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., has just agreed to present the exhibition from May 15 through Sept. 12, 2014.<\/p>\n
British textile art is obviously not to everyone’s taste, but it is hardly as obscure or arcane as it might sound at first. After all, these fabrics were conceived for everyday use, with colorful, easy-to-appreciate patterns.<\/p>\n
Boosting their appeal is the museum’s handsome, viewer-friendly installation, with introductory wall panels on the three designers, each including a painted enlargement of one of their trademark patterns by exhibit designer Laurel Swab.<\/p>\n
In addition, a room adjacent to the main galleries offers groupings of English furniture and other decorative objects that provide useful context for the textiles and give viewers a broader look at the design aesthetic of the period.<\/p>\n
The heart of the exhibition, though, is the 133 textile selections, which like all of the supporting objects and materials, are drawn from the Denver collection of Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III \u2014 surely one of the most comprehensive such holdings in the world.<\/p>\n
Shanna Shelby, curator of that collection, teamed with Tariana Navas-Nieves, a curator at the fine arts center, to organize this showcase.<\/p>\n
To appreciate the work of the three featured designers, it is important to realize that production of household goods such as fabric came to a virtual standstill during World War II.<\/p>\n
When hostilities finally concluded, creativity exploded as a new generation of designers rushed to meet pent-up demand and fulfill a not surprising desire for freshness and novelty.<\/p>\n
“Forward-looking and optimistic, designers experimented with new idioms, converting the hitherto conservative public to the progressive ‘Contemporary’ style,” writes
\nLesley Jackson in the book, “Twentieth-Century Pattern Design.”<\/p>\n
Leading the way was Day, whom Jackson calls “the most successful and sought-after British pattern designer of the 1950s.” Her best-known creation, an innovative, abstracted floral pattern titled “Calyx,” caused a sensation at the Festival of Britain in 1951 and had a huge impact on subsequent textile design.<\/p>\n
Given her influence, it is only natural that she receives pride of place in this show. More than half of the exhibited textile designs \u2014 71 \u2014 are by her, including “Calyx” and examples of many of her other famous patterns.<\/p>\n
In her free-spirited, abstracted designs, she combined a strong sense of draftmanship with planes and washes of colors in often innovative combinations. Many were inspired by nature, with open, wispy organic forms.<\/p>\n
Mahler’s designs seem more exacting, with less of a linear quality, while Groag’s patterns are often more complex and layered, with distilled forms sometimes imbedded in a gridwork.<\/p>\n
But making distinctions among these designers can be difficult, because elements of their work tend to blur at times, because they were obviously monitoring and, in certain cases, emulating each other’s patterns.<\/p>\n
Besides fans of high-quality art and design, “Designing Women” should appeal to anyone interested in sewing and interior decorating. Off the beaten track, yes, but the exhibition is worth a look.<\/p>\n
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com<\/p>\n
“Designing Women of Postwar Britain: Their Art and the Modern Interior”<\/p>\n
Textile design. Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St. An exhibition of more than 100 textiles by three leading 20th-century British designersLucienne Day, Jacqueline Groag and Marian Mahler. Through Jan. 25. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and Sundays and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays. $10, $8.50 students and seniors; 719-634-5581 or csfineartscenter.org
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Denver Post, CO Designers introduced colorful prints into post-war Britain By Kyle MacMillan Denver Post Fine Arts Critic When conceiving temporary exhibitions, art museums tend to play to the strengths of their permanent collections or fall back on proven crowd-pleasers, such as impressionism or Egyptian antiquities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n