The 'Ateliers d'Art': Primavera, La Maitrise, Pomone, Studium, Athelia, or the Importance of Parisian Stores Design Workshops/Studios

When I began collecting documents on oriental carpets twenty years ago I discovered the yearly catalogues that were published by the major Parisian department stores every September. It happens that the same booklets also contained pages devoted to modern furniture and rugs. Certain objects would have had special mentions, such as creation (created by) Primavera or Studium. Today I have over a hundred of them and the scale of the quantity of objects designed by these special departments appears to be huge, revealing the role played by the big stores in popularizing the Art Deco style which was fundamental, a role that has not as yet been thoroughly researched.

To understand the strength of these commercial organisations you have to remember that they were very active regarding their own marketing. Firstly, each Parisian store had a floor devoted to the promotion of their own creations so that anyone could see them without being obliged to either enter an expensive gallery or even to purchase the articles. Secondly, the catalogues were issued in their millions throughout these years, and were available within the stores, but were also distributed as mail order catalogues throughout France, the Empire and many other countries. As every product had its own reference number, each individual piece could be ordered more or less from anywhere in the world. These stores had a high presence in Paris itself, and took part in all the major yearly decorative exhibitions such as the Salon des Artistes Decoraterurs in spring and the Salon d'Automne, but were also present at international shows for the decorative arts (Venturus, John Wanamaker in New York in 1927 and Macy's exhibition again in New York in 1929). Probably one of their most important and prestigious achievements was their participation, using their own pavilions, at the 1925 Exhibition of Decorative Art in Paris.

Rare booklet cover published by Primavera for the 1925 Exhibition. The Carpet Index Library

With the high profile given to these companies and their products, it gave the opportunity for many foreign manufacturers to copy those same products throughout the 1920s. This commercial dynamism explains why today I can find 'unattributed or anonymous rugs' in the catalogues of certain American galleries that were in fact marketed and designed by the French store workshops. Finally, there was during this period, many French and British magazines that reported regularly on their products (see August 2009 posts). All this explains why the French Art Deco products succeeded whereas in other countries modernist furniture remained limited and much less popular.

But what exactly were these workshops, and when did they begin? After the failure of the French Modern style (Art Nouveau), the German and Viennese experiences, and the resistance of the established manufacturers in making radical changes in their design work, the major distributors understood that perhaps they had a commercial opportunity in trying to sell a range of modern products that were produced in a much more limited quantity.

The first and leading store was the Grands Magasins du Printemps which created the Atelier Primavera in September 1912 with two designers. Directed by Rene Guillere, who was also President of the SAD, guidelines were established. The store would employ a staff of young designers in order to create artistic and modern objects and furniture that would be sold under a workshop store collective brand name. The choice of using anonymous models is also a reason why they have not attracted the attention of art historians. Primavera referenced all the traditional arts and crafts of France and offered new models in all objects for the home. Primavera really qualified as a workshop because besides their design work they also had their own manufacturing unit for the construction of both furniture and ceramics. The name 'Primavera' is a reference to the Italian Renaissance art period and illustrates the objectives of these stores, i.e., to produce a general renewal of the home decoration market. It is only after the First World War that other Parisian stores followed the Printemps initiative. To promote their products however, the latter had to focus on the name of the managing decorator and generally had no manufacturing plants. Nevertheless, these design studios were very productive. In 1925 for example, Primavera had created over 13 000 unique products since its beginning and could count about fifteen full time collaborators, half of whom were women.

All the major stores created a studio, even if some lasted only a few years. We can really say that fierce competition existed between then and that forced the addition of new articles every year. The result was an overflow of products, resulting in a large variety of styles being offered to customers, a situation that had no comparison with any other country.

Listed below you will find for the first time, the largest and most comprehensive listing concerning the Parisian workshops.

Store name: Le Printemps

Workshop or studio name: Primavera

Managing designer: Rene Guillere

Creation date: 1912

Store name: Les Galeries Lafayette

Workshop or studio name: La Maitrise

Managing designer: Maurice Dufrene

Creation date: 1921

Store name: Le Bon Marche

Workshop or studio name: Pomone

Managing designer: Paul Follot

Creation date: 1922

Store name: Le Louvre

Workshop or studio name: Studium

Managing designer: Etienne Kohlman

Creation date: 1923

Store name: Galeries Barbes

Workshop or studio name: Lutetia

Managing designer: Andre Evrard

Creation date: 1927

Store name: Au Bucheron

Workshop or studio name: Le Sylve

Managing designer: Michel Dufet

Creation date: 1928

Store name: Les Trois Quartiers

Workshop or studio name: Athelia

Managing designer: Robert Block

Creation date: 1929

Store name: Le Palais de la Nouveaute

Workshop or studio name: Les Beaux Metiers

Managing designer: Andre Arbus

Creation date: 1930s

Store name: La Samaritaine de Luxe

Workshop or studio name: L'Atelier d'Art

Managing designer: Jean Blasset

Creation date: 1930s

To understand the importance of these actors on the market and retail stage, we have to remember that they provided work for both manufacturers and craftsmen, and that besides their full time collaborators they could also ask for assistance from other artists as well. If you add to this number the galleries and studios of other designers, you can well imagine that Paris at this particular moment in time was the world centre for the decorative arts, due mostly to the quantity and quality of the artists that were available. This powerful centralised organisation of French Art Deco contributors has nothing to do with today's world economic model, but it is certainly one of the main reasons that the movement is still present in our memories.

From this list of nine names only the first four were really successful. After the Second World War only Primavera and La Maitrise remained and were able to adapt their activities to suit the changes in the market. Today Primavera bears little resemblance to the original company and the achievements that that company produced in the past.

Why is it important to debate the issue of these workshops in a blog regarding twentieth century rug design? For the simple reasonj that during the 1920s these workshops produced some of the most creative, innovative and well designed rugs, a number of which we will present in future articles. Today, because of the work of that design period, no one could conceive of a modern decorative scheme without a carpet.

To be fair, not all of the companies offered rugs in their catalogues, but for the leaders in the field the sales impact was representative. For example, in a 1928 issue of the British magazine The Studio, an article devoted to La Maitrise reported that in 1927 more than two thirds of the total of carpets sold, apart from oriental products, were modern carpets. In the 1930s their influence in rug design was reduced because of the trend for simpler geometrical compositions woven in North Africa, namely Algeria and Morocco. The 1929 Crash and the creation of the UAM (Union des Artistes Modernes), a new organisation of designers which promoted a much more radical and non-decorative approach to design, changed the market trend. As a consequence, the more traditional and expensive French creations had difficulty in competing in the market place.

In a future post we will comment on the rug design activities of the major workshops.

News and Auctions

1)November 11 2009, Bonhams London: lot 133, Marion Dorn and a Morris & Co carpet for the Holland Park residence.

2)November 12 2009, Camard Paris: Bearskin by Moorer Eelko.

3)November 15 2009, Koller Geneva: Paul Klee and Andy Warhol (new re-edition 2008).

4)November 17-20 2009, Christie's Paris: second Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge sale: some oriental carpets (Khotan, Agra, Kazak) and three European rugs: a round one by Paule Leleu; an original and rare rug by Yvonne Fourgeaud, possibly produced by A La Place Clichy; a very nice piece from C F AS Voysey, featuring the Lisburn design.

Article written by Jean Manuel de Noronha

The German Reference Artist for Tufted Art Tapestries and Carpets: Ewald Kroner

In previous posts we have already given tribute to both Marie Cuttoli and Charles Slatkin, but it would be remiss of us not to mention the contribution played by Ewald Kroner in Germany. For several decades since the 1960s he has promoted artistic tapestries. Kroner included a number of complementary activities within his remit, such as editor, manufacturer and weaver, but was also able to include that of distributor and designer as well.

After having studied interior architecture, he worked in England, travelled in both Sweden and Finland and then decided to create his own company in 1964. He began by weaving in his own workshop and home. In the 1970s he purchased a 'castle' and transferred his manufacturing to the Schloss Hackhausen. His business succeeded despite the impact of the 1973 oil crisis. He managed his main showroom in Karlsruhe/Dusseldorf and also seems to have had galleries in both Munich and Zurich. His first major event was his participation in the German Pavilion at the 1970 Osaka Expo. Since then his work has been regularly shown in nominative exhibitions of artists, or more institutional events such as for the Deutsche Bank, or even more recently for UBS Lucarno in February 2009. A retrospective show was organised in September 2006.

Ewald Kroner's own production from the 1980s. Image from Ebay 2008

Ewald Kroner was a real technician and an artist in creative weaving. He was a keen supporter of quality and was always ready to challenge the limits of the materials and techniques he used. He employed a number of different fibres in his work, such as New Zealand wool, natural silk and metallic threads. His work could either be tufted or hand knotted, piled or looped. Like Marie Cuttoli, even if he were to produce a majority of piled works, they were intended to be seen as wall hangings rather than carpets for the floor.

The company offered a wide range of possibilities to customers, but for our purposes it is his work in limited edition art tapestries that we wish to focus on. The list of artists produced by Kroner is impressive. The Carpet Index has referenced the following artists: Bauer, Chagall, Claisse, Geiger, Hajek, Herbin, Hundertwasser, Kandinsky, Klimt, Miro, Mondrian, Picasso, Rothko, Vasarely, Warhol, with a special mention for Herbert Bayer who was one of Kroner's favourites and whose work he collected. In this activity it seems that Kroner as a gallerist also distributed tapestries woven by others like Galerie Cuttoli-Lucie Weil (Arp, Picasso), Paris, or Modern Master Tapestries, New York. This might explain certain descriptions or attributions found in auction catalogues which mention Kroner instead of the original maker.

Ewald Kroner also wove his own designs. In the 1980s he developed a complete collection of small and medium pieces that was both original and of a uniquely high standard in the quality of composition. The image shown above illustrates how he managed to create a real personality to this type of tufted weaving that until now has not really caught the attention of the majority of the public. His work expresses the European abstract search for its forgotten tribal roots. Kroner took as his inspiration Arabic and Native American crafts and fantasy. The compositions are complex and the mixture of all the yarn techniques helped to create vivid, exuberant and radiant 'woolen totems', a real contrast with the technically led design creativity of today.

The success of Kroner is validated by the fact that his tapestries have become part of art collections and can be seen in museums (Moon and Structures in the Kirkland Museum, USA), or were purchased by institutions like the tapestry for the foyer of the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1972, the latter has since been moved to Berlin in 1999.

The information gathered, with difficulty, by The Carpet Index clearly shows the major innovative influence of Ewald Kroner and the role he has played as the 'father' of so many German tapestry weavers. His work during the second half of the twentieth century deserves more promotion and wide scale publication, especially when you consider the prices achieved by some of his tapestries on German Ebay in 2008: several hundred euros for a five square metre piece. In comparison they were sold for 3000 Deutsch Marks per square metre in the 1990s. The road to recognition is complicated, this post was our contribution.

News and Auctions

1)October 27 2009, Christie's London. Special mention for two Zaha Hadid carpets. Clearly one of the leading contemporary designers and architects. The carpets date from 2008. This clearly shows the evolution of the market because one could certainly expect these rugs to be sold in design galleries. In the same sale lots are works by Kybal, Tejo Remy & Rene Veenhuizen and Loja & Eliel Saarinen (attr.).

2)October 27 2009, Sotheby's, London. A carpet by the Belgian Studio de Saedeleer.

3)October 27 2009, Massol, Paris. A Lucien Rollin Aubusson.

4)October 28 2009, Jerom Derem. An exceptionally large carpet 14.7m x 3.96m by Jean Lurcat and Camille Hilaire, woven in the 1960s for the COOP Head Offices. Estimated price 22-24 000 Euros.

5)October 27-30 2009, Bukowskis, Sweden. Marta Maas-Fjetterstrom, Barbro Nilssen, Victor Vasarely, and ryas by Ulla Schumacher-Percy, Kirsti Ilvessalo.

6)October 29 2009, Christie's. Two Maringold rugs after Picasso's paintings.

7)October 29 2009, Kahn-Dumousset, Paris. Eileen Gray (reed.), Leleu, Giacometti.

8)October 30 2009, Cornette de Saint Cyr, Paris. Keith Haring, Maurits Cornelis Escher.

Article written by Jean Manuel de Noronha

The Making of the Article Published in the Art Newspaper, October Edition 2009, Entitled 'Bacon Early Rugs'

In the post that was removed on May 4 2009, The Carpet Index established a relationship between two newly discovered English rugs signed Francis Bacon and a French rug, see illustration, signed by Ivan da Silva Bruhns, the major Art Deco carpet designer. In the text a detailed structural analysis and a study of Bacon's style was required in order to explain this unexpected coincidence. This initiative was followed by an exchange of information with Clive Rogers, an English orientalist with an interest in modernist rugs who had a shared interest in the same puzzling questions. After the removal of our respective texts on each of our web sites, which had initially been produced in complete ignorance of each others activities, The Carpet Index was offered a chance of collaborating with the writing of an article on the subject of Bacon's rugs, by Clive Rogers. I accepted and the research has been conducted during the summer by the two of us in our free time and at our own expense.

The clear and shared objective was to collect the maximum amount of information in order to answer three major questions:

1) What rugs had Francis Bacon designed during his London Kensington interior design period which corresponded to the end of the 1920s and beginning of the 1930s?

2) Which individual or manufacturer was responsible for the weaving of the rugs?

3) What was to be made of the two Francis Bacon rugs discovered in 2008 and a third unsigned rug of identical type discovered in 2009?

Da Silva Bruhns rug, 280cm x 135cm, with the agreement of Claude Boisgirard Auction House, Paris, Copyright

We both worked fairly intensively and with a complementary approach, throughout the summer. From France I supported Clive's research by using the extensive documentation of The Carpet Index and other Parisian libraries: Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Bibliotheque Forney, Bibliotheque Kandinsky, Bibliotheque Mitterand. Meanwhile in England Clive Rogers researched all of the rugs known to have been designed by Bacon, in the Royal Wilton Carpet Factory archive, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery, Guildford Cathedral and two medieval London companies as well as other specialists. He was informed by Wilton and others that the archives had been destroyed but was lucky enough to discover parts of it still extant at the Wiltshire Historical Centre in Chippenham, Wiltshire. He was also able to confirm that their Wessex quality corresponded to the hand knotted rugs used by designers like Edward McKnight Kauffer, Marion Dorn and Bacon. (Any additional documentation on Wessex is always welcome). Clive Rogers also undertook some revealing investigations in Ireland including that of the manufacturers in Co. Donegal and Co. Kildare.

This combined effort has allowed us to piece together how Francis Bacon spent his 'early years' in Berlin, Paris and London, and how he might have conceivably made particular choices towards the design of carpets, furniture, lighting and indeed his first paintings. From various photos, paintings and records we have been able to increase the identification tally of rugs designed by Bacon, to eleven. To this figure possibly two more rugs can be added, although they cannot be positively identified as being Bacon's design work. Until now the best publications were only able to identify six or seven rugs.

Concerning the second question, Clive has been able to compare the Royal Wilton Carpet Factory, using the collections of the V&A and Tate museums. He also discovered a new rug with the same design, colour and size as the two other green rugs signed Francis Bacon, but without a signature or monogram. In our second post we assumed, due to the information that was available at the time, that the 2008/9 signed Bacon rugs were originals. Due to new information that appeared during our research our statement has to be updated. The revised information will emerge in an article in the October issue of The Art Newspaper (London) and in more depth in another article in the December edition of Hali Magazine.

To be completely fair, the da Silva Bruhns rug was also studied and the different auction houses were contacted for more information or illustrations without success, (Sotheby Monaco, April 23 1989, lot 677; Maitre Claude Boisgirard, Paris, March 29 1990, lot 225 and Sotheby Monaco, December 11 1995, lot 141). We recall that this rug did not correspond to the different major styles of this designer, and we have not managed to find other rugs with a familiar composition. Even if the rug was signed, the lack of concrete elements obliges us to remain cautious with this attribution as well.

To finish this post I would just like to say that we have used the internet intensively for the search of information and Google Docs to pool the results of our respective works. It was only in September that we began exchanging opinions on the phone.

This collaboration was a very pleasant and rewarding experience and I want to thank Clive Rogers for the opportunity that he has given The Carpet Index by enabling it to be associated with this project.

All our efforts have clearly demonstrated that documentation on twentieth century carpet designers and artists is often fraught with numerous practical difficulties. If more research is not undertaken soon we can assume that an important part of the European decorative legacy will not only be forgotten, but perhaps lost altogether.

Article written by Jean Manuel de Noronha and Clive Rogers

News and Auctions

1)A white laminated stool by Francis Bacon will be on sale at Christies London, sale 7759, October 27 2009, lot 41.

2)A small exhibition, without catalogue, on the early design years of Francis Bacon will take place in the Tate Britain during the present trimester. For the first time three Bacon rugs will be presented, one signed F.B. is exclusive.

3)Quittenbaum, Germany, will sell a small Art Nouveau rug by Boutet de Monvel and signed BM, October 20 2009, lot 86320.

4)Von Zezschnitz, Germany, October 22 2009, will auction a flat woven tapestry from the Bauhaus, lot 441, 149cm x 77.5cm.

5)Piasa, Paris, France, in its Art Contemporain sale, October 23 2009, will offer rugs by: Robert Motherwell, Auguste Herbin, Alexander Calder, Miro, Corneille (3 lots), Robert Indiana (4 lots), Richard Lindner, Herbert Bayer, Genevieve Claisse, Eduardo Arroyo and Gerhard Richter.

6)Rago, USA, in their October 24-25 2009 sale will present a carpet by David Shaw Nicholls (lot 630) and a carpet by the Stark Company (lot 56).

The Carpet Index Post Guide

• A LA PLACE CLICHY-----July 16 2009
• ART SURFACE-----June 19 2009
• ARTCURIAL-----September 8 2009
• Francis BACON-----May 4 2009 (Removed); June 24 2009; July 30 2009
• Ernest BOICEAU-----February 9 2009
• Alexander CALDER-----April 17 2009
• Joseph CSAKY-----April 19 2009
• Marie CUTTOLI-----April 17 2009; June 13 2009
• Jacques DAMASE-----September 8 2009
• Sonia DELAUNAY-----September 8 2009
• Deutsche Werkstatte fur Handwerkskunst-----October 10 2009
• Jacques DOUCET-----April 21 2009
• EGE-----May 30 2009; August 12 2009
• Paul FOLLOT-----May 10 2009
• Eugene GRASSET-----July 16 2009
• Robert INDIANA-----July 20 2009
• LES ECHOS D'ART-----August 5 2009
• Roy LICHTENSTEIN-----June 19 2009
• Jean LURCAT-----April 21 2009; April 19 2009
• Louis MARCOUSSIS-----Apriil 21 2009
• Mathieu MATEGOT-----May 26 2009
• Myrbor-----June 13 2009
• OMEGA WORKSHOPS LIMITED-----September 29 2009; October 4 2009
• Verner PANTON-----May 30 2009
• Pablo PICASSO-----June 13 2009
• Serge POLIAKOFF-----April 16 2009
• Alfred PORTENEUVE-----September 24 2009
• Emile-Jacques RUHLMANN-----May 10 2009; September 24 2009
  
• Yves SAINT LAURENT-----February 9 2009
• Ivan da SILVA BRUHNS-----May 4 2009; February 9 2009; June 24 2009; July 30 2009
• Charles E SLATKIN-----April 17 2009; July 20 2009
• Societe des Artistes Decorateurs or S.A.D-----October 10 2009
• THE STUDIO MAGAZINE-----August 29 2009
• UNIKA VAEV-----May 30 2009
• Victor VASARELY-----May 30 2009
  

When was the Starting Point of the French Art Deco Style: The Salon d'Automne - Munich Decorative Art Exhibition of 1910 in Paris

In 1909 the closure of the Parisian Art Nouveau store, also called La Maison Bing, which was the reference store for the French Modern style, was a sign of the end of this movement which began earlier in 1895 with the opening of the store by Siegfried Bing (1838-1905), a German who arrived in France in 1854 to work for the family business. Nevertheless, some French decorators had already anticipated this evolution and had been aware of changes in style in other areas of Europe, particularly in Austria and Germany. Victor Prouve, president of the Nancy School, the major regional Art Nouveau group, had already contacted the Munich designers' association, Deutsche Werkstatten fur Handwerkskunst in 1908. He then worked to establish exchanges between the Parisian Societe des Artistes Decorateurs (S.A.D) despite the complex political relations between the two countries after the 1870 war and the subsequent French loss of Alsace Lorraine. This attitude was courageous as he was often confronted by the strong belief among politicians and professionals that French design had nothing to learn and that it was still the world leader in the decorative arts.

Drawing room by Paul Wenz, Salon d'Automne 1910, L'Art Decoratif Magazine, 2nd semester

The negotiations succeeded in organizing a joint exhibition in 1910 during the Salon d'Automne in Paris. In a separate part of the building the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs de Munich (Munch Decorative Art Exhibition) took place. It consisted of seven rooms, each being decorated by a different designer, as follows:

1) Reception room by Theodore Veil; carpet by Anton Poessenbacher Haus

2) Library by Paul Ludwig Troost; carpet by Smyrne Carpet mills

3) Dining room by Adelbert Niemeyer; carpet by Deutsche Werkstatten fur Handwerkskunst (D.W.H)

4) Collective rooms; carpet by A Niemeyer, Richard Riemerschmied for D.W.H

5) Boudoir by Otto Baur; carpet by D.W.H

6) Drawing room by Paul Wenz; carpet by D.W.H

7) Music room by Emmanuel von Seidl; two hand knotted rugs by Ms. Emmy Siegfried exhibited by Hahn & Bach

The result of the exhibition clearly shows that German design was competitive and that France was loosing ground and needed to react if it wanted to remain in the race for modernism. The expected changes were not only in the form or the style; they also needed to integrate theory and teaching methods. This event contributed to the creation of the Martine Atelier by Poiret in 1911 or of Primavera, the first department store workshop of the Grands Magasins du Printemps in 1912, by Rene Guillere, who was also the founding member and President of the S.A.D. But the major fact was that the idea of a bigger and more international exhibition was thought possible and would also prove to be profitable for all. World War I however, prevented this event from taking place, but the project did become a reality in 1925 with the Parisian International Decorative Art Exhibition.

In carpet design eastern influence could be found in the floral styles and the geometrical border patterns that could be found in rugs woven in the 1920s.

With this article I wanted to bring attention to the fact that the prevailing explosion of the Art Deco style in Europe and the leading role that France played in the movement was, in the beginning at least, not that of a leading one and that many of the newer concepts were in fact imported from Germany and Austria, with a particular emphasis on the Wiener Werkstatte.


News and Auctions
1)The Aubusson Tapestry has been registered by Unesco as belonging to their cultural world patrimony.
2)On October 14, Wooley & Wallis, UK, will have on sale (lot 1152), two rugs by S. Doene and (lot 1178) a carpet by Frank Brangwyn.
3)Three projects of carpets by Ivan da Silva Bruhns will be auctioned by Aguttes, Lyon, France, October 15, (lots 895, 897 & 898), the other lots come from the last home of the artist in Antibes, France, they include paintings (rare) and gouaches, (lots 889-907).
4)October 19, Artcurial, Paris, will have on sale a collection of signed rugs by Alessandro Mendini, Thomas Tramp, Pierre Cardin, Maison Diurne, Marta Maas-Fjetterstrom, Barbro Peerson, Gumilla Lagerhem-Ullbery.

Article written by Jean Manuel de Noronha

Omega Workshops Limited Carpets: Designers and Inventory. Part 2

After a general presentation of the Omega Workshops Limited in the previous post, we will now focus on their carpets. This category of product was very soon integrated into the catalogue of the company and was displayed at their first Ideal Home Exhibition of 1913. After the clearance sale of the Omega stock in July 1919, carpets could still be obtained by order from Roger Fry at 7 Dalmeny Avenue. Like the Wiener Werkstatte, Omega sold both loom and hand-woven carpets. The different qualities and prices were presented in the Omega Descriptive Catalogue of 1914, but no designer's names were mentioned which was part of the policy of the group. Today we can identify some of the artists involved in carpet design after the preparatory drawings and gouaches collected in the Victoria and Albert Museum which has about thirteen examples, and in the Courtauld Gallery which has about thirty (www.artandarchitecture.org.uk), some have either signatures or monograms. The artists involved in this activity are by order of importance Duncan Grant (1885-1978), Frederick Etchells (1886-1973), Roger Fry (1866-1934), Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) and Winifred Gill. They designed either loom or hand-woven carpets.

 Rug by F. Etchells exhibited at the Ideal Home Exhibition 1913 (see also Chelsea School of Art rug, or on www.flickr.com), 1914 Omega Workshops Descriptive Catalogue. The Carpet Index Library.

The loom rugs of Omega were sold as 'Super Wilton' quality. Whether or not they were manufactured by the Royal Wilton Carpet Factory is not confirmed as this designation could just refer to a type of technique of production. In the catalogue of 1914 the Mechtilde pattern with a dark background and border to be used as a stair carpet, 27 inches wide, is illustrated. This design was also used for linens and fabrics. How important the collaboration and the manufactured production was, is impossible to evaluate, due to the lack of archives and samples.

The hand-woven carpets are more difficult to evaluate. Susan Day in her book states that the first knotted carpets were made in France because the British industry was not interested in producing them. This is also evoked in the Courtauld exhibition catalogue, but has not yet been proven. What is certain is that the Omega Workshops produced many hooked rugs on canvas. This technique had the advantage of making the supply of orders flexible and they did not require a particularly large investment. However, the rugs are less resistant to wear. It is probably due to this last reason that so few carpets of this period exist today.

The Carpet Index documentation enables us to identify the following carpets and their location.

The Victoria and Albert Museum have two examples, (www.vam.ac.uk):

1) Ideal Home model 1, attributed to Duncan Grant, 226cm x 276cm, T.192-1958

2) Lady Hamilton model, attributed to Vanessa Bell, 190cm x 90cm, CIRC.660.1962. (There is another unit in another collection where the Omega sign is visible in a corner without a frame).

The Courtauld Gallery have one example:

3) Ideal Home model 1, attributed to Duncan Grant, 170cm x 221cm, T.1958.PD.267

The Chelsea School of Art have one example:

4) Ideal Home model 2 in blue, attributed to Frederick Etchells, 147cm x 91cm. (There is a dark model in private hands that can be seen on www.flickr.com) see illustration above.

There is another carpet with a different design attributed to Roger Fry but in the same style as the Hamilton one, but larger and more colourful. It appeared twice (possibly the same rug) on the market in London in two auctions: Sotheby's November 4, lot 285 and Christies May 12 1999, lot 241. The rug was woven for Sir Kay Muir in 1914 and measured 240cm x 188cm.

Any new information that would increase this list is always welcome. It is necessary to say that Duncan Grant produced rug designs throughout his career, even up to the 1970s, but they are not integrated within this present study as I was not able to identify the Omega sign. This is also true for Vanessa Bell, but on a much smaller scale.

Even though production was limited, the styles of these carpets are interesting and unique because they offered a complete opposite in style to that offered by the Arts & Crafts movement or by the Modernist style. My personal favourites are the compositions by Etchells which reflected both African art and the Cubism of Pablo Picasso, as illustrated above.

They clearly anticipated the tribal approach of da Silva Bruhns in the 1920s. It is worth mentioning that the series of gouaches by Duncan Grant portraying overlapping geometrical rectangles (Courtauld D.1958.PD 5 & 7/8/9), also clearly announce the mural paintings of Fernand Leger of 1925 that were afterwards produced as carpets by Myrbor, or the style of Edward McKnight Kauffer and his modernist rugs produced after 1928-29. To my knowledge none of the three artists has ever declared being influenced by the Omega Workshops. This visionary approach needed to be emphasised and therefore justified my two posts.

Article written by Jean Manuel de Noronha

The Omega Workshops Limited: an Unfollowed Insular Modernist British Experiment

Living in Paris I discovered last week in the bookstore at the Louvre Museum, a book entitled Beyond Bloomsbury. Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19. It corresponds to the exhibition held at the Courtauld Gallery which closed on September 20 2009. It focuses on textiles and presents for the first time many coloured drawings of carpets derived from the 1958 donation by Fry's daughter, Pamela Diamand to the Courtauld Institute of Art (www.artandarchitecture.org.uk). In addition three rugs were also illustrated. The interest in this, the first British Modernist experience, has increased mainly due to the reference book of Judith Collins The Omega Workshops, published in 1984.

The Omega Workshops Limited, was a company created by Roger Fry in 1913 with the financial support of intellectuals and artists, and was located at 33 Fitzroy Square, London. Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, the sister of Virginia Woolf, were two of the set of major actors in this laboratory of ideas, as were other members of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry had been influenced by the French initiative of the fashion designer Paul Poiret who created the Atelier Martine in 1911, and was the first to design fabrics after drawings from young girls who had not followed a classical artistic education. To this new, fresh and spontaneous approach to artistic creation, Fry added a collective, if not a socialist dimension, as all the products would bear the Omega sign as a signature instead of the names of the artists. This was the result of other artistic experiments on the Continent like the French community of artists called Abbaye de Creteil initiated by the poet Charles Vildrac in 1906-08.

Illustration from the 1914 Omega Workshops Descriptive Catalogue. The rug featured has not yet been identified.

Fry wanted to influence British art and design, which he felt had been imprisoned by the Edwardian Arts & Crafts style, and to create a break with the past, giving the artist a new approach. In the foreword of the Omega Workshops catalogue of 1914, Roger Fry writes: The Artist is the man who creates not only for need but for joy. By this sentence Roger Fry positioned his experience on a different level to that of the other movements in Europe like the Wiener Werkstatte or the Bauhaus group. These were much more concerned with the questions of ergonomics, research of functionalities, architecture and finding new materials and techniques of production. Omega productions covered all aspects of applied arts: ceramics, textiles, clothing, furniture, wallpapers, book design and toys. Major events that the Omega Workshops were involved in were the Ideal Home Exhibition of October 1913 and the Allied Artists Association Exhibition of June and July 1914. The activity of the company ceased in 1919.

What are the reasons for the closure? The early separation in 1913 of three initial members, including Frederick Etchells, who created the Vorticist movement and its corresponding workshop The Rebel Arts Centre, had weakened the credibility of Fry's initiative and brought confusion to the message he wanted to carry. Secondly, we can also estimate that the courageous pacifist stand taken by the Bloomsbury Group during World War I prevented Omega from attracting governmental support and acceptance from the general public. The fact that Fry was more of an artist than an organiser or a businessman, has also contributed to that final situation. To be objective, we must also state that the movement appeared prematurely in a completely unfavourable historical context. If it had been selected to represent Britain in the 1925 International Exhibition, we can estimate that Omega would have had a much better chance of survival.

How can we evaluate the influence of this experiment today? After 1919 most of the major artists of the group continued as painters attached to the Post Impressionist movement. Few articles concerning the Omega Workshops can be found today in comparison with what was produced, this was partly due to the low production quality of the Workshops. Contrary to other artistic movements, the Art Nouveau, Bauhaus or Art Deco for example, there were no architects in the group, and for that reason there are no buildings or large collections of work to express the theories and aims of Fry in the form of a manifesto. The collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Courtauld Gallery are representative of what remains. They can be viewed in part, on the web. Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant kept on producing decorative arts, sometimes using styles that were much more conventional and floral. Their Charleston home in Sussex displays much of their work. Finally, the result is uneven, and for that reason some specialists in design remain sceptical and reluctant to give any major credit to this experience. It seems clear that Continental European design of the twentieth century and even the British Modernist movement of the 1930s have almost forgotten the Omega Workshops. Nevertheless a certain proportion of their work is original and unique. We will develop this in the next post which is devoted to Omega rugs.

Written by Jean Manuel de Noronha