This exhibition – on show from 31st January till 17 May 2014 at the London Fashion and Textile Museum – is benefiting from the current fashionable trend of art curators to search for textiles in the art, without having to bother about textile art. The perfect space was found in the Fashion and Textile Museum, founded by Zandra Rhodes. The basis of the exhibition is the book ‘Artists’ Textiles 1940-1976‘ where three gallery owners and art scientists (well-known in London) are describing the development of textiles as an art form between 1940 and 1976 from their point of view. Hereto a quotation of René Simon Lévy is significant: „The technique of printing on fabric is exactly the same as printing on paper and Dufy was very familiar with it“. In the view of the curators Raoul Dufy has been the very first artist of the 20th century, to engage seriously and successfully with the production of textile design. In this spirit the exhibition is illustrating the cooperation between artists and the textile industry, mainly on the example of British and American companies. The curators are keen to show names like Picasso, Chagall, Dali, Matisse, Henry Moore, Piper, Paolozzi, Steinberg and Warhol in order to stress the ‘art’ connection, so to say with artists one can not (or very little) bring in connection with the textile arts. The curators seem to misunderstand the printing of patterns and pictures on fabric as textile art.
From 14 june to 14 September this exhibition will be shown again at the TextielMuseum Tilburg in the Netherlands!
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