Textile Design with a Black-and-White Pattern with Squares and Shuttle Motifs Decorated with Stylized Flowers and Branches with Leaves
Robert Bryer American
Not on view
Vertical panel with a textile design that is part of a group of 266 textile designs by the American artist Robert Bryer, possibly made for United Designing Co., since most of the designs carry a stamp of the "United Designing Co. / WOrth 4 - 8975". Some of them also contain a stamp in the verso of the "Original Designing Company, Inc."
The collection contains a great variety of designs, from the more traditional floral and stripe patterns, to thematic designs based on various travel destinations, with palm trees and other holiday attributes. Especially interesting among these are patterns inspired by textiles and paintings of Native American tribes, including the Inca, Navajo, Aztec and Maya. The patterns are composed of semi-abstract figures distributed across the design in a regular or, in some cases, a more casual fashion. The spontaneity of designs and the use of floral and animal motifs suggest they were created for printed textiles in the forties.
This textile design is made up of diagonal strips of white (unrendered) squares linked by groups of six shuttle motifs, also left unrendered over a black ground. Some of the squares are decorated with black outlines that form stylized flowers and branches with leaves. The almost tribal nature of the design, with its incorporation of geometric and naturalistic motifs, was typical of American textile design during the 1940s.