“At the beginning of the seventeenth century, flame-like rivers of cloth could billow behind a prosperous citizen, or flow over his shoulder and across his lap.” Anne Hollander The Baroque era was fuelled by intense, fiery passion and raw emotional impact. Like Renaissance and Mannerist artists before them, Baroque visionaries from the mid-17th to mid-18th…
Category Archives: TEXTILES
Fresh, ripe pinks like that of POWER PINK Linen streak across many of Willem De Kooning’s paintings, creating shockingly bright shards of colour amidst his frenetic expressionist visions. Leader in the American Abstract Expressionist school throughout the 1950s and 1960s, De Kooning’s paintings were often based on women, painted with flurried passages of pink in…
The flowing, ostentatious language of Mannerist art in the 16th century grew out of the High Renaissance. But Renaissance naturalism and realism was replaced by heightened, exaggerated drama, and fabric played a vital narrative and compositional role. Moving beyond reality gave artists a newfound, expressive freedom, and drapery was given a life of its own,…
HONEY BLOSSOM Linen’s sumptuous pink flutters through Jean-Honore Fragonard’s decadent Rococo scenes, tinting ruffled skirts, diaphanous veils and the blushing cheeks of hopeful young suitors. Nestled amongst cool, watery greens and dusty blues, this colour brings the fresh, peachy glow of spring and summer into his works of art. But it also symbolises the blossoming…
“Painters of the Northern Renaissance clothe their figures in a fabric that has the friable angularity of carvings made from wood.” Andrew Graham-Dixon During the 15th and 16th centuries, the enlightening ideas of the Italian Renaissance spread throughout Northern Europe, lifting it out of the Dark Ages into the wonder of a new era. Much…
One of the greatest colourists of all time, Pablo Picasso brought radiant yellows like that of EGYPTIAN YELLOW linen into many of his most famous artworks, infusing into them a golden, glowing light. Born in Spain before relocating to France, Picasso remained patriotic to his home country throughout his career, and he would have been…
“Dress was employed by the Renaissance elite to manifest rank and magnificence.” William J Connell, contemporary historian. In High Renaissance Italian art, virtuoso paintings convey an extravagant world of thick piled velvet, metallic embroidery and glossy, stiffened silks. This fabric allowed artists to tell wondrous, exotic stories, whipping and swirling in the wind, circling and…
Fertile moss greens of GREEN Linen are a vital ingredient in Pierre Bonnard’s paintings, bringing into them an energising, ambient glow. A leader in the early 20th century intimiste movement that observed the quiet intimacy of ordinary life, Bonnard made private, simple observations come alive through luminescent colour and scattered strokes of paint. Earthy greens…
“Fabric was more than décor; it became part of the story.” Alan Riding, writer Sinuous, flowing drapes of fabric flow across early Renaissance paintings, wrapping the contours of bodies and breathing into them dynamic life. Taking their cue from the sculptures of Ancient Greece, artists of the Renaissance period produced diaphanous veils of colour and…
Cold, white light runs through Pierre Auguste Renoir’s paintings, leaving dark, mysterious shadows in its wake. The mossy shade of FERN Linen coloured damp, dark corners of his outdoor scenes, soaking into them a weighty solidity and substance. World renowned for his sparkling qualities of light, Renoir helped lead the French Impressionist School to success,…
“Veils and cloths are versatile instruments that stimulate fantasy and conjure make believe…” Paul Hills, art historian Fabric defines Renaissance art, cascading, caressing, or breezing over saintly figures, lavish interiors, and ethereal landscapes with decadent, sumptuous folds. Art reflects how fabric was woven into Renaissance culture, filling palaces, churches, interiors, and streets with glorious colour,…
HONEYSUCKLE linen’s coral pink slices through Pop artist Patrick Caulfield’s paintings and prints, causing a striking and instantly memorable impact. Still life and interior views were his favoured subjects, brought bursting to life with the acid-sharp colours and flat, gimmicky style of comic book art. Eclectic arrangements of big, bold and simplified objects in deliciously…
Vivid, intense colour emanates from British artist Patrick Heron’s work, infusing it with glowing, atmospheric light. The rich, deep violet shade of FIESTA MARINA Linen was a tool in his belt that he would employ to create pockets of cool, wintery darkness, cut into with shards of vivid, acid bright colour, or intensified further with…
“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…
EXCALIBUR Linen’s silent grey hangs in the very air of Gwen John’s paintings, hovering around her lonely interiors like a dark, muffling mist. Best known for her portraits of pensive women in close tones of grey, brown and beige, John masterfully grasped the power of understatement, capturing private moments of reflection in these sitters that…
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