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
-
A first look inside the new Oxford Street Ikea. Spoiler: blue bags and meatballs are includedThe new Oxford Street Ikea opens tomorrow (1 May), giving Londoners access to the Swedish furniture brand right in the heart of the city
-
For the 2025 Eurovision theme art, Swiss design principles get a glow-upLondon-based branding agency NOT Wieden+Kennedy marries graphic design history and exuberance in its theme art for this year's song contest
-
Ten low-pro sneakers that capture footwear’s new streamlined moodSuper-flat soles, narrowed silhouettes: the low-profile sneaker is this season’s defining footwear style. Here, the Wallpaper* style team selects its favourites
-
The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt will be shown at Tate ModernThe 42-panel quilt, which commemorates those affected by HIV and AIDS, will be displayed in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in June 2025
-
The art of the textile label: how British mill-made cloth sold itself to Indian buyersAn exhibition of Indo-British textile labels at the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru is a journey through colonial desire and the design of mass persuasion
-
Artist Qualeasha Wood explores the digital glitch to weave stories of the Black female experienceIn ‘Malware’, her new London exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, the American artist’s tapestries, tuftings and videos delve into the world of internet malfunction
-
'We need to be constantly reminded of our similarities' – Jonathan Baldock challenges the patriarchal roots of a former Roman temple in LondonThrough use of ceramics and textiles, British artist Jonathan Baldock creates a magical and immersive exhibition at ‘0.1%’ at London's Mithraum Bloomberg Space
-
Meet Kenia Almaraz Murillo, the artist rethinking weavingKenia Almaraz Murillo draws on the new and the traditional in her exhibition 'Andean Cosmovision' at London's Waddington Custot
-
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
