Textile Design with Scrolling Branches with Leaves and Stylized Orientalist Flowers over a Striped Background

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 composed of white scrolling branches with leaves and stylized flowers of various shapes with black pistils over a striped background made up of vertical stripes colored alternatingly with blue and green over a bluish-gray ground. This design presents a playful re-creation of "chintz" motifs that took place in the production of American textiles during the 1930s and 1940s, by including semi-abstract, Oriental-inspired motifs over a striped background.

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