Furnishing Fabric thumbnail 1
Not on display

Furnishing Fabric

c.1950 (designed)
Artist/Maker
David Whitehead & Sons Ltd. (designed for)
Groag, Jacqueline (designer)
Place of origin
Lancashire (made)

printed, c.1950-51, British; Groag, Jacqueline for David Whitehead

Object details

Categories
Textiles
Interiors
Object type
Furnishing fabric
Brief description
printed, c.1950-51, British; Groag, Jacqueline for David Whitehead
Dimensions
  • Width: 620
  • Length: 790
Object history
This fabric was used to upholster chairs designed by Gordon Andrews for Olivetti in 1950-51. The Powerhouse Collection in Sydney have an archival photograph of one of Andrews's typist's chairs upholstered with this design.
Bibliographic references
  • The following excerpt is taken from Galloway, Francesca & Ikoku, Ngozi, 'Post-War British Textiles'. Robert Marcuson Publishing, London, 2002 (p.11) "Jacqueline Groag, a Czech by birth, was a talented textile designer, as well-known and as influential as [Lucienne] Day in the 1950s; she continued designing textiles until the 1980s. Groag was a student of Josef Hoffmann and Franz Cizek in Vienna and designed for the Wiener Werkstätte before moving to Paris in 1929. There she designed dress fabrics for Chanel, Schiaparelli and Lanvin. She married the architect and follower of Adolf Loos, Jacques Groag, whose preference for severe functionalism in architecture had some influence on her style. They moved to London in 1939 where her success must have been immediate given the number of textiles she designed for the 'Britain Can Make It' exhibition at the V&A in 1946. [...] Groag's designs retain a whimsical quality and clarity of vision whilst remaining logical and intelligently structured. Her use of colour is subtle and most elegant."
  • Photograph of a typist's chair by Gordon Andrews covered with Jacqueline Groag fabric. Collection of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.
Collection
Textiles and Fashion Collection
Accession number
CIRC.504A-1953

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O269091/furnishing-fabric-groag-jacqueline/
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