Textile Design with White Lozenges and Scrolls over a Blue Checked Background

Robert Bryer American
ca. 1940–50
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 consists of groups of four white scrolls arranged around a small white lozenge over a checked background made up of intersecting pairs of diagonal blue lines with thin vertical undulating light grayish-blue lines, framed by two thinner dark blue lines, and separated by pairs of very thin white lines, over a light grayish-blue ground.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Textile Design with White Lozenges and Scrolls over a Blue Checked Background
  • Artist: Robert Bryer (American, 20th century)
  • Date: ca. 1940–50
  • Medium: Gouache over graphite
  • Dimensions: Image: 7 7/16 × 7 1/8 in. (18.9 × 18.1 cm)
    Sheet: 12 in. × 10 1/4 in. (30.5 × 26 cm)
  • Classifications: Drawings, Ornament & Architecture
  • Credit Line: Gift of Stephen Perlow, 1981
  • Object Number: 1981.1055.129
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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