Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Great artists who drew our curtains
Many of Britain’s finest talents would moonlight making commercial fabric patterns for a post-war boom, as these wonderful textile designs illustrate
IF you thought artists made a living simply painting pictures, think again.
Some teach in art schools, others design theatre sets, illustrate books and advertising material, design wallpaper, textiles, even patterns and images to be used on ceramics. Anything to keep food on the table.
Industry was never slow to realise this and many bosses commissioned artists to work for them. The rewards were (and still are) lucrative: manufacturers profited from unique, often ground-breaking patterns and designs that enabled them to steal the march on their competitors, consumers got cutting edge stuff that was the envy of their friends.
On February 29, North Yorkshire auctioneers Tennants has a sale dedicated to modern and contemporary art which will include a collection of more than 20 textile designs done for one particularly enlightened business, by renowned 20th century artists.
The sale offers the opportunity to own work by such artists as Henry Moore, John Piper, Louis le Brocquy, William Gear, Donald Hamilton Fraser, Peter Kinley, Marian Mahler and Pamela Kay for a fraction of what one of their paintings might cost.
Created for the Lancashire textiles manufacturer David Whitehead and Sons during the 1950s and 1960s, the designs come from the personal collection of the late George Butler, the mill’s head designer.
Tennants’ specialist valuer Francesca Young explained that the Whitehead family established themselves as spinners in the Rossendale Valley in 1815, when three brothers, David, Peter and Thomas Whitehead went into partnership as Thomas Whitehead and Brothers.
In 1857, the sizable business was dissolved and divided. David Whitehead took on Lower Mill and, taking his five sons as partners, established David Whitehead and Sons.
“The company continued to develop throughout the first half of the 20th century, and with modernised equipment and new techniques, came to the forefront of avant-garde textile design in post-war Britain,” Francesca said.
Years of austerity caused by the Second World War saw the British textile industry in need of reinvigoration. Large-scale residential development created huge demand from new homeowners desperate to celebrate the end of the sombre war years with colourful decor.
Francesca said: “In a brighter ‘modern Britain’ that sought greater equality across the classes, artist-designed textiles made cutting-edge design accessible to all. Artists such as John Piper, Henry Moore and Edward Bawden sought to breakdown status distinctions between Fine Art and industrially produced objects, just as the Arts and Crafts movement had done a century earlier.”
In 1953, the Institute of Contemporary Arts launched the ‘Painting into Textiles’ exhibition in association with The Ambassador Magazine, a textile trade journal owned by Hans and Elsbeth Juda that promoted British export. The exhibition was instrumental in the development of artist-led textile design.
“Hans Juda sought to inspire textile manufacturers to forge working collaborations with artists,” Francesca said. “The manufacturers would translate a freely-created work of art into a functioning repeat design and Juda commissioned 25 artists to produce artworks for the exhibition, six of which were purchased by David
Whitehead and Sons. These included paintings by Henry Moore, William Scott and Donald Hamilton Fraser”.
Whitehead’s most successful collaboration was the translation into pioneering textile designs of a group of works by abstract artist John Piper (1903-1992), of which “Foliate Head” is the most wellknown. A fabric sample in the sale is estimated at £100-150.
“Piper would design for the company until its closure in 1970,” Francesca said. “The working relationship between Piper and head designer George Butler is illustrated through several letters between the two, to be offered for sale with the present collection.”
Aside from fabric samples, the designs are done on media such as watercolour, pencil and ink, crayon on paper and some in oils.
Original designs by Piper, include “Cathedral” (estimate £4,0006,000); “Piazza” (£4,000-6,000), “Fawley” (£2,000-3,000), “Venetian Palazzo” (£2,000-3,000).
In addition, a fabric section of his famous painting “Abstract 1955”, has a guide price of £80-120.
William Gear (1915-1997) is represented by “Structure II”, which is estimated at £800-1,200. Best known for his powerful abstract compositions, he has been overlooked by art historians.
Born in Fife and educated at the Edinburgh College of Art, where he studied under the great Scottish Colourist Samuel Peploe, he moved to Kent in 1953 and began experimenting with silkscreen printing. Over a nine-year period, he completed around 100 commissions for fabric and wallpaper designs.
Another Scot, Donald Hamilton Fraser (1929-2009) is represented by “Cyclades” (£1,500-2,000), an oil on paper circa 1960, purchased by David Whitehead at the “Painting into Textiles” exhibition.
Everyone has heard of the great Henry Moore (1898-1986) but his textile designs are relatively unknown in comparison with his sculpture. His “Abstract” circa 1953, (£2,500-4,000) is an example in which he uses vibrant colours that encapsulate the balance of organic and abstract that he had so successfully employed in his three-dimensional work.
Moore’s commissions from David Whitehead and Sons came after the Festival of Britain in 1951.
David Whitehead’s Contemporary Prints was launched in 1951, characterised by lively, small-scale designs printed on rayon.
“The Painting into Textiles scheme at David Whitehead and Sons was revived in the 1960s, in part due to the efforts of George Butler, during which time painterly effects characterised their output,” Francesca says.
“Clearly an advocate of the scheme, Mr Butler stated that ‘Whitehead’s maintains that paintings can readily be interpreted on fabric without necessarily being designed for fabrics’”.
Everyone has heard of the great Henry Moore but his textile designs are relatively unknown in comparison with his sculpture