Research Trip to London 22nd Feb

The Fashion and Textile Museum- Artist Textiles Picasso to Warhol

I found this exhibition particularly helpful for the wide range of patterns and textiles from the 1950s era both in America and Britain. Each of the textiles had been designed by artists instead of designers, this made them much more individual and less generic for that time. 

 Interestingly, in 1950s New York it was fashionable for illustrations to be seen on textiles. Work by Illustrators such as Saul Steinberg and John Rambola were popular at the time. The 'arab market' dress on display at the museum sparked possible development ideas for garments for my own characters, wrapping imagery of objects or landscapes from my grandfather's photography into the costumes I make for them. 

 John Rambola

(Copies of John Rambola's work from my sketchbook)

Andy Warhol

Pablo Picasso

 Eduardo Paolozzi 1953

Jon Catleugh 1953

Louis Le Brocquy 1954

Pablo Picasso

Saul Steinberg

The V&A

The collections available this weekend weren't as useful as I had previously hoped, however I did take some photographs of the permanent collection of 1950s dresses that show a small range of different styles that were popular in women's fashion at the time.

The Tate Modern

Richard Hamilton Exhibition

Even though his work covers a lot of popular culture over a period thirty years, it was great to view the work of such an integral artist to the 1950s art movements. His focus on perspective in image making to challenge the audience's way of looking is really interesting.  Even though he works a lot with photographic collage, there are elements of his placement of people and objects in his compositions that inspire my own practice. Its quite suggestive of that time but does not give too much away. I was also drawn to his application of relief in his paintings, exaggerating elements of the image for points of interest, and his installation work which combined visual communication with audience interaction.

Current Visual Merchandising in London

To feed my own understanding of current trends in advertising and visual presentation techniques, i decided to observe different shop window fronts in Oxford Circus that challenge the traditional expectations of a shop window. I discovered to find many examples of illustrative and artistic contributions to current high street shops. Here a few of my favourites...

Urban Outfitters, Oxford Street

 Selfridges & Co, Oxford Street- A few of the sequence of windows all to do with the imagination!

I particularly like the last two images as there is a definite theatricality to the set designs of these windows, the essence of movement around the objects suggest human presence without any sign of mannequins or cut outs.

 Pull & Bear, Oxford Street: I thought this worked particularly well with the variety of angles with the bikes which distorts the view point for the passer-by. Its also a clever set up as the clothes on display are all grey, therefore the pastel palette exaggerates the clothing.

Liberty of London, Regent Street

There was a variety of different window displays at Liberty's. In my opinion I don't think as a series they worked as well as Selfridges. Even though, each window was designed by different practitioners there a distinct consistency throughout. Liberty of London included many well designed displays but its lack of consistency made it look higgledy- piggledy in comparison.