British-based, self-proclaimed ‘slow-stitcher’ Jessie Cutts is founder of the eccentric textile company Cutts & Sons, for which she produces hand-made, intricate quilts, wall-hangings and fabric-based artworks with a rich and deeply tactile quality. “There’s no mass-production here!” she says. Instead, each fabric piece is carefully crafted from a blend of natural, sustainable fabrics, many of…
All posts by Rosie Lesso
“The best of these designs are so eye-poppingly gorgeous that it’s hard to know how to begin to account for them. But then, good art can never be fully accounted for, just described…” Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, 2002 Brilliantly eccentric and ludicrously inventive, the multi-generational quilts emerging from Boykin, colloquially known as Gee’s Bend,…
Pascal Monteil’s rich, vibrant tapestries are rich with references to stories from all around the world, featuring mystical, fictional characters in colourful, intricately adorned clothes, or taking part in collective, dream-like scenarios. As much as they invite us in to contemplate their hidden symbols and stories, they are also exquisitely made, sometimes taking up to…
The great American realist Edward Hopper had a remarkable gift for observation, finding strange intrigue in the most unlikely of places. Gas stations, late-night bars and quiet buildings tucked away in the wilderness all take on an enigmatic wonder through his stark, directional lighting, angular compositions and striking accents of colour. BARN RED Linen’s entrancing…
Op artist Bridget Riley is a true icon of British art, whose daring and experimental ‘heat-haze’ patterns impacted a huge range of art movements including Pop Art, Minimalism, and Contemporary Art. But her influence also extended far beyond the art world, crossing over into the realms of graphics, architecture, and perhaps most prominently, fashion and…
The weaving workshop at the Bauhaus was a hotbed of creative talent, where some of the most significant weavers and textile designers of the entire 20th century began their careers. Among their prestigious alumni are Anni Albers, Gunta Stolzl, Otti Berger, Marli Ehrman, Benita Otte and Margarete Koehler. Most women who applied to attend the…
There is a light, airy delicacy to DAWN linen, suggesting spring blossom or translucent rose petals blushing pink in the sunlight. It was a colour American artist Georgia O’Keeffe returned to over and over, capturing the pastel toned vibrancy of fresh, new flowers and the dry, parched earth of America’s barren deserts with the same distinctive…
Hidden within the wooded hills of Yamanashi in the shadows of Mount Fuji, Japan is a rare treasure trove: The Itchiku Kubota Art Museum, dedicated to the great Japanese master of textiles Itchiku Kubota (1917-2003). It was Kubota’s dream to open such a museum to house his vast archive of textile art, one that he…
Textile designer Celia Birtwell has made an indelible impact on British textiles, infusing them with her unique brand of vibrant, swirling and expressive patterns. She has led a remarkable life, playing a central role in defining the freewheeling optimism of the swinging sixties, and going on to develop a monumental legacy as one of the…
Darkness pervades Tacita Dean’s artworks, falling over craggy rocks and epic mountains into inky, bottomless wells. Black Linen shares Dean’s endless black, a colour that intensifies mystery and drama, cloaking and concealing everything it touches. The dark shadows in Dean’s artworks heighten the sublime, cinematic awe of her scenes as she draws us in, inviting…
“My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.” Agnes Martin’s world is one of order and tranquillity, as minutely patterned grids and ruler straight bands expand across vast surfaces suggesting wide open space. Yet there is also sensitive musicality at play as lines tremble and…
Known collectively as the “first lady of weaving,” world-renowned German-American weaver Else Regensteiner was one of a generation who brought a Bauhaus sensibility for weaving-as-art into the American cultural landscape. As well as producing striking weavings that experimented with unconventional and unexpected patterns, colours and materials, she was also hugely influential as a teacher, writer…
Dusty, dreamy shades of lilac like WISTFUL MAUVE appeared time and again in the art of pioneering abstractionist Hilma af Klint, representing otherworldly, spiritual states of mind. A medium, theosophist and artist of the early 20th century, Af Klint is now widely recognised as one of the very first abstract artists. Throughout her long career,…
From textiles to furniture, architecture, restaurants and book publishing, British designer Sir Terence Conran is one of the foremost figures of the late 20th century. A man of many talents, his simple, streamlined designs had widespread, mass appeal. Perhaps best known for founding the Habitat stores and penning the iconic 1970s lifestyle publication The House…
Textile designer Eddie Squires was a true innovator in his field, pushing the scope of printed patterns in a series of daring and bold new directions. As a key designer and director for the leading textile company Warner & Sons Ltd., Squires played an instrumental role in enlivening British textiles during the latter half of…
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