For Mexican artist Frida Kahlo fabric was an incredibly powerful form of self-expression, one that made her an inimitable icon of the 20th century. She adored the indigenous fabrics of Mexico, with their lively, exuberant prints and intricate areas of ruffling and embroidery, drenching her body in layers and layers of traditional textiles. More than…
Category Archives: TEXTILES
American painter Richard Diebenkorn is one of the 20th century’s most celebrated painters, capturing the hazy light of his native California with cool, crystalline colours like that of MICRO CHIP Linen. His world-renowned ‘Ocean Park’ series was made during the 1970s as inspired by the oceanic landscape of Santa Monica, where he had made his…
American painter Cy Twombly’s brilliantly expressive artworks often feature searing hot pinks like RED BUD Linen. This ardent colour blazes like an angry fire in the belly of his art, igniting life into them like hot breath to a flame. Twombly was a leading member of late Abstract Expressionism, emerging out of 1950s New York…
Throughout the history of Japanese ukiyo-e, fabric has been a defining feature, allowing artists to convey movement, energy and character. In this episode of our series on ukiyo-e art we will take a closer look at fabric in the second key phase of the movement, known as the Torii School. Following on the incredible advancements…
Bold, brilliant fabric was a lifeline for French Intimiste painter Edouard Vuillard, defining the aesthetic and conceptual meaning of his art. Vuillard’s mother and sister were both dress and corset makers and he grew up surrounded by a cacophony of printed textiles, all scattered haphazardly across their 19th century Parisian apartment. This environment shaped the…
Robert Delaunay’s art is filled with silvery shades of grey-blue like DOLPHIN GRAY Linen, which he adopted to convey the sparkling atmosphere of the modern city. One of the greatest pioneers of the early 20th century, Delaunay stirred up a storm with his dazzling Cubist and Orphist abstractions. Backgrounds in his paintings are subtle arenas…
Japanese ukiyo-e art has a long and incredibly varied history, and a closely knit relationship with fabric. In this instalment of our series on ukiyo-e art, let’s start at the very beginning with the movement’s founder, and delve into the ways fabric informed his practice as a painter and printmaker. Ukiyo-e is often traced back…
Earthy, intense shades of green like that of Moss Linen fill Maurice Denis’s intimate art, investing it with a quietly hypnotising magic. Denis was a leader in the avant-garde artist circle Les Nabis alongside Edouard Vuillard, Paul Serusier and Pierre Bonnard; together they pioneered an avant-garde approach to painting that moved away from naturalism towards…
Japanese ‘ukiyo-e’ paintings and prints are one of the world’s richest treasures, illustrating the complex diversity of Japanese life with a bold and instantly recognisable language. A popular strand of Japanese culture from around 1670 to 1912, ukiyo-e, or ‘pictures of the floating world’, illustrate the development of Japan’s bustling city centres as they became…
Austrian Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt is world-renowned for his sinuously flowing fabrics that adorned women and intertwined lovers in richly ornate blankets and gowns. But perhaps less well-known is the love affair he had with fashion designer Emilie Floge, and the impact their creative interchange had on the shape of his art. Floge’s loose,…
The warmth of GLACIER GRAY Linen shimmered through Agnes Martin’s paintings like light reflecting on water, encouraging us to enter a deep, meditative state of mind. A leading American Minimalist, Martin made her name in 1960s New York for her spare, refined canvases featuring delicate grids and stripes of pale, ghostly colour on epically scaled…
Soaring shades of sky blue like ALLURE Linen dominated Paul Cezanne’s late paintings, filling them with the crisp vitality of the Mediterranean coast. By now settled in his home town of Provence, the art Cezanne made in the last decade of his life are now considered his greatest contribution to the history of art, cementing…
Dutch master Johannes Vermeer was fascinated by fabric, and it informed the nature of his art on multiple levels. This significant connection to fabric began early in Vermeer’s childhood, through family connections to textiles, and it stayed with him for life. He spent his entire career exploring the way its draped, shimmering surface could add…
Contemporary Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugito draws us deep into his world of meditative calm, where softly diffused gray light like that of GRAY CASHMERE Linen expands across vast areas of empty space. Sugito made his name in the 1990s as a leader in the Tokyo-pop movement alongside Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara, but his brand…
Fabric has played a vitally significant role in the lives of countless artists, acting as a source of inspiration, comfort and self-expression. In this new series, we will look at the world’s finest artists who built an intimate relationship with fabric – one brought about by family history, travel or personal interest – that would…
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