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Description

An original 1953 mixed media Mid-century Modern Flower Design.

A fantastic original mid-century modern design produced in 1953. The designer is unknown, but their work epitomises the fresh and playful aesthetic of post-war English design that lifted public spirits and transformed the home.

A mixed media drawing in black ink, chalk and wash.

This original design forms part of a superb collection of post-war textile designs that we have for sale by the same hand. The designer is unknown, but the style of work falls firmly in the school of the innovative design work produced in England after the Second World War. Aided by post-war confidence and growth, designers created markedly contemporary, buoyant styles that elevated textile design to new heights. Women artists working in England in the 1950s were pivotal in this artistic revolution.

Taking influence from the Bauhaus, art schools in Britain were beginning to champion a shift in design away from craft to higher-status artistic work. In the early 1950s Eduardo Paolozzi was employed to teach Textile Design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, while the painter Alan Davie taught Industrial Design. Paolozzi's students in the early 1950s included the groundbreaking textile designer Althea McNish (1924?2020), to whose work some of the present designs bear resemblance.

The 1950s saw fresh and progressive designs that lifted public spirits and transformed the home, despite ongoing austerity and restrained colour palettes. Patterns and motifs were inspired by the bold abstract and biomorphic forms and saturated colour of artists such as Alexander Calder and Joan Miru00f3, as well as being influenced by advances in science, technology and industrial design. The mid-century aesthetic marked a dramatic departure from Englandu2019s conventional notions of interior fabric designu2014of floral chintz and naturalistic formsu2014and its clean lines and abstract forms remain popular and influential today.

The odd spot of foxing as shown. Please see photos for detail. There are historic adhesive marks and/or paper remnants to the verso, from previous mounting.