East London’s Textile and Fashion Museum founded by the eccentric designer Dame Zandra Rhodes is now hosting a new Warhol Exhibition. It is dedicated to the iconic artist’s commercial textile designs and showcases and explains how this body of work contributed to the artist’s oeuvre and would become coveted by collectors on a global scale.
Textile design allowed Warhol to create ‘art for art’s sake. and he sold these textiles anonymously. They were managed by agents working within New York’s garment district and remained hidden from the mainstream.
Andy Warhol: The Textiles has been co-curated by Richard Chamberlain and Geoff Rayner of Target Gallery. It was only when the two of them were doing research for another Exhibit that they began their journey and discovery of Warhol’s seemingly lost textiles. It slowly became evident that textiles had become another string to Warhol’s bow and over 40 designs are now known.n
Warhol’s fascination with everyday items and artistic relationship with mass production can be seen forming through the lens of this early work. He combines his idiosyncratic drawing style with rhythmic pattern making and slight variations to create unique conversational prints which appealed greatly to those in the garment industry.
Dating from c.1955, Textile with large Butterflies, a key piece from the exhibition, has much in common with the scale, color choices, and sheer impact of Warhol’s later work. The butterfly motif chimed distinctly with Warhol, and it is seen several times as inspiration for other designs featured in the exhibition.
The Acrobatic Clowns and Horsesborder-printed textile demonstrates Warhol’s talent as a textile designer and is a masterpiece of pattern making, with the circus clowns’ kinetic sequence of somersaults making for the perfect repeat pattern.
Andy Warhol: The Textiles https://fashiontextilemuseum.org/ An exhibition exploring the beautiful and fascinating textile designs by the influential pop artist and icon Andy Warhol 31 March – 10 September 2023 Tuesdays - Saturdays, 11.00 – 18.00
