Textile Design with a Tribal Pattern of Roundels with Abstract Duck Motifs and Scales

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 particular textile design is made up of a tribal pattern of scattered white roundels containing abstract duck motifs linked by strips of white scales over a red background. The animal-inspired motifs in the design corresponds to the rural revival of the American 'decorator' style that permeated textile designs starting in the second half of the 1930s and throughout the 1940s, many times inspired on indigenous and Native American design motifs.