Polish artist and designer Sarah Lipska is an enigmatic figure, one whose life is only rarely written about in books and magazines. But hidden within the Met Museum in New York is a vast collection of samples from her embroidered textiles, each one adding an extra layer to the tapestry of her life. This collection…
Category Archives: PIONEERS
“Form without colour is like a body without a soul”. Owen Jones was one of the most prolific and influential designers of the Victorian era, reinventing the ornate patterns and dazzling colours of the ancient world for a new era. A prolific polymath, his ideas spanned a huge range of fields including architecture, wallpaper, furniture,…
Leader in the Russian Constructivist movement of the early 20th century, Varvara Stepanova was a true radical, whose long and prolific career spanned many disciplines including painting, photography and design. Yet it was through textile production that she was able to live out her true life’s mission, to bring art out of the gallery space…
Zika and Lida Ascher were shape-shifting rulebreakers, who pushed the bounds of British fabric design in daring and unconventional new directions. Arriving in the UK at the outbreak of the Second World War, the young couple successfully redefined the bleak face of post-war British textiles throughout the 1940s with electrifying bursts of colour and life,…
Russian designer Anna Andreeva made a remarkable contribution to textile history, looking to the future with designs based on radio waves, electricity, algorithms and op art. Much like her predecessors Lyubov Popova and Varvara Stepanova, Andreeva combined the playful, abstract geometry of Russian Constructivism with industrial manufacture, spreading her ideas far and wide for the…
Lucienne Day was one of Britain’s foremost post-war designers, creating dazzling textiles that decorated almost every home across the country throughout the 1950s and beyond. Drawing on the English tradition for plant-based forms including flowers, grasses and seed heads, she went on to transform them into radical, abstracted repeat patterns, symbolising the regrowth of a…
When it comes to 20th century pioneers, Anni Albers is the quietly tenacious artist who defied all expectations, blending technical mastery with Modernist abstraction to revolutionise the ancient craft of weaving into an art form in its own right. Pointing to the rigid divisions between fine and applied arts in her later years, she wrote,…
“We live surrounded by cloth.” Kassia St Clair It is hard to imagine what our lives would be without textiles. From the clothes we wear to the bedding we sleep in and the furnishings that adorn our homes and work places, sumptuous patterns and textures define the world we live in. Visionary textile designers through…
“African-American quilts are not simply a set of colours, techniques, or patterns. They’re a celebration of culture by artists who understand and love it best.” Ellison Langford, Scalawag Magazine, 2019 If anyone word could define today’s flourishing culture of African American quilts, it would be ‘diverse.’ Pattern styles are diverse, ranging from densely worked abstract…
By the end of the American Civil War in 1865, quilting was an established practice across African American communities. But as emancipation gradually emerged, so, too did new approaches to quilting, which shifted and adapted to suit the changing times. No one overarching style ruled, but some of the most celebrated quilts of the era…
The strong tradition of African American quilting has existed ever since the dawn of America. Quilts from this period are bound into horrific acts of slavery, a reminder of the terrors that shaped the past and left ripples of trauma throughout history. But they also speak of courage and determination under fire, of people who…
“I do view African-American quilting as a genre, just like traditional quilts, art quilts, modern quilts. Our quilts are just a little bit different.” O.V. Brantley, Founder of Atlanta Quilt Festival Quilting is a vital strand of African American culture, telling vividly complex stories of pain, oppression, freedom, and power. There is no single unifying…
Today I am practicing a basic heirloom technique known as “Drawn” or “Pulled” thread work embroidery. This type of embroidery is achieved by gently pulling out individual thread along the grain line to create a small gap in the fabric. A combination of hand stitches is then used to create simple to elaborate designs within…
“I want the story to be told so that people understand what’s going on.” Above all else, Faith Ringgold is an avid, entrancing storyteller, weaving the darker side of African American history into her richly complex works of art. Though her practice spans a broad range of media, she is perhaps best known for her…
“Quilts stimulate memories of warmth, security and home, yet their layers can also conceal hidden histories and untold stories.” Sue Prichard, Curator of Contemporary Textiles, the V&A, London Quilts hold a special place in today’s culture, adorning the walls of museums and galleries as totemic mementos of the past. From abstract patterns to personal or…
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