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May Day Holiday Ebook Offer

Today is May Day and it is also the first blog post since I recovered my mobility from a bad back. Some of you might have noticed that I had to skip a week of posting here, as well as on facebook, twitter, and google+, I hope that it wasn't too much of a strain for you all :)

Lying in bed for nearly a week and then hobbling around on a stick was frustrating, but I am nearly back to normal now, and although I can't quite manage cartwheels yet, I am getting there. Anyway, in order to celebrate being well again, and the fact that today is May Day, I have decided to put all of my ebooks on special offer, was that a gasp I heard? Yes, all of my books are now on offer at 50% less than the stated price from today May 1 until midnight (UK time) on May 5. The discount has already been factored into the buying process, so anyone pressing any of the 'add to cart' buttons will notice that the 50% discount is automatically present. All of the books can be viewed on the Ebooks page which can be found just below The Textile Blog header.

There is a lot on offer ebook-wise, from Islamic decoration to Art Nouveau embroidery, from William Morris to Augustus Pugin, to Ann Macbeth, from lace to nature, from Medieval to Victorian. I hope that there will be something that catches your eye and I hope that you will enjoy this May Day offer in the nature in which it was intended. Again, have a happy May Day. I hope the sun shines for you, but if it doesn't, get out there in the natural world anyway, and enjoy what this planet has to offer.

[priyankachopraworld]

Else Grober's Embroidered Wall Hangings: The Magnificence of Trees

Illustration: Else Grober. Embroidered wall hanging, 1902.

Trees in all there complexity and splendour have always been a common subject within the creative arts, no more so than in textiles. There is so much information locked up in these wonderful specimens of plant life, all of which can be used creatively, from the leaf, right down to the root.

Trees have inspired artists through the complexity of line and colour in their leaves, the texture, and consistency of their bark, as well as the different forms of flower, seed, and fruit that they bare. They can be captured and imagined, growing as a complex community in wood and forest, or seen single or in small groups silhouetted against sky, water, and land.

Illustration: Else Grober. Embroidered wall hanging, 1902.

It is perhaps their silhouette, or at least their free-standing structure that interested Else Grober who produced these five embroidered hangings sometime in the early twentieth century. Now I know next to nothing about Grober, apart from her name. I can make a guess that she was either German or Austrian, but that unfortunately is as far as it goes. I can find nothing on a Google search and nothing elsewhere, which is a shame as I would have liked to have shared more than Else's name and work with you. If anyone out there should know more, I would always be more than happy to have them let me know.

Grober did not stand on her own as far as her subject matter was concerned, a number of embroidery artists, particularly in Germany, produced work similar to Grober's. There seemed a particular interest in reflecting isolated or at least human-free environments within the European textile arts of the early twentieth century. Tapestry and embroidery were significant contributors to this narrative of freely natural landscapes. The compositions tended towards the environmentally relaxed, landscapes that appeared natural, non-structured, and certainly non-human.

Illustration: Else Grober. Embroidered wall hanging, 1902.

Much of this type of work, produced in tapestry and embroidery, tended to be centred in Northern Europe, Scandinavian and Northern German artists being particularly affected. However, the theme of seemingly natural untouched landscape could also be inferred as being bleak, even melancholic to some. The lack of human interaction or reference points does disturb some, open rolling landscapes sometimes being associated with a form of urban suffering agoraphobia.

Although Grober produced embroidery work with other themes, all the examples that I have been able to find do tend to have nature as their true base. Although I cannot be certain, as I said I know nothing about the life of the artist, I like to think that Grober produced these five pieces from first hand observation. I like to think that she stood or sat in the environment, appreciated the stillness of the landscape, the uncluttered space, took in the silhouetted trees against the northern sky, breathed in the pure air, savouring her connectivity with the natural world. That she was able to reproduce her experience in embroidery-form, says much about her skill as an observer and as an embroiderer.

Illustation: Else Grober. Embroidered wall hanging, 1902.

It seems obvious to me, though only conjecture on my part again of course, that Grober loved trees. These significant members of the plant world have so often dominated our human environment. For the two million years of our species existence, they have been there for us, giving us shelter, protection, sanctuary, continuity. We have imbued them with spirit and magic, given them a graceful and protective presence over us and our communities. Only within the last few millennia have they begun to recede from our consciousness, due mainly to our relentless exploitation and dismissal of their magnificence. We tear down their communities, forests, and woods, in order to fuel our own voracious communities, clearing them out of existence, both physically and spiritually.

Sometimes I wonder whether we reduce the significance of trees in our lives because of some deep-seated jealousy, they do after all long out live us, some have been around for millennia. As a species, we are well aware that we are a late arrival on the planet, and a very short-lived one. That we can destroy a tree that has lived ten, twenty, or thirty human lifetimes, gives some humans a great sense of achievement, a sense of power over longevity. That it is sadly misplaced does little for the fate of the tree. 

Illustration: Else Grober. Embroidered wall hanging, 1902.

Personally, it is always a tragically upsetting site to see any of these magnificent giants slowly reduced to a pile of timber purely because it interferes with a view, or has to make way for a barbecue area. I would like to think that Else Grober, with her sensitive portrayal of trees within still, peaceful, harmonious landscapes, would feel the same way, but of course, yet again, that is just personal conjecture.

Further reading links:

[priyankachopraworld]

The Textile Blogs 6th Anniversary

Another year and another anniversary. I thought that last year celebrating the 5th anniversary of The Textile Blog might well have been the last, but here we are again.

I must first of all thank all of my readers, The Textile Blog would certainly have shrivelled up and died without you. Thanks also to all those readers that have left imaginative, intelligent, and perceptive comments; you know who you are :) Also, a big thank you to all of the followers of The Textile Blog on the larger platform that includes Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube. Also a thank you to all of the interesting and diverse individuals that have linked with me on LinkedIn, it is much appreciated.

So what have I been up to in this last year? Well, I have been consistently adding articles to this site, which I hope that you have all enjoyed. Admittedly, many of the posts to this site have become more concerned with the two subjects to which I feel a particular passion, and both of which I feel are intimately connected, namely human creativity and the role of nature as prime source of inspiration. I don't apologise for the concentration on subjects that I feel are important, this site was always one where my own personal perspective was the deciding factor. The thoughts expressed were and are from my own unique position on the path of life, no one else's. I hope that I make sense most of the time and I do so hope that the connections I make resonate with some, if not many of you reading this.

Illustration: Photograph taken locally by me today.

I have been able to expand my writing into magazine formats, which I have enjoyed. My thanks to Boukje Mulder at Handwerken Zonder Grenzen (HZG) magazine for her consistent and sensitive help and support whilst writing my regular articles for her. I also want to thank Marcia Young and Leanne Jewett at Fiber Art Now magazine for their support whilst writing articles for their magazine. 

There are more ebooks in the pipeline, the next will use Art Nouveau and nature as its subject, I'm planning for that to be out shortly. There are also other plans and ideas that I will be rolling out as the months go by, though I am keeping them close to my chest at the moment as they are in the early stages. 

I would like to thank consistent online friends from all corners of the planet, near and far. They are too numerous to mention, but they are all important and make such a difference to life, all for the better. Most I will never meet face to face, but are still just as valued as if they lived down the road from me.

Illutration: A bit of a fuzzy Skype picture, but it's definitely me!

Although this article has been dominated by thanks to various quarters, I do think that it is important to sometimes stop and take a look at the connections you have made, and the differences those connections have made to your life, your perspective, and your centre. None of us stands on our own, all of us have frameworks and networks that surround us, all are kept going, replenished and renewed by friends, acquaintances, and those we don't even know exist.

I would like to think that The Textile Blog has made some small connection to your lives, and will continue to do so in the future. 

My heartfelt thanks to you all

Yours

John

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Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill, Fashion, and the Wiener Werstatte

Illustration: Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill. Costume design, 1914.

The Austrian designer Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill was one of those designers who most obviously focused his talents in one direction, fashion. He ran the fashion department at the Wiener Werkstatte from 1910 to 1922. From 1918 to 1921, he also ran the fashion department at the School of Applied Arts in Vienna. From 1922, he worked first in New York and then at the Art Institute of Chicago, at both cities he was heavily involved in fashion and textiles. In 1925, he returned to Vienna and taught at the School of Applied Arts again until his eventual retirement in 1955. 

You have to wonder, with all the connections that Wimmer-Wisgrill had with the fashion industry, for a time he was often referred to as the Viennese Poiret, that there still seems a reluctance in some quarters to see him primarily as a fashion and textile designer. Some have referred to him as a furniture designer or an applied arts designer, but it is fashion that he mostly called home, so it seems fitting to place him there.

However, Wimmer-Wisgrill did work in other mediums including furniture, jewellery, books, wallpaper, metalwork, interiors, as well as a large variety of work for the stage including set and costume design. His textile design work included pattern work in printed textiles as well as embroidery. I will, in time, post another article featuring some of the printed textile and embroidered design work that Wimmer-Wisgrill produced in the decade before the First World War.

Illustration: Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill. Costume design, 1913.

His textile work, both for interiors and fashion, used bold, graphic motifs, very often based on flowers. Unfortunately, I don't have any colour photos of Wimmer-Wisgrill's textile pattern work at the moment, but some of the photos that illustrate this article will give you some idea as to the impact they must have made. Personally, I would prefer to use the term costume design, rather than fashion design, even though Wimmer-Wisgrill's work is usually seen as 'fashion'. It seems to me that most of the pieces shown in the illustrations have more to do with projection of individuality than they do fashion, fashion by definition having little do with self-expression, despite its claims. 

The individual as a self-expression was an important part of creative life in the run up to the First World War, and it could be reflected in many ways, including what you read, listened to, lived in, and how you dressed. To make a statement that ran outside the norms of Parisian fashion could say much about where you saw yourself and how you wanted others to see you. To wear a costume, rather than a piece of fashion may seem to be playing with semantics, but it is important to see costume perhaps as being more individual-led, whilst fashion as being more group-led, though the two can be confusing and interchangeable at times. 

Although one of the main identifying themes of the Wiener Werkstatte was its boldness in design, particularly as regards textile design, it would be a mistake to say that the designers who worked for the Werkstatte slavishly followed the theme that was set for them and had no input of their own. The Werkstatte was in many ways an organisation that gathered together the best of the Viennese design world. It must have been an extraordinarily creative hub, with designers constantly in contact with a progression of design work that fed on itself, producing more and more work in a path that led from the first few years of the century, right up until the early 1930s. That many of the Werkstatte designers carried the ideals of the organisation well beyond Vienna and well beyond that first part of the twentieth century is perhaps one of the lasting legacies of the Werkstatte.

Illustration: Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill. Costume design, 1913.

It is hard to say with the work of Wimmer-Wisgrill, whether he used fashion as a tool to promote and project his textile pattern work, or whether he used textile design in order to better emphasis the fashion statement. It is often a difficult path to tread, particularly if you are involved in both textile design and fashion, as to which takes precedence, if any. To me personally, although the third photograph in this article seems more muted as to textile design, the other photos seem to promote the pattern much more than they do the cut of the costume. It can be hard as a textile designer to underplay motif, line, colour, in favour of the human figure, particularly as bolder colours and graphics are often dropped in favour of muted and small-scale pattern work.

Wimmer-Wisgrill is one of those designers that are perhaps not remembered in the great roll call of twentieth century European fashion designers. He may have been called the Viennese Poiret, but it is Poiret that is remembered in the fashion world today and not Wimmer-Wisgrill. However, that does not necessarily negate the work of this Austrian fashion designer. He may not have been part of the Parisian fashion scene, but the Wiener Werkstatte was never really about projecting fashion in the same way that Paris did. Much of what the Werkstatte did was innovative, controversial in parts, and constantly interesting. Whether perplexing, fascinating, or deliberately confrontational, the Wiener Werkstatte strived to show different aspects of what could be, rather than what was. 

Illustration: Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill. Costume design, 1912.

That Wimmer-Wisgrill was both part of that need to expand the perspective, whether through fashion, the applied arts, architecture, stage, or fine art, as part of the Werkstatte community, as well as on his own path of creative enlightenment, we should be always thankful for these individuals and organisations. They have left us a vocabulary of inspiration and guidance in which to work and expand in our own directions. That we should be able to hand down our own vocabulary for the next century or so, is part of the great wheel of creativity, long may it keep rolling.

Further reading links:  

[priyankachopraworld]

The Fantasy World, the World of Reality, and the Creative Arts

Illustration: Ann Macbeth. 'Once Upon a Time' illustration, 1902.

I have always had trouble identifying with the accepted definitions of both fantasy and reality. My Collins English dictionary has a good definition of the word 'fantasy', it terms it as 'a far-fetched idea', 'imagination unrestricted by reality', 'a daydream'. However, its definition of 'reality' is seems more ambiguous 'the state of things as they are or appear to be, rather than as one might wish them to be'. So, in that regard fantasy could easily be taken as a world perception unrestricted by perceived reality, whilst reality could equally be taken as the perception of how things might 'seem' to appear.

To me, the fantasy world is more real than the accepted real. It is a world of infinite possibilities, and endless connectivity, a world without definitions, and limitations, and certainly a world that values the concepts of play and happiness. A world that contains so many of the important elements of our lives, elements that are so often relegated to the children's world of seeming distraction, unfocused experiences, naivety, and play.

Illustration: Annie French. 'The Eve of St. Mark' illustration, 1908.

The 'children's' world should of course be both lauded and cherished, it should be celebrated, not marginalised, and it should certainly be our mainstay throughout our lives, not limited to a few choice years of pre-adolescence. Children have a much better perspective on the world than most, despite adults maintaining that only they can have the privilege of defining reality. In many ways, that is the tragedy of our human perception, it is defined by adults.

Perhaps this is why so many creative people are tagged with the labels often given to children. They are often deemed unreliable, naive, fantasy-driven, in touch with the moment. They can often be transfixed by the smallest of wonders, the flight of a butterfly, the traced lines of a leaf. They have little interest in the often-destructive machinations of the 'real' world and would much rather be in the constructive world of the creative arts.

Illustration: Annie Urquhart. 'Blossoms' illustration.

The world of 'reality' in contrast can be one of limited vision. It has no real reference points for expansion; it certainly has little in the way of imaginative juice. Stand in wonder to watch a flock of geese fly by, or the colour of the sky, the sway of the trees in the breeze, and you soon realise that you may well be standing on your own. It is a world in which the rational human mind dominates; some sectors of science and philosophy have even tentatively suggested that the 'real' world is in fact a construct of this blinkered perception. Either way, our minds are often in conflict between the bulk of who we are, which is the unconscious state, and the reality perception of our thinking rational state.

It is often thought nowadays that the unconscious mind is the one linked to imaginative creativity. The unconscious mind is fuelled by feelings, colours, shapes, it is the part that we often call to when it comes to using our human creativity. It is expansive, intuitive, instinctive, infinitely imaginative, emotional, naive, playful, it is the place where we have our gut instincts that something is either very right or very wrong. All of these elements are often deemed as side-lines to reality, cul-de-sacs of living, the things that shouldn't be, and certainly shouldn't be taken seriously. They are all of the things relegated to childhood, and all the things needed to make you who you are, a well-rounded human being.

Illustration: Auguste Mahrlen. Illustration, 1904.

Our imagined 'real' world, the one where imagination and fantasy are not allowed to intrude, is one that is forever stunted, small-scale, mean. It is a half world, if that. A world that cannot grasp imaginative concepts or dismisses them as silly and childish, particularly if they come in an emotional package. It often refuses to embrace the perception of reality outside of the narrow confining parameters of convention. Therefore, to many living entirely within the realms of 'reality', dreams are nothing, imagination is pointless, and the creative arts amount to much the same, a pointless use of your time.

No one is saying, and certainly not me, that we don't need all of our mind to function in the world we find ourselves in. The perceptions of 'reality' and 'fantasy' make us a fine-balanced, intriguing, dynamic, and ever-fascinating creature. However, get the balance wrong; expand the 'reality' so that it ties the 'fantasy' into a little-used corner, and it makes for a skewed, dysfunctional, creature with a limited scope, and a dead poetic heart, in my estimation at least.

Illustration: Carl Otto Czeschka. Illustration, 1908.

To expand, or even embrace the fantasy as the real, can be seen by many as a bold, even foolish step, but our remote ancestors saw no problem in seeing the world in all its complexity. A world for example where spirit and substance lived in the same space, intertwining and affecting each other's realm, creating a harmony of sorts between fantasy and reality. A world of harmony between the perceptions of fantasy and reality.

In many ways, at least to me, the world of fantasy and reality are often given the wrong tag. The so-called 'fantasy' world could well be considered to a large extent, the real world, whereas the world of everyday 'reality' could equally be conceived as the fantasy world. We certainly need more people in the world who can see the 'fantasy' world as tangible and real, and less who can see the 'real' world as the only constant. That this can be more easily done within the world of the creative arts is perhaps telling.

In a less dysfunctional world of course, there should never be a need for conflict between perceived fantasy and reality, and certainly, no need for adjustment between the shares of perception, but then that would be a world where much of the creative arts weren't limited to a small section of the human world and treated as non-essential.

Further reading links:

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C. F. A. Voysey, Textile Design and the Pull of Nature

Illustration: C. F. A. Voysey. Textile bedcover design, 1888. (LACMA Collection).

Charles Francis Annesley Voysey was one of the stalwarts of English architecture and design in the first part of the twentieth century. His influence was widespread and fundamental to many and his work is still admired today.

Voysey was a particularly interesting character as, although being seen primarily as an architect, he produced a large amount of design work, in particular, textiles. Although by no means unusual, many architects in the earlier part of the twentieth century produced design work including textiles; many of them abandoned interior accessory work as their architectural career developed. Voysey on the other hand, actually seemed to enjoy this part of his career and took an active part in decorative work for a range of disciplines including furniture, metalwork, ceramics, and graphics as well as a full panoply of textile design disciplines including printed and woven fabrics, carpet, embroidery, and wallpaper work.

Illustration: C. F. A. Voysey. 'Halcyon' textile design, 1888. (LACMA Collection).

Voysey was very much part of the English Arts and Crafts movement and was a great admirer of William Morris. Although later in his life, he was more than happy to take on aspects of Art Nouveau, and then Modernism, his core creative life seemed to be with the Arts and Crafts movement, its ethos of simplicity, honesty to materials, and use of nature as prime source material. It was nature that gave Voysey much of his inspirational material for textile and wallpaper work.

The four examples illustrating this article are all textile pieces produced by Voysey over a period from 1888 to 1903. All have a representation of nature as their base, in fact, you would be hard pressed to find any Voysey textile or wallpaper work that didn't have the representation of nature as its main if not entire constituent. As you can see, all the works shown have that graphic quality often used by English Arts and Crafts followers. This was to make clear that the representation of nature as surface pattern was, at the end of the day only a pattern.

Illustration: C. F. A Voysey. Textile design, 1896.

Trying to represent floral work as 3-dimensional was seen by many as a pointless illusion, an affectation. The reality of nature was to be seen, experienced, and enjoyed in its reality. Surface pattern could reflect some of those joys through the observational ability of the designer, but could never recreate them entirely; the medium was at the end of the design process, just a piece of fabric and should be honestly represented as such. Perhaps a present day analogy would be the idea of television trying to promote itself as an HD experience, whilst all the time trying to deny the fact that as a medium, it is still a flat screen and shouldn't pretend otherwise.

The point running through the ideal of steering away from trying to duplicate nature, whether as surface pattern or HD TV, is the fact that the real experience of nature can never be duplicated by technology, it will always appear as a poor substitute, no matter how advanced the technology becomes. Standing in the natural environment with the sounds, smells and tastes of the natural world completely surrounding and enveloping you, is a definition of the real world. Taking those feelings, observations, and emotions with you and then replicating the personal message they gave you in to a piece of creativity, is a wonderful human gift. However, it would have to be underlined that the creative message, no matter how interesting, empathic or genuine, is still second to the original experience, and always will be. If you wish to experience nature, the world that has been our home for all but a tiny fraction of our species history, then you have to get out there and experience it for yourself.

Illustration: C. F. A. Voysey. Textile design, 1903.

Having said that, second hand experiences should in no way be dismissed. They can be constant reminders of the emotional and practical links with the natural world. They underline the connections we have with the real world, all the more important nowadays with so many losing those practical links with nature. The urban environment can quickly become all-consuming and focus can switch to the seeming real of the artificial and the novel.

Wearing or having in your home a printed textile showing the wonder of the natural world, through floral or fauna motifs might not appear to do much, but we live, as humans, with so many unconscious tags and connections that we are often not fully aware of. Keeping the connections with the natural world alive through the creative arts, whether through art, design, or craft, is probably one of the most fundamental and important functions we can do as humans. The continued emphasis on nature as a prime source of inspiration follows along the same long and fruitful path taken by Voysey, Morris, and so many others. Keeping that path open, creative, and contemporary, should be the task of us all.

Further reading links:

[priyankachopraworld]

The Embroidery Design Work of Bernhard Pankok

Illustration: Bernhard Pankok. Graphic design work, 1900.

Bernhard Pankok was a German artist and designer who, like many during the early years of the twentieth century, was involved in multiple disciplines including fine art, graphics, illustration, architecture, furniture, mosaic, stained glass, textiles and others. Pankok today is well known for his furniture design, very much in the contemporary style of the period, but with a definite individualistic approach, that makes his work quickly recognisable.

Illustration: Bernhard Pankok. Embroidered cushion design, 1905.

Of course, being The Textile Blog, we couldn't go far without talking about Pankok's textile work. Two examples are included as illustrations to this article, both embroideries. Although I haven't come across many examples of textile work by Pankok, it seems likely that he may well have also produced some carpet design work, as well as printed textiles, and wallpaper. I say that it seems likely, because so many of his contemporaries produced work in similar disciplines, but it doesn't necessarily mean that he followed suit, but for the moment at least, we know that he was involved in some forms of embroidery decoration.

Illustration: Bernhard Pankok. Embroidery design, 1917.

Although, as obviously noticed, only some of the illustrations for this article are textile-based, the others being illustration and mosaic, I think showing some of the other disciplines in which Pankok worked during the same period as his embroidery work, does give an impression of a particular individuals take on creativity, showing a certain level of bleeding from one discipline to another. This rhythmic flow that is often noticed in multi-disciplined creatives, between the back and forth motion of influence and inspiration, both feeding and growing from each other is one of the great benefits of a multi-disciplined, or if you prefer, cross-disciplined individual.

Illustration: Bernhard Pankok. Graphic design work, 1900.

From the perspective of one discipline, its perceived rules, its practical vocabulary, its central and recurring themes, can be seen a way of lending a unique perspective upon yet another discipline, one perhaps not even related to the first. By bringing in seemingly foreign and alien concepts to a discipline from yet another, gives a jolt to the established perception of that discipline. Examples would be that of a jeweller working in textiles, a ceramicist working in fine art, a fine artist working in jewellery. All have their own toolbox, which they bring with them, their own established perceptions.

However, it is the combined uniqueness of the individual's perspective that is the most important ingredient. Their own creative integrity and perspective go a long way in making whatever discipline they find themselves working in, always a unique and individual experience, both to the creative artist who works to complete a piece, and the audience that get to see the finished piece.

Illustration: Bernhard Pankok. Mosaic design, 1899.

Of course, we have to be aware that artists such as Pankok were often once removed from the practical experience of making, at least in some disciplines. Whilst Pankok would have produced all of his own fine art, illustration, and graphics work, he probably didn't produce any of the embroidery. Whilst designing but not being involved in the intimate practicality of embroidery making, does to some extent put up a barrier of sorts to any idea of full integrative creativity, it is still worth noticing characteristic similarities of individual artists and designers, as well as that of their uniqueness, that can be found in the finished work.

I hope that you can see, through the work of such people as Bernhard Pankok, at least an element of how important multi-disciplined work has been to the creative arts, and how important it still should be, particularly in a world that prides itself in its layered complexity. That complexity should be instantly noticeable within the creative arts, and while there is an increased element in multi-disciplined work across the art, design, and craft world, there still seems much more to do in making it much more acceptable to be a creative artist first, specialised discipline second.

Further reading links:

[priyankachopraworld]

The Creative Artwork of Stanisław Wyspiański

Illustration: Stanisław Wyspiański. Rose design, 1895.

It is hard to know what to term Stanisław Wyspiański. He was considered as both a playwright and poet, as well as a fine art painter and designer. To some he is seen as an eclectic individual, to others as a true cross-discipline creative, producing work in a whole range of subjects and approaching the role of creative individual with a an extremely broad and talented brush.

Wyspiański produced a range of literature in the form of stage plays and poetry, a selection of fine art work in oils and pastels covering subjects such as portraits, including self-portraits, as well as landscapes, street scenes, and floral work, illustration, and graphic work. A far as design was concerned he produced work in the fields of stained glass, interiors, furniture, as well as some textile design work. 

Illustration: Stanisław Wyspiański. 'Caritas' stained glass window design, 1898.

I am sure that I have unintentionally left some subjects out, but you get the idea, Wyspiański was an extraordinarily adept creative individual that didn't see any artistic conflict in writing poetry, designing a stained glass window, or producing an oil painting. To many of us, just one of the subjects that Wyspiański took on would have formed a healthy career choice, that he took on enough for a small art and design group either says much about him and little about us, or that perhaps our horizons have considerably shrunk since the period that Wyspiański was working, the latter part of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth.

Wyspiański was also a patriot in a Poland that at the time didn't technically exist except as fragmented provinces shared by Russia, Germany, and Austria. Wyspiański was born raised and spent much of his life in the Polish city of Krakow, the intellectual and artistic centre of the ideal of an independent Poland, one kept alive despite external pressure by Russia, Germany, and Austria to obliterate the concept of a Poland as anything more than a regional province of an external empire.

Illustration: Stanisław Wyspiański. Self-portrait, 1902.

That Poland was to eventually reach independence after such a long period of non-recognition has much to do with people like Wyspiański, who kept the concept of Poland and being Polish alive through the creative arts. The Polish Arts and Crafts movement, much of which was centred on the relatively autonomous city of Krakow, just within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, saw a healthy and contemporary art movement flourish. 

Although there was a tendency within some of the regional Arts and Crafts movements in Europe, particularly those focused on independence movements, to emphasise tradition and continuity with the past, portraying past glories and projecting a unique historical identity from the Empire that they found themselves in at present, there was also an element of forward thinking. Contemporary viewpoints and perspectives were just as much at home within the non-represented populations of Europe, as they were within the represented, sometimes even more so. 

Illustration: Stanisław Wyspiański. Portrait of the artist and his wife, 1904.

Polish creative arts for example, had strong links with the contemporary movements in art and design across Europe and many artists and designers were fully aware as to the newest ideas and concepts that were being thought out and constructed. In some ways, it could be seen that areas of Europe like Poland, areas that, as far as contemporary atlases were concerned, didn't exist, placed a higher emphasis on connection with the contemporary world than the more complacent represented areas. By projecting the modern and the contemporary within the Polish creative arts, the concept of Poland itself would also be projected. Producing prodigious amounts of art, design, and craft both in the Polish tradition, as well as in the contemporary, meant that Poland as an entity would always be noticeable, and therefore always be seen by the rest of Europe as a contemporary entity, and not as a series of backward regional provinces lost in the multi-ethnic empires of Russia, Germany, and Austria, as they were presumably meant to be by those self-same empires.

Although there are no doubt traditional Polish elements to the work of Wyspiański, it is also, as the five examples that illustrate this article show, remarkably contemporary. All five pieces range from 1895 to 1905 and cover the disciplines of design, stained glass, and fine art painting. All are within the best of European contemporary art culture for the period and none resort to chocolate box-type sentimentality projecting a dream-like romantic Poland of the imagination, rather than history, something that couldn't be said for all parts of Europe during these years. 

Illustration: Stanisław Wyspiański. 'Motherhood', 1905.

Wyspiański roots himself in the world of Art Nouveau, flowers and flower-led motifs are everywhere, whether as forming complexity within the background of pieces, or as patterned motifs on costumes and outfits. But this is only part of Wyspiański's work, he also cleverly manages to weave in a starkly modern approach, particularly to portraiture, tying in some of the best in the contemporary world of modern European graphics and illustration. Quite a clever approach and one that works extremely well, as the examples I have chosen for this article clearly show.

Stanisław Wyspiański might well be a new name to many, probably more so to those outside of modern-day Poland, but I hope that this small introduction to his work will help to broaden the appeal of creative individuals like Wyspiański, allowing his work to be seen not only from the standpoint of an interesting creative inspiration, but also as inspiration of the man himself, a creative individual that took on the aspect of the multi-disciplined, through the combination of poet, writer, painter, and designer. 

The two great tragedies of Wyspiański's life is firstly that he died at the ridiculously early age of 38, and secondly he died in 1907 a single decade before Poland would eventually be able to put over a century of foreign domination behind it and declare its own independence.

Further reading links:

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The Embroidery Work of Anton Hofer

Illustration: Anton Hofer. Embroidered ecclesiastical vestment design, 1911.

Perhaps a new name to many, the Austrian/Italian designer Anton Hofer produced work mostly in the design discipline of textiles, though did produce work in other disciplines including book design, furniture, ceramics, and even stamps. However, it is with textiles and more specifically embroidery that Hofer is best known.

Born and raised in Bolzano, once part of the Austrian Empire, Hofer studied first at the Arts and Crafts School in Bolzano and then at the School of Applied Arts in Vienna under Koloman Moser. From there he became an active member of the Wiener Werkstatte, as well as the German and then Austrian Werkbund. After the First World War, Hofer returned to Bolzano, which had been transferred to Italy, and stayed there for the rest of his life.

Illustration: Anton Hofer. Embroidered ecclesiastical vestment design, 1911.

Probably one of the main pieces of Hofer embroidery work, work that was designed but not made by Hofer, always need to stress that many of the designers I feature were not the actual makers of the work, was the piece illustrated in this article. It was a set of ecclesiastical pieces produced in about 1911. Although usually termed as being in the Art Nouveau or Jugendstil style, it perhaps has more in common with the distinctive styling associated with the Wiener Werkstatte of which Hofer was a member.

It might seem perhaps odd to some that the Church would have commissioned such a contemporary piece of work for the period, but to be honest the Church had always been one of the major customers for the decorative arts ever since its inception. In some respects, the Church could be seen as the main institution that had help drive the development of the creative arts in Europe, steadily and repeatedly commissioning artists, designers, and craftspeople with a range of projects from architecture, through to sculpture, fine art painting, as well as the disciplines of textiles, ceramics, stone, wood, paper, and so on.

Illustration: Anton Hofer. Embroidered ecclesiastical vestment design, 1911.

Although by the twentieth century ecclesiastical commissions were perhaps not what they had been a few generations earlier, work for the Church was still being produced in a range of styles from traditional through to the contemporary. Unfortunately, so many ecclesiastical commissions have been lost, vandalised, or completely destroyed over countless generations of seemingly endless European conflicts, whether politically or religiously motivated. 

However, fortunately the Hofer ecclesiastical vestments have survived and can now be seen at the Kloserneuburg Monastery in Austria. Anyone wishing to see a good colour photograph of Hofer's embroidery design work should take a look at this Wikipedia link. There they can see that much of the work seems to have been produced using the colours of gold and blue on a white background. 

Illustration: Anton Hofer. Embroidered ecclesiastical vestment design, 1911.

Although it is always good to see the original colourways that have been used in a decorative piece, it is also sometimes good to see the piece without the addition of colour; it can sometimes even be a distraction. It might seem odd to think of colour as a distraction, but sometimes the use of black and white can sometimes give a piece of pattern work more definition than could be found with colour. Colour has a way of getting in the way, particularly if it is not used well. That's clearly not the case with Hofer's work. However, if someone is using very loud jazzy colourways, which is fine as theme in itself, and you want to examine the decorative pattern it can often seem hidden under layers of colour and effect. 

This is often why I often use black and white photos on this site; it helps to focus on the decorative pattern work without too many distractions. I know many may well disagree, and you could well be right. However, I find that it can often help me to sort out the pattern work, particularly if it is very complex, the less distractions on that case, the better.

Illustration: Anton Hofer. Embroidered ecclesiastical vestment design, 1911.

At any rate, Hofer's ecclesiastical vestment work is an excellent piece of Wiener Werkstatte decoration, as well as being an excellent piece of early twentieth century embroidery work. There is something vibrant, bold, and confident about much of the European embroidery work from this period. A lot of it is abstracted to a degree, but still holds firm links with nature as prime inspiration, as you would expect for an era still bound very much to the Art Nouveau ethos of nature as being the centre of decorative inspiration.

We are lucky to have this piece of Hofer's work and although he carried on working creatively for much of his ninety year life, this piece produced when he was in his early twenties, van hardly have been bettered.

Further reading links:

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Silhouetted Trees Against Sky - Endless Creativity Through Observation

I am always amazed when out walking at how nature seems to throw up so many possibilities for creative work. The list seems endless, from rocks, to water, to plant life, to sky. Combinations of elements always seem to work well and today I want to share with you some quick photos I took whilst wandering around some local woods.

Silhouetting trees against the sky always works so well. It doesn't seem to matter what the colour of the sky or what the weather conditions. If it sunny you get one type of look, cloudy another, pouring with rain another one yet again. Winter obviously gives you a starker look than summer, spring will be different from autumn, but each season is just as important as the next. There is no real bad time to watch for the silhouette of trees against sky, all are valid and all have merit for your own creative outlet. All the combinations of season, weather, and even type of tree make the variety of imagery infinitely variable. No two views of the same vista can ever be the same, even from moment to moment, and certainly from day to day.

The great beauty about so much in the natural world is that it rarely has to be taken figuratively. Much of what you see can easily be interpreted as an abstraction. Pattern work is everywhere, as is texture, tone, and line. All can be used for whatever individual and unique perspective you have in mind. What could possibly be more open-ended than that? The five photos taken by me today could well be seen as trees silhouetted against a background of sky, but it is just as easily to see them as a complexity of lines and shapes with infinite possibilities in reinterpretation. You don't even have to have a great camera, which I clearly haven't. Sometimes the idiosyncrasies or limitations of the tools you use can be pulled into the experience, just another form of interpretation.

There are so many variables in our own lives, and it is true to say the same about every conceivable thing around us. Watching just this single phenomenon of trees against sky, every single individual will see differences that are unique to them, and not just in the external influences of climate and time of day, month, or year. Each of us has our own individual way of seeing the world. We are all connected up differently and uniquely, we sense the world on our own terms through our past experiences, as well as our present. 

We also have our own individual practical differences that give us unique perspectives of the world around us. The solitary distinction that each of our bodies gives to the way that our eyes are constructed, as well as the individual pathways that connect them to our brain. The way that each brain reinterprets what it is seeing, judging, and quantifying each view in the best way that suits our individual character. No two views through human eyes can ever be the same, despite the fact that there are seven billion of us and counting. 

All of the countless checks and balances that go on in our bodies between eyeball to brain go towards making the great beauty of each individual life the truly wonderful and unique experience that it is. That we are able to appreciate the world around us, tasting its multiplicity as well as its simplicity, should give us all a constant thrill of discovery and appreciation, that we can also reflect our appreciation through creativity is especially significant.

The creative arts gives us humans a unique and individual tool in which to express ourselves. It is something that all of us have and yet few of us use. The great tragedy for the creative arts, and certainly for humans in general, is that it is not seen as the integral part of our character that it truly is. We are all as a species naturally empowered to be observant, curious, empathic, reflective, expansive, they have been with us ever since our early development. They are also all character traits that are conducive to self-expression and therefore, should make creative art a natural for all of us, not just a few. 

Getting more people to observe the details of life, whether in our fellow humans or the variety of plant and animal species that we share this biosphere with, should be one of the more pressing of tasks facing us. By understanding complexity, by encouraging the growth of our own empathy, by promoting the outward signs of our inquisitiveness, although these are roles that we should find natural and self-evident, if they are perceived to be missing or at least stunted due to the skewed nature of our contemporary culture, they should be enthusiastically encouraged in us all, old or young, it should be irrespective as to who we are, where we live, or what stage of life we are at.

To that extent, most of us have access to trees, and all of us have access to sky. At the moment both are relatively free and can be viewed without having to book in advance. Some of us are lucky enough to have access to some of the great woodlands of the world, others of us have access to some of the great city parks of the planet, but even if the only tree you can find is a stunted example sitting in a pot in a shopping centre, or a clump growing at the edge of some waste urban or industrial scrubland, they are still just as valuable and just as creatively useful as the best redwood or oak. All are worth observing, admiring, and investigating. If all you have is one single poor example of a tree, look through its branches at the silhouetted sky and be amazed at the perspective and experience that you have been given, and then use that gift to give another gift through your own creativity.

Further reading links:

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Jozsef Rippl-Ronai's Embroidered 'Lady in Red' - Enmeshed Within Nature

Illustration: Jozsef Rippl-Ronai. 'The Lady in Red' embroidery in wool, 1898. (Google Art Project).

'When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.' John Muir

The Hungarian artist and designer Jozsef Rippl-Ronai produced the 'Lady in Red' embroidered hanging in 1898. Although Rippl-Ronai was not an embroiderer himself, the composition is entirely his work and is a beautifully conceived ideal of the individual within nature.

Although there were lots of examples of this particular subject that were contemporary with Rippl-Ronai, in fine art, design, and craft, this particular embroidered piece is a fine definition of the subject of harmony within nature. No matter how seemingly stylised Rippl-Ronai has exemplified the ideal of our human species immersed within nature.

For centuries, there has been a large proportion of fine and decorative artwork portraying differing interpretations of our role within nature. Many have been deeply symbolic, often showing the benefits that can be obtained by drawing towards the balanced relationship we must at one time have originally had with the natural world. Some have even shown the disastrous consequences when we spurn that age old relationship, like a symbolic eviction from the Garden of Eden. 

For two million years or so, humans have depended upon their harmonious relationship with the natural world in order to survive as a species. It has never been easy, but it has always been achievable, though only when the understanding of the human role within the natural world has been accepted and not inflated or distorted in favour of greed and avaricious behaviour. If you understand that you as a human being are a small but important cog within a seemingly infinite world of interconnecting but equally significant cogs, then you understand the harmony of nature. There is no hierarchy within nature that places humans above all other creatures, that sees some species as being more important and more deserving than others, only a self-imposed conceit. An earthworm has just as important a role to play, as does a bee, a vulture, an elephant, or indeed a human. All are equal, all have validity, and all are enmeshed in the whole.

It is this theme of the enmeshing of humanity within the harmony of nature that can be seen within the composition of Rippl-Ronai's'Lady in Red'. The composition has no space for hesitation on the part of nature. There is no role for human urbanity or its obsession with space clearing, apart from a small and decidedly non-invasive wooden fence. The woman does not seem out of place, imposed from another world, but stands confidently within the world in which she feels comfortable and obviously belongs. It even appears as if the ivy tendrils that are climbing the tree to her left are only moments away from beginning to entangle themselves around her body, enticing her to stay and become a permanent part of the harmonious whole.

It is interesting to note that Rippl-Ronai's embroidery was completed in 1898, deep within the Art Nouveau movement that had swept across Europe. Within the movement itself there is such a deep theme of the enmeshing of nature, particularly of humans in their primal state. Although 'primal state' often meant portraying young men and women naked within a natural setting, it would be wrong to think that there was little to the primal theme than mild titillation. Although, to be fair that was a definite factor, it would be mean-spirited not to see more than mild eroticism within Art Nouveau and its portrayal of this harmony between human and nature. 

Art Nouveau saw the portrayal of nature in all its endless variety very much as its defining theme. The complexity of relationships between species and the lack of imposition of any obvious human symmetry were departures from most forms of previous decoration. However, it was the lack of hierarchy, where humans were often seen encased within natural themes, as part of the nature, rather than imposed, that really stands out, as it does in Rippl-Ronai's 'The Lady in Red'. 

It is so refreshing when looking at this embroidered piece, to see an individual human who is part of nature, not apart. Too often we see examples of humans either looking on, or remote from the natural world. We look on as if it were an alien oddity, rather than the system that actually keeps us alive. While we maintain this dysfunctional approach to the natural environment, this alienation from our artificially adapted towns and cities, there seems little hope that we will develop into the species we have so much potential to be.

Further reading links:

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The Story of the Lost 'The Walk of Peacocks' Vanderbilt Lace Tablecloth

Illustration: Detail of 'The Walk of Peacocks' lace tablecloth, 1906.

A slightly different post today, more of a partial detective story and call for help. I was approached a few days ago by Francesca Bencivenni regarding a lost lace tablecloth originally produced in Italy in 1906. First a little about Francesca.

'Francesca Bencivenni was born on San Giovanni in Persiceto, in the province of Bologna, and from an early age she had a deep interest in embroidery, to such an extent that she began to make small embroidered pieces from the age of three. During her life she has attended the best schools of embroidery and lace in the Bologna area, initially studying bobbin lace, the 'punto antico' (Florentine embroidery of 1300), simple and compound needle unthreading, and more recently the most beautiful and complicated lace which Bologna ever produced, that which belongs to her city: the Aemilia Ars. The Aemilia Ars is in reality not only lace, as many think, but a real movement that was born in Bologna in 1898, where men and women of the aristocracy as well as the financial world tried to revive, with this art, the idea of beauty, of a precious object made only for the few and where all the beauty that can be found in nature, was highlighted. The great difficulty of this specialised lace consisted in the fact that its implementation was on a card in which the pattern was made and only once finished, detached and applied to tissue. In the early twentieth century, Bologna became one of the main capitals for this type of lace, exporting it to many countries. However, today sees Francesca as the last heiress of such mastery of the Aemilia Ars.'

Illustration: 'The Walk of Peacocks' lace tablecloth, full view, 1906.

Possibly the most important, and certainly the most prestigious lace piece ever produced by the Aemilia Ars movement was that of 'The Walk of Peacocks' lace tablecloth produced in 1906. It was said to have been commissioned by William and Virginia Vanderbilt whilst on a trip to Italy. It was to fit a table that could seat eighteen and was therefore an enormous undertaking for the lace makers of the city of Bologna. The tablecloth itself was designed by Alfonso Rubbiani, a well-known and influential Bologna artist. It was Rubbiani, along with Count Francesco Cavazza that originally formed the Aemilia Ars group. The group not only produced lace, but were also involved in jewellery, glass, furniture, wrought iron work, and more. 

Illustration: Detail of 'The Walk of Peacocks' lace tablecloth, 1906.

In many respects, Rubbiani and Cavazza followed along Art Nouveau lines, or Stile Liberty as it was known in Italy, but they placed great emphasis on hand production and the protection and expansion of the decorative arts in Bologna and Italy in general. Although the Aemilia Ars movement in itself was short lived, a number of the pieces have survived the era and are scattered across the globe. Lace seemed to survive particularly well, much of it went to the US. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Vanderbilt tablecloth. 'The Walk of Peacocks' was last photographed in 1929, the first three photographs in this article are those taken in 1929, since then it has effectively disappeared. 

Illustration: Replication of part of 'The Walk of Peacocks', produced by Francesca Bencivenni.

Francesca has herself been able to replicate the central panel of the original Vanderbilt tablecloth, but would sorely love to be able to track down the original. She has been in contact with the Vanderbilt Museum, which are in the process of helping her to try and track down the original tablecloth, but little luck so far. It would be a tragedy if this spectacular piece of Italian lace work has been destroyed, we can only hope that it has been misplaced and could theoretically reveal itself at any moment. It is probably in the US somewhere, so if anyone has any hint at all as to its whereabouts, or even whether it was ever seen after 1929, I am sure that Francesca would love to hear from them, either through The Textile Blog or through her own website at FB Merletti. 

Francesca's beautifully replicated piece of the original 'The Walk of Peacocks' can be seen at the Stile Liberty Exhibition being held at Forli at the Musei San Domenico until the 15 June 2014.

I hope that someone out there can be of some assistance as it would be wonderful if this extraordinary piece of Italian lace work, produced in the spirit of the Aemilia Ars movement of Bologna, was to see the light of day again and to be seen by the world at large, for all to admire and treasure. Please be aware that the illustrations used in this article, particularly the one showing the replication of part of 'The Walk of Peacocks', belong to Francesca, and were used with her kind permission.

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Art Nouveau Styled Textile Work of Paul Lang-Kurz

Illustration: Paul Lang-Kurz. Printed cushion design, 1900.

Art Nouveau has such a definite style that it is hard not to instantly recognise it in whatever form it takes. In many respects, it is the antithesis of the artificial, the symmetrical and the engineered, in other words it projects into the world of nature, a world of seeming casualness and limitless asymmetrical pattern work, rather than that of the human.

Despite the fact that Art Nouveau is a human construct, just as with everything we have produced as a species, this particular style of decorative work has perhaps a more poetic, even spiritual dimension to it than is sometimes admitted.     

Illustration: Paul Lang-Kurz. Printed cushion design, 1900.

Art Nouveau is often dismissed as an affectation, a movement that had style at its core and as its main projection, a mask of loveliness but with nothing of substance behind it. Now while that could be said, with some justification, of nearly every decorative and design movement in the history of the decorative arts, Art Nouveau seems to have come in for a particular vociferous mauling, both during its heyday as well as long afterwards. 

That Art Nouveau had nature at its core goes without saying. The natural world could be seen in all its details and interpretations across the whole decorative style, whether used in textiles, wood, stone, metal, paper. However, Art Nouveau seemed to interpret the natural world on a much deeper level than mere representation. Anyone can produce work that identifies leaf, flower, and animal, and many have done so over the centuries, as they still do today. Art Nouveau, on the other hand, seemed to take the spirit of nature as its main pulse, rather than that of representation. 

Illustration: Paul Lang-Kurz. Printed cushion design, 1900.

Many interpretations of nature in the Art Nouveau world seemed to portray the essence of the spirit of nature as if it were a dance. Many of the descriptive words that describe the word 'dance' seem to apply to Art Nouveau movements in decoration. Art Nouveau pattern and decorative work often seems to swing, spin, hop, skip, sway, whirl, caper, frolic, gambol. Although the style is often portrayed as languid, like tendrils swimming through a sea of syrup or jelly, this description can only be ascribed to one part of Art Nouveau, the decorative style was much more expansive than that. For every enticingly lethargic curlicue, there was also a range of other work that was much more robust, focused, and excitable.

In the five examples of Art Nouveau printed textile work that illustrates this article, all five were produced by the German artist and designer Paul Lang-Kurz, sometimes also known as just Paul Lang. Lang studied art at Stuttgart, Dresden, and Munich, before himself becoming a teacher first at Magdeburg, Krefeld, and then Stuttgart. He produced work in a range of disciplines from fine art, through to illustration, furniture, carpet, embroidery, leather, and printed textile design. Lang had an intimate knowledge of design for textiles in particular as he was, from 1906, head of the textile department at the Applied Arts School in Stuttgart.

Illustration: Paul Lang-Kurz. Printed cushion design, 1900.

The five examples show decorative work by Lang where nature doesn't just dominate the surface of the work, it is the work. There is nothing to show in these pieces the natural world being, no matter how stylised, contained, encased, framed or otherwise, by a subservience to the human world. There is no other world in Lang's pieces, and this was often true of many who approached the representation of nature through the lens of Art Nouveau. The artificial human world stood back, took stock, even marvelled, but took no active part to contain the exuberance of nature in all its unparalleled glory. 

To some, this exuberance of an unchastened nature, which was often and naturally associated with the female rather than male gender, was perhaps a little too uncomfortable for some, particularly those who judged their world through the often perceived male perspective of contained, symmetrical, classical, conservative dimensions. The idea that nature could run wild in all its asymmetrical, borderless, ecstatic liberalism, was a profounder shift than many could imagine, or wished to. Hence perhaps the controlling of Art Nouveau through the perspective of being seen as a frivolous, shallow affectation, a passing whimsy and nothing more. Perhaps a personal observation, many will already know how I see the natural world and its fundamental importance within our own, but still something worth thinking about.

Illustration: Paul Lang-Kurz. Printed cushion design, 1900.

Of course, Art Nouveau, despite the seeming brevity of its heyday, less than ten years, has had a profound and recurring effect on us all. It seems just as popular today as it has ever been, and although still belittled and categorised by some as little more than frosting, it has had a profound affect on a range of designers, decorators, and makers, across the twentieth century and into the twenty first. Judging by the enthusiasm it still genders it looks set to continue well into this century.

Further reading links:

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Book Review - Biographies of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones

Illustration: William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, 1874.

I am a big fan of biographies as you might imagine. At the core of the numerous written Textile Blog articles is the work of creative individuals. Whilst I am fully aware that the creative arts community as a whole is what really matters, the accumulation of diverse work from one generation to the next, there is no getting away from the fact that individual perspective, intuition and individuality often drives that engine of creative accumulation.

Most biographies, and more certainly autobiographies, that derive from the creative arts are well worth reading, even if they some are not that good. Most will still give a clear enough insight into the workings of a creative individual through both their personal and career character and give a much-needed insight into the perspective of individual artists. However, some biographies are clearly better than others and the often-exhaustive work of professional biographer Fiona MacCarthy are well worth recommending.

MacCarthy, who has produced large biographies on a number of individuals in the creative arts ranging from Byron, Eric Gill, and Charles Robert Ashbee, to William Morris, and Edward Burne-Jones. It is the latter two that I wish to feature in this book review, partly because they are the two books by MacCarthy that I own, but more specifically because both Morris and Burne-Jones will be forever inextricably linked by their long personal friendship as well as that of their families. Perhaps even more importantly for the creative arts was that of their long working relationship, one that lasted throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century and could perhaps be said to have been one of the most successful of the century.

In many respects, although the two biographies cover the same time period, Burne-Jones was born in 1833, Morris a year later in 1834, and both died within a couple of years of each other, Morris in 1896, Burne-Jones in 1898, and to some extent while there was a regular crossing of creative pathways, their individual characters divided them as much as made them friends.

Illustration: William Morris. Pimpernel textile design, 1876.

It would be too simplistic to take two divergent and complex characters and sum them up with a few words. However, for simplicity's sake it would probably not be too far off the mark to say that a general impression of each man's overriding quality would be that Morris was a doer and Burne-Jones was a worrier. To some extent, this has much to do with their backgrounds. Morris came from a well-to-do London-based family and spent much of his life living a life of a man of independent means. He enjoyed his various career projects, whether it was setting up tapestry looms, learning how to dye colours from original vegetable dyes, or setting up his own hand printing press. To a large extent he was never too bothered if any of them made a profit or not, the confidence of a man who had no real concept of personal financial constraints.

Burne-Jones on the other hand, or Ned Jones as he was originally known, came from a much humbler background in the new industrial city of Birmingham. He had no family money, and therefore no way of being the same man of independent means as his friend Morris. His only income came from his artwork and he fretted much of his life as to what would happen if he couldn't produce work his creative work for both his numerous clients as well as for Morris and Co.

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. Adoration of the Magi tapestry (detail), 1894.

Both men were acutely aware that in many ways finances divided them, socially and in character. Morris was often generous with his money, it had never really meant much to him. He bought presents for those around him including Burne-Jones, particularly early in their careers when Burne-Jones was struggling. However, although the financial differences, and to an extent the social as well, were always present, at least in the background, it was the creative agreements between the two men that really helped to bond them. Despite various disagreements, loud parting of the ways, even louder reunions, both managed to stay focused on projects that mattered and both were usually of an accord when it came to work produced for Morris and Co, particularly when it came to stained glass and tapestry output for which Burne-Jones was the most important artistic input at Morris and Co.

Why I personally love biographies, and better still, autobiographies, is that I think that it actually makes a lot of sense to be able to understand the individual behind the creative artwork that they produced during their lifetime. While there is nothing wrong in just concentrating on the work itself, to understand the character and personality of the individual, whether through their personal life, friends, lovers, dreams, ideals, tribulations, tells us so much more about the person as well as their creative output. 

Although these two books can of course be bought separately, reading them as a set is a great idea. It is like seeing the relationship between Morris and Burne-Jones from the perspective of the explosive, excitable, emotional perspective of Morris, and then switching over to the other biography and seeing the same relationship from the perspective of the much more pensive, often bewildered, and melancholy Burne-Jones. A fascinating insight that makes you wonder whether there is an ideal joint biography out there somewhere, a book that brings together just the pints of contact between the two men, points of contact that made the creative marriage between Morris and Burne-Jones so successful and so enduring.

Anyway, I highly recommend MacCarthy's two biographies, I found both fascinating and both gave clear insights as to personality traits, both positive as well as flaws. MacCarthy, like all good biographers refuses to pass judgement, giving instead a sympathetic understanding of the complexity of character that was not only a part of Morris and Burne-Jones, but is a part of us all without exception. You probably couldn't get a more defined biography of either man. Both should be widely available at Amazon and other comprehensive stores.

Further reading links:

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Gustav Klimt, Fashion, and Working in Other Disciplines

Illustration: Gustav Klimt. Portrait of Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein, 1905.

The Austrian fine art painter Gustav Klimt, a firm favourite inspirational artist for most of those involved in the creative textile world, was a great advocate , as were many in his lifetime, of the ideal of creativity as a whole, a world where the lines between fine art, design, and craft were either irredeemably blurred, or better still, dismantled altogether, where one creative individual could cross over into another and produce work that carried a different flavour and perspective than was perhaps usual. This stance or notion taken to the creative world has often been seen by later critics as fanciful, doomed to failure even, but why should it so definitely have to be so?

Gustav Klimt produced a number of pieces of work in a discipline that would have been conceived as alien to fine art work, namely that of fashion design. Admittedly, he was encouraged by his long-term partner Emilie Louise Floge who ran a successful haute couture fashion business in Vienna. However, it does not change the fact that Klimt thought it acceptable to travel across disciplines, working in an environment that he obviously felt an affinity to, but had little direct knowledge of.

Illustration: Gustav Klimt. Costume design, 1906.

All of the black and white photographs in this article illustrate examples of Klimt's fashion work. To be fair, he might well have only been involved in the decorative detailing, which is obviously Klimt-like. However, being involved generally in the practical design work of costume, no matter how limited, must have brought in elements of Klimt's perspective on the world as well as that of Floge, and this interaction of disciplines, rather than a clash, is more like a constructive melding, and could only be seen as an opportunity for growth.

For those who have always had problems with cross-disciplined interaction, we have to ask ourselves why? Who gains most from ghettoising the creative world into mutually exclusive camps, with their own distinctive and often impenetrable vocabularies, no one. These barriers are set up to discourage and often actively exclude not only the general public from becoming too familiar, but also inexplicably those of other creative disciplines from getting too close. Not to put too fine a point on it, there is an element of distrust at cross-discipline interaction, and although things are much better than they have been in a long while, there is still far to go until we reach a point where all disciplines are open to the inquisitiveness, exploration and intuitiveness of others.

Illustration: Gustav Klimt. Costume design, 1906.

You only have to think of the loud cries of condemnation, particularly in the news and critical media, of creative individuals who have the temerity to move into disciplines for which they are not known. The list of these individuals seems endless, but popular cross-discipline journeys that rate particular media critical frenzy are modelling to acting, music to fine art, fine art to craft, any discipline to writing, and so on. 

To me it seems unimportant whether creative individuals who cross disciplines are deemed worthy or not, it is the act of exploration and inquisitiveness that is important. Why shouldn't a quilter explore fashion design, or a jeweller fine art? Why shouldn't a fine art painter produce ceramics, a writer paint, or indeed a model act? Why do some deride others who wish to add interest and innovation to their own personal creative paths? Is it a matter of jealousy, or is it as simple as a case of unimaginative thinking? Everyone should be encouraged to explore and expand their creative journey. Perhaps not every project attempted succeeds, but is that an excuse to deride and jeer? I personally think not.

Illustration: Gustav Klimt. Costume design, 1906.

Life is all about the exploration of the self, creative self-expression being perhaps the most important human perspective we have. So, if an individual wants to write a hundred bad poems, or act in a hundred bad movies, or produce a hundred bad paintings, why would that matter to anyone else? Everyone is entitled to the freedom to avoid creative work that doesn't interest or engage them, but to actively discourage someone else's creative path, because the critic judges it as worthless within their own perspective, seems harsh and perhaps says more about the critic than it necessarily does about the victim.

In the long scheme of things how are we to know that an individual who produces a hundred critically dismissed works, won't produce a one hundred and first that overturns the consistency of those critics, or that future generations won't see a different perspective in work that the contemporary generation of the creative artist universally derided. Nothing can ever be universal or static in the creative world. The perspective changes as generations change. An artist that is ignored by one generation can be lauded by the next, and vice versa of course.

Illustration: Gustav Klimt. Costume design, 1906.

As to the world of cross-disciplined artists, although as already stated it is indeed becoming easier for some, it is still hard for many. Personally, I would encourage anyone and everyone to explore other disciplines, if even only to bring elements from another discipline into your work. Perhaps we may not feel as free, or comfortable as perhaps did Klimt, to explore the avenues of fashion, but the world of alternative views and understanding will never really amount to anything if the creative world, which is the natural home of the alternative lifestyle, is too timid to explore more than one discipline in a lifetime.

However, this is not meant to be an article in which to blame or shame anyone. It is much more a case of approaching the creative world in such a way as to allow yourself to be available for opportunities, particularly those in disciplines that might not have occurred. To see ourselves as creative people who just happen to be familiar with one type of discipline, but are certainly intrigued with the creative process to have a go at working in another.

Further reading links:

[priyankachopraworld]

The Natural World as Creative Landscape

Illustration: Akseli Gallen-Kallela. 'Pilvi Tornit' (Cloud Towers), 1904.

If you take a look at any ordinary dictionary, one of the first definitions of the word 'landscape' will be 'an extensive area of land regarded as being visually distinct', and often the second definition will be 'a painting, drawing, or photograph depicting natural scenery'. From this close and familiar association with the same word it is easy to see how the creative world has become inextricably linked with panoramas of the natural environment and the interpretation of those environmental vistas, thorough the visual materials of creativity in anything from paint to thread.

The natural environment has undoubtedly been the pre-eminent inspirational source material for artists and crafts people across millenniums of generations. Humans have experienced and visually judged natural panoramas since our early development as a species, if not before. Whilst the scientific world would encapsulate our early ancestors judgement of their surrounding environment as one of survival and little else, I personally cannot believe that whilst scanning the natural vistas of our planet, our early ancestors did not have at least a rudimentary form of poetic wonder and admiration for what they saw around them.

Illustration: Akseli Gallen-Kallela. 'Lake Keitele', 1905.

We are extremely lucky, some would even say blest, to live on a planet that not only teems with an indescribably profuse array of complex and unique life forms, but a planet itself that offers so many different ways of seeing and experiencing the panoply of life. That humans understood their unique ability to both comprehend and then to interpret through creativity, the endless relationships of life that they saw around them, must have occurred to us at a very early stage. Our creative ancestors understood, as we in our turn do, that the life we are given helps us to interpret the complexity of relationships, the interdependency of nature, the ongoing creativity of the planet, that in turn can be reflected within our own individuality.

There are so many artists throughout the ages that have interpreted landscape in as many different and unique ways. However, Scandinavian landscape painters, and particularly those who produced work at the beginning of the twentieth century, seemed somehow to produce work that was more than visually correct and precise. A number of painters from Sweden and Finland in particular seemed to produce landscape work that was almost emotional in its narrative, compositionally free and wide in perspective, giving the deep impression of both freedom and wonder in the natural landscapes of northern Europe.

Illustration: Akseli Gallen-Kallela. 'Nakyma Jarvelle Syksyn' (Lake View in Autumn), 1905.

The artist I have chosen to illustrate this particular article is the Finnish painter, illustrator, textile, carpet, and tapestry designer Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Gallen-Kallela was a Finnish nationalist at a time when Finland itself was a province of the then sprawling Russian Empire. Although by no means a provincial nationalist, Gallen-Kallela had an international outlook and was familiar with both Germany and France, he studied at the Academie Julian in the 1880s, he had an acute understanding for the natural landscape of his homeland.

The five landscape paintings I have chosen show unique and very different aspects of the natural character of Finland as interpreted by Gallen-Kallela. It has to be remembered of course that the world around us is interpreted forever uniquely. Despite the fact that there are now over seven billion of us on the planet, there can never be a truly shared experience, no matter how much we wish or believe there to be. We each interpret the world around us on a unique level. The differences between understanding might well be subtly different, but different nevertheless. Therefore, interpreting creatively is always a wonder because each creative output is a unique reflection of the individual artist and their inspirational understanding of the world they see, interact with, and then interpret. 

Illustration: Akseli Gallen-Kallela. 'Auringonlasku', 1899.

This will always be the beauty of the human experience, individuality reflected thorough and by individual experience. No matter how complex and structured the communities we live in, no matter how regimented the experience may seem through technology and remoteness, the sweeping majesty of a landscape will somehow always be able to take our breath away. Our connection with our ancestors feelings, understandings and connections with the natural landscape should never be taken lightly. They should be treated with the gravity they deserve. They are of a profoundness that we are only beginning to understand.

For a couple of hundred years now, firstly Europeans and then the world at large have been under the impression that the planet can be treated as little more than an endlessly pillaged quarry of goods, a goose that continually lays a golden egg. However, try throttling the goose into laying more than one egg at a time and see how far you get. The planet is poorly set up for exploitative profit, it was meant as an environment to complement and nurture. That it is beginning to fail as a going organic entity has much to do with a lack of focus and understanding, a distancing of experience and connection. 

Illustration: Akseli Gallen-Kallela. 'Great Black Woodpecker', 1893.

It is through the continued interpretation, poetic reflection, and creative inspiration that the artistic world can help to visualise our ancestors understanding between themselves and nature. By constantly placing the natural environment as a prime source of interpretation, whether through fine art, design, decoration, or craft, we make the connection between ourselves and the natural environment stronger, more intimate, and more compassionate. In turn, the whole human community gradually begins to see and interpret for themselves the compassion that can be engendered again for the relationship between themselves and the natural world. 

Through landscape we see the majesty of the world, through landscape we see the complexity and scope of life on the planet, and through landscape we eventually see our own purpose and role in these superbly inspiring panoramic vistas.

Further reading links:  

[priyankachopraworld]

The Creative Span of History and Our Place Within it

Illustration: Unknown Egyptian portrait of a woman.

Recently I have come across a number of online creative individuals who have stated that there is no point to history, no point in looking back, that the only thing that really matters is the present. In some respects, this is understandable; at times, it can seem somewhat overpowering to have endless dead generations seeming to weigh down the contemporary individual with their presence of history. However, it can be a very limiting world if we exclude those generations that came before us from giving us any real perspective of ourselves and others that we might hope to achieve whilst we are still alive.

To be frank, if we don't know where we have been, how on earth can we know where we are going. I have always had the feeling, and this can only ever be a personal feeling, that it is discourteous in the least and ultimately disrespectful to dismiss previous generations as if they mattered little to who we are today. We did not arrive fully formed, but on the back of our ancestors' achievements, though to be strictly fair, we and our world is also the result of their numerous mistakes as well.

Illustration: Neolithic painted pottery from Moravia.

It would also be unfair to expect us all to hold the past as sacred. One of the words that probably has the most dubious aspect in double-meaning is that of 'tradition'. Tradition is often bandied about by those who would keep people in their place, maintain strict and cruel social rules, as well as by those who would wish to maintain and encourage the better aspects of our history.

The creative world, by definition, is built onto the experience of the past. To understand fashion and design today, we have to understand the links it has with the past. To understand contemporary artwork we should be able to place it within the context of the past. No one can create in a vacuum, no matter how talented the individual or innovative the technology. All creativity is firmly rooted in the past. It feeds on the creative lives lived across countless generations. This then allows it to flourish, which then in turn allows it to flower in the present. However, this does mean that we are in turn slaves to the past. We are part of a process, we are not the end result, but instead a factor of a continuing momentum. The world we see around us is just one line of strata to future generations, an important piece of the whole, as all generations are, but still only one of many. 

Illustration: Incised cross slabs found in the ruins of St. George's Church, Doncaster, England.

This is perhaps one of the fundamental aspects, which seems to be lacking in our lives today. We seem to have no comprehension of time and our place within it. By continually seeing ourselves as the end result rather than just a milestone on the long path of the human species, we actively deny future generations a world fit for them to live in. By degrading our environment for the purposes of the now, we seek to give ourselves the importance of control over that environment. The act of course is futile as we are increasingly seeing around us, particularly when we open our eyes to see further than our iphones, cars and nearest shopping mall. What kind of world we pass on to future generations is much more important than our immediate comforts. Our legacy is what we will be judged by. Whether we become a black smudge in history, or the humble beginnings of a new perspective of the human spirit is very much up to us, both individually and collectively.

Illustration: Decorative Mosaics from Cairo, Egypt.

Our place within the span of history is how we should see ourselves. Creatively we are adding to the accumulation by individuals to the artistic and collective output of the human species. A large repertoire added to by each succeeding generation. A tool box if you will, that can be used by endless future generations. If we can be inspired by the work of an individual artist that lived either a hundred or tens of thousands of years ago, then the same could be true of our own work. Who is to say that our own contemporary output might not inspire a sensitive creative spirit in the next millennium, or two, or three. 

That is the perspective of time and history. It was never meant to be a one-way experience or perspective, one of looking forever back. If we visualise ourselves standing with outstretched hands, one hand holding the outstretched hand of the previous generation, the other holding the outstretched hand of the next generation, that is where we are. We are all irretrievable connected in time and space with everyone that ever was and ever will be. To pretend that you stand alone in your own lifetime is disingenuous to put it mildly.

Illustration: Mural decoration from the church of S. Giovanni Battista, Urbino, Italy.

The first image at the head of this article, an unknown Egyptian portrait of a woman was purposely chosen, not so much for its creative merits, but because in many ways it helps to sum up what I have been talking about. This is not a portrait of a fictitious woman, or even just the portrait of a woman long since turned to dust. It is a portrait of a woman that stands in the same line as us. She may well be long dead, but that doesn't negate her right to a place in the history of our species. We really have no right to dismiss her contribution and her valued experiences while she was alive, they have all added to the human experience recorded or otherwise, as will ours. To sneer or dismiss her existence and contribution, or for others in the future to sneer and dismiss ours does everyone a disservice. It is misplaced, unwise, and certainly uncalled for.

The dismissal of history by those who see themselves as contemporary might well be made as a flippant gesture, the fact that the gesture has also been made repeatedly within the creative world is disappointing, and is certainly delusional, we are after all, merely passing through. Understanding your rootedness within the span of the human experience, past, present and future, can allow you the freedom to be a unique and creative individual, using the untold creative stories of the past in order to be inspired to add your own to the larger story of the human creative experience, but don't imagine for one moment that you own the contemporary space indefinitely.

Further reading links: