We imagine post-war Britain in black-and-white; all pea-soupers and dust still settling after the Blitz in the Capital and everywhere else a provincial smudge and belching smoke. The British home, what you could see of it though the Player’s cigarette smoke, was shades of brown.
In 1954 the nation rediscovered primaries. The exhibition 'An Adventure with Colour', toured the country and 250,000 people took the trouble to see it. The exhibition showcased the bold, colourful, highly textured and defiantly modernist textile designs of Tibor Reich.
Reich, a Jewish émigré from Budapest who had studied architecture and textiles in Vienna, had actually been in Britain since 1937. He set up his own textile company in 1946 and immediately set about modernising not just textile design but production; using new materials but also manipulating photographs of patterns and forms in nature to create designs.
A new show at The Whitworth in Manchester, celebrating the centenary of his birth, makes clear how much Reich’s designs – installed in Royal Palaces, Embassies, 10 Downing Street and the interior of the first Concorde as well being used in venues for The Festival of Britain – were enlisted into the effort to create a new national identity. Every forward thinking furniture designer and maker of the era, including Ernest Race, Robin Day, G Plan and Ercol, used his fabrics. He even designed a range of ceramics, mass-produced by Denby.
The show draws on a vast archive of designs and sketches (as well as Reich’s vast collection of stamps and the largest model car collection in Europe). Later this year Tibor’s grandson, Sam Reich, will relaunch the Tibor Reich textile company, reproducing his grandfather’s designs as well as commissioning young designers.
Reich set up his own textile company in 1946 and immediately set about modernising both textile design and production. Pictured: Reich pictured outside Clifford Mill in 1950.
’Aluminium Story’, by Tibor Reich, 1953.
He is known for using previously unused materials and manipulating photographs of patterns and forms in nature to create designs. Pictured: ’Manchester Tapestry’, by Tibor Reich, 1965.
The new show celebrates the centenary of his birth, and highlights how much Reich’s designs – installed in Royal Palaces, Embassies, and 10 Downing Street amongst others – were enlisted into the effort to create a new national identity
’Aluminium Story’, by Tibor Reich, 1953.
The show also includes a vast archive of designs and sketches...
...as well as Reich’s vast collection of stamps and the largest model car collection in Europe
INFORMATION
Tibor Reich’s textiles are on view until August. For more information, visit The Whitworth Gallery website
ADDRESS
The Whitworth
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
-
Interni Venosta is a new furniture brand by the Dimorestudio foundersLaunched at Milan Design Week 2024, Interni Venosta is Dimorestudio Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci's new brand, crafted by Tuscan manufacturer Fabbri Services and paying homage to 1970s Italian design
-
Gucci’s ‘Design Ancora’ reimagines furniture classics in rich redGucci launches new editions of Italian design icons in an alluring deep red, showcased during Milan Design Week 2024
-
Loewe’s Jonathan Anderson drafts artists to create 24 extraordinary lamps at Milan Design Week 2024Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson commissioned international artists and artisans to explore ‘illumination within the house’ with a series of lamps and lighting installations, shown at a group exhibition at Milan Design Week 2024
-
Tanya Aguiñiga: the artist weaving new narratives for borderless creativityWe profile LA-based artist and Loewe Foundation Craft Prize finalist Tanya Aguiñiga, whose work explores life on the US-Mexico border and seeks to empower transnational voices
-
Louis Barthélemy’s tapestries capture the sublimity and dynamism of Senegalese wrestling‘Mbër Yi / The Wrestlers’ at the Théodore Monod African Art Museum (IFAN) in Dakar sees French artist Louis Barthélemy respond to Senegalese mysticism in appliquéd hangings
-
Cecilia Vicuña’s ‘Brain Forest Quipu’ wins Best Art Installation in the 2023 Wallpaper* Design AwardsBrain Forest Quipu, Cecilia Vicuña's Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern, has been crowned 'Best Art Installation' in the 2023 Wallpaper* Design Awards
-
Faith Ringgold on capturing the complexity of the American experience: ‘It takes courage to be free’We interview Faith Ringgold, whose major retrospective exhibition ‘American People’ runs until 27 November at the de Young Musuem, San Francisco
-
Textile artists: the pioneers of a new material worldThese contemporary textile artists are weaving together the rich tapestry of fibre art in new ways
-
Riotous colour, terrific textiles: Sheila Hicks: ‘Off Grid’ at The Hepworth WakefieldFiber art icon Sheila Hicks’ much-anticipated show at The Hepworth Wakefield is a career-spanning celebration of voluminous form and vibrant colour
-
San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora reopens with Billie Zangewa and Amoako BoafoReopening for the first time since the onset of Covid-19, San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora is staging epic exhibitions by Amoako Boafo and Billie Zangewa
-
Brand new Ace Hotel Brooklyn is entwined with fibre artThe Ace Hotel’s second New York outpost opens in Brooklyn with a programme of newly-commissioned textile art. We speak to curator and featured artist Niki Tsukamoto
