ARI MODERN TEXTILE DESIGNSBOLD WORKS ON PAPER FUSE THE FINE

AND THE DECORATIVE ARTS

TEXT BY MICHAEL PEPPIATT'

OPPOSITE: Textile Design, Atelier d'Arthur Litt circa 1925. Gouacheonpaper,I4lt' x 11X'. Aside from functioning as visual aids for design-ers and blueprints for craftspeople, textile designs on paper----oftendefined by a high degree of finish and exoticism-are recognizedas works of art in themselves. Ursus Books and Prints, New York.

7\ s mass production began to threaten the very,(lexistence of original, handmade items in the latenineteenth century/ the decorative arts underwent avital renaissance. This renewed creativity was par-ticularly apparent in fabrics, which played such animportant role in the interiors of the period. Whenthe influential social theorist and designer WilliamMorris came to decorate his own house, for instance,he took great pains to ensure that his wife's dressesand the household fabrics matched perfectly. Thepassion for inventive and harmonious textiles con-tinued to gain ground throughout the earlier part ofthe twentieth century, when some of the greatestartists, as well as the greatest designers, created fab-ric patterns. The designs for many of these textilescan still be found today in their original form as as-tonishing works on paper, providing a fascinatingglimpse into the variety and development of mod-ern decorative styles.

While Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movementhe helped initiate radically changed attitudes andstyles in Great Britain, other architects and designerson the Continent began to make similar transforma-tions, which subsequently came to be called ArtNouveau, Style 1900 or jugendstil. Cross-fertiliza-tion was very much the order of the day. The Scot-

ABOVE: Textile Design, L6na Bergner, 1.937. Gouache on paper;V/"" x 22%". Part of the Bauhaus's predominantly female team oltextile designers, Bergner drew on her training at the school'sweaving, dyeing and graphics workshops in her linear, geomet-rically styled designs on paper. Barry Friedman Ltd., New York.

tish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackin-tosh, for instance, always found a more sympatheticpublic for his brilliant textile designs in Germanyand Austria than in Britain. His eerily obsessive pat-terns wove together roses and teardrops, tulips and -

lattices, waves and hourglasses, in variations thatshow an inexhaustible fluency of form. In the styl-ized daisies and dahlias that he worked and re-worked, the vocabulary of Art Nouveau is takensufficiently close to its limits that it suggests otherstyles that had not yet seen the light of day.

Mackintosh's influence abroad was so strong that,between Vienna and Munich, modern design as awhole was referred to as Mackintoshismus. TheScotsman's free-flowing formal inventiveness wasmost ably absorbed by Josef Hoffmann, who hadfirst seen his work in the pages of the art magazineThe Studiobefore making a pilgrimage to Glasgow in1902to meet Mackintosh in person. Hoffmann him-self was to become one of the most versatile creatorsof new forms that ranged from whole buildings,such as his Palais Stoclet in Brussels, to glasswareand patterns for fabrics. He also cofounded theWiener Werkstatte, a veritable powerhouse of inno-vative craftsmanship that produced some eighteenthousand designs by over eighty artists (including

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ABOVE: Textile Desigrt, Kent & Dawes, ctrca

1928. Watercolor and pencil on paper; 351" x

31/'. Kent & Dawes incorporated historic, chi-

noiserie and f loral moti fs into the " iazz mod-

ern" style. Yu-Chee Chong Fine Art, London'

No less a Painter than

Paul Klee conceiveddesigns to be woven.

OPPOSITE: Texti lc Design, Ren6 Buthaud'

circa7929. Gouache on PaPer; ZZl" x78%"'

Buthaucl's textile designs employed the same

figural imagery as that on his painted- fa-

ieirce. Editions Craphiques Gallery, London'

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the celebrated Gustav Klimt) for fashions and homefurnishings. Compared with the sinuous lines ofFrench and English Art Nouveau, these new designsmanifested a stricter, more geometric approach tothe elegant conjugations of natural form.

The gap between the fine and decorative arts hadbeen widening ever since the French Revolution,when the exquisite harmony between all the artscame to be seen as synonymous with aristocraticdecadence. A hundred years later, however, the re-surgence of interest in craftsmanship and design

clearly indicated that the situation had come full cir-cle. Indeed, the desire to create a shared aesthetic forall the arts, major and minor, fine or applied, becameone of the driving forces that led to the most influen-tial artistic workshop, the Bauhaus, which got underway in 191,9 in Weimar. One article of the new faithwas that no type of art or design was inferior to anyother, and that they should all be seen as havingtheir potential part to play in a total work of art.

Accordingly, when the Bauhaus set up its textileworkshop, no less a painter than Paul Klee specially

179

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INf,]conceived designs to be woven. At the outset, a free-wheeling fantasy characterized the Bauhaus textiles,but as the predominantly female team of dedicatedweavers experimented with various materials and

techniques, there was a marked shift to more rigor-

ous, geometric patterns. Wool, cotton, silk and linenwere most frequently used, but a Bauhaus prioritywas to challenge and reinvent tradition, and essays

were also made with cellophane, glass and even alu-

minum. Given the shortage of raw materials afterWorld War I, there was a natural tendency toward

appliqu6 work that could incorporate scraps of fab-

ric as well as bits of wood, fur and beads. But thisin no way hampered individual styles. Anni Albers

concentrated on the resonance of strongly coloredgeometric patterning, for instance, while L6na Berg-ner, who later managed the weaving workshops, al-

lowed her fantasy more freedom and occasionallyused silk rayon to create luxurious effects.

As the undisputed capital of art and fashion, Paris

was bound to become a ferti le center for texti le de-cottt itwetl ott paga 203

OPPOSITE: Textile Design,Josef Hoffmann, crca1920.Ink on paper; 8%" x8ff'. At the helrn of the Wiener Werkstafte for some 30 years, Hoffmann cameto regard textiles as an integral part of life. In many of his textiles,the renowned architect united the free-flowingforms of Art Nouveau withthe stricter Beometry of the Werkstatte. Galerie St. Etienne, New York.

ABOVE: Textile Design, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, circa 1920. Gouacheon paperi 6%" x 6Y" . The curvilinear Celtic-style surface ornamentationrevived by Mackintosh's Glasgow School in the late 19th century influ-enced some of his textile designs. Mackintosh used a similar undulat-ing wave pattern, outlined in black for dramatic effect, as the backdropfor another textile featuring cyclamens. The Fine Art Society, London.

Collecting Textile Designs

The majority of modern textile designs in ink, gouacheor watercolor are aaailable for less than $1 ,000 . Works byprominent artists of the Bauhaus, Wiener Werkstiitteand Art Dico and Art Nouaeau moaements, howetser,range in price from about $4,000 to $20,000. Goodsources for textile designs are dealers specializing inworkS on paper and in specit'ic schools and moaements.

THE HOTEL BEL-AIR ART ABOARD CAR 50

A LOS ANGELES LANDMARKcofltitlued t'rom page 175

years. "We have a high occupancy,you see," Bowling says, "and thatmeans we're constantly needing towork on one part of the hotel or an-other." Adding to the hotel's wear andtear, an average of five weddings areheld in the garden and the banquetroom during summer weekends. InMay and June, Bowling maintains,the hotel has to be booked two yearsin advance. Two years? "Sometimes awoman will come in and leave a de-posit," Bowling says, "then go out tolook for her groom."

The Bel-Air's popularity requiresno exaggeration. Its roster of formerguests ranges from Marilyn Monroe,who had her own cottage, to PrincessGrace. During a stint as a screenwrit-er in the early 1950s, Carl Sandburglived at the hotel and ate out of tincans, which he would afterward lineup on the windowsill. Bette Davis,Doris Duke, Howard Hughes, AudreyHepburn, Garbo-the list runs rightthrough to Anthony Hopkins and Em-ma Thompson ("We practically had to

Because of this spiritof inclusiveness, there is

little that is matchingor predictable about the

Bel-Air todav.

dynamite Thompson out," says Bow-ling with a laugh) and will no doubtrun into the next generation of stars,politicians, screenwriters and moguls.For in a city that prizes illusion, thereis considerable appeal in a terracewhere you can breakfast in winter be-cause the ground is heated with bur-ied pipes and where the butter comespressed into the shape of the hotel'strademark swans. But even withoutthese touches, the Bel-Air has a longenough history and a sufficient tradi-tion of respect for its surroundings tohave won an enduring place of honorin the Los Angeles cityscape. !

MODERN TEXTILE DESIGNScontinuerl t'roln page 180

sign, even though France never gavebirth to a coherent theory for all thearts of the kind that had evolved inEngland, Austria and Germany. Ma-tisse, Braque, Picasso and L6ger wereall briefly involved in design, notablyfor the famous tapestry manufactureof Aubusson. Picasso and L6ger alsoaccepted the opportunity to come upwith some memorable theatrical cos-tumes. Unlike the postwar period,when artists have tended to focus on

Anni Albers

concentrated on theresonance of

geometric patterning.

one medium only, barriers were easilycrossed, and a noted ceramist of theperiod, Ren6 Buthaud, effortlessly ex-tended his range to include imageryfor fabrics.

But the two artists in Paris whomade the most significant contribu-tion to textile design were Raoul Dufyand Sonia Delaunay. Dufy's lively mo-tifs, intended mainly for silk, werebegun at the behest of the great cou-turier and art collector Paul Poiret.who used them for both dresses andfurnishings. The Dufy-Poiret creationsare best appreciated in a completeArt D6co setting, where everythingfrom the inlaid tables to the leather-bound books has been handmade toblend into an intimate harmony. So-nia Delaunay combined aspects of theBauhaus with her own remarkablepainterly flair in the "simultaneouscontrasts" of color that she evolvedfor textiles. Such leading ladies ofthe period as Gloria Swanson andNancy Cunard appeared swathed en-tirely in Delaunayt striking motifs,where art and design were indissolu-bly linked. In this feverishly fash-ionable period leading up to WorldWar II, the last concerted attempt wasmade to create a total style unitingall the arts. !

A PRIVATE 1928 CARRIAGEcontinued t'ront pnge 195

black trousers that look like silk-butthe black cowboy boots bespeak hisnative Tennessee. He is married toMaureen Starkey, the former wife ofRingo Starr. The couple have a youngdaughter (she has three childrenfrom her previous marriage). By hisown admission, Tigrett is a compul-sive workaholic: "The first year mydaughter was born," he says ruefully,"I saw her only twenty days."

Perhaps surprisingly, the most im-portant thing in Tigrett's life is notbusiness but spiritual awakening. Morethan two decades ago the traumat-ic death of a brother launched himon a passionate search for a "master."

Traveling the globe, he discoveredthe Indian avatar Sathya Sai Baba.The motto that appears everywherein the House of Blues (even on themenu) is from Sai Baba: "Help ever,hurt never." The Hard Rock Cafe wassimilarly informed by another of themaster's sayings: "Love all, serve all."

Following the teachings of Sai Ba-ba, Tigrett believes that the world is

Car 50's mostconspicuous

achievement is todisguise how

small the space is.

in an age called Kali Yuga-the dark-est and most despairing era man hasever known. Kali Yuga will be suc-ceeded, however, by a golden age ofenlightenment, marked by a resur-gence of ancient wisdom.

And if the cosmos can come full cir-cle, so can Tigrett's life. As he sits inthe observation car, a recollection ofchildhood surges into his thoughts,lighting up his face with a broadsouthern grin. He pats the arm of hischair. "You know," says Isaac Tigrett,"I was four weeks old the first time Iwas here. And my earliest childhoodmemory is of Car 50." !