Page 16 - The Collector's Companion: Issue CC101

A Pioneer of Pattern

From pre-war Vienna to post-war London

Post-WW2 textile and pattern design is defined by
the work of a few women designers, of which one is
Jacqueline Groag. Though her name is relatively un-
known, many of us will have spent hours of our lives
sat upon Groag’s famous London Transport moquette
design used throughout the 1980s and ‘90s.
Below: Laminate designs
Jacqueline Groag: Textile & Pattern Design: Wiener
Werkstätte to American Modern gives a detailed history
of Groag’s early career in Vienna, continuing with her
status as Britain’s ‘most influential designer of surface
pattern’ in the 1940s, through to a more varied career
in the ‘60s and ‘70s designing for carpets, plastic lami-
nates, wall coverings and that famous yellow/orange/
brown rectangle moquette.
The books starts with some food for thought, giving
mention to the disdain with which surface pattern and
decoration was viewed by the growing Modernism
movement and how applied arts was one of the few
artistic educational options open to women at that Below: Wooden dolls, sketch and undated Toys design
time. How strange that dismissing women in this way
actually gave them the opportunity to create so much
of the commonplace everyday design that would go on
to define the period.
Groag’s designs are both folksy and naive, energetic
and urban. It is lovely to see how the textures of her
original artworks are still present in the finished fab-
rics. The book gives us a sense of how Groag’s designs
developed thanks to the inclusion of her drawings and
painted wooden dolls and also the chronological order
of the images taking us from 1929 through to the early
1970s. We are also treated to some beautiful double
page spreads of Groag’s designs. Below: 1952 textile design and drawing
Jacqueline Groag: Textile & Pattern Design is a book for
lovers of pattern, textiles, vintage fashion, mid-century
design and pioneering women designers. Filled with
joy and movement, you’ll appreciate the impact these
patterns must have had on a post-war world.
A more in-depth version of this review, with more images and video, can
be found on The Collector’s Companion website.
Jacqueline Groag: Textile & Pattern Design: Wiener Werkstätte to
American Modern / Geoffrey Rayner, Richard Chamberlain, Annamarie
Stapleton / Published by ACC Art Books, 2015.
Paperback, 22x27cm, 224 pages, 180 illustrations.
ISBN 9781851495900, RRP £29.95

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