WORK #15 (TEXTILES COLLECTION)

Tibor Reich, Raw Coral, manufactured by Tibor Ltd, 1954

All images © Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester. 

INTRODUCTION:

Manchester Museum recently opened a new exhibition, Coral: Something Rich and Strange, which explores “the enduring fascination with coral as a material, symbol and inspiration for artists, cultures and societies across the centuries.”

The exhibition features several loans from the Whitworth and Manchester Art Gallery, among other institutions, augmented by a strong showing of museolgocial objects, of course. There is a broad range of art on display and I find the juxtapositions intriguing. The textiles from our collection in this exhibition show two radically different stylistic interpretations of coral. My selection today, that you see above (my apologies for the less than amazing image quality - I took this one myself in the exhibition!) is by British-Hungarian designer Tibor Reich, and is called Raw Coral. Another piece, Synthesis, designed by Sue Thatcher Palmer for Warner Fabrics, is also on show. Although both take the varied forms of coral as their starting point, the outcomes are vastly different aesthetically. If you visit the show, you will see that Palmer’s design is vibrantly coloured and intensely evocative of the underwater habitat which supports the life of these unique creatures. It is stylised of course, but the screen-printed pattern repeats, there is a movement and fluidity to the fronds and branches intertwining. Reich’s design - of which there is also a red, more stereotypically coral-coloured version - takes the tree-like clusters of corals and styles them in a very minimal way, contrasting them strongly with the background colour to create an abstract motif. Both are successful in their own ways, and I would recommend visiting the exhibition to make your own judgments. You’ll also be sure to learn a lot about coral! I have included a Google Hangout below between Kat Box (Marketing Officer), Dr Marion Endt-Jones (who curated the exhibition) and David Gelsthorpe (Curator of Earth Sciences) - so check it out!

Andrew Cheetham (Visitor Services Team)

CURATOR’S INSIGHT:

Tibor Reich (1916-1996), who was an émigré from Hungary, became a leading textile designer after World War II. He often created patterns from photographs that he took of natural forms. Here, a stylised pattern of coral in black and another colour (yellow on this example) has been screen-printed onto a textured cloth woven from cotton and rayon with occasional threads of lurex. According to his grandson, Sam Reich, who is relaunching the company, the design was first used in 1955 for the Council Chambers in Warwick, which was not far from the firm’s mill at Stratford-upon-Avon. The sample length was one of nine textiles produced by Tibor Ltd that were given by the company to Whitworth Art Gallery in 1962 when the gallery first made a concerted effort to collect innovative, industrially-made twentieth-century textiles. 

Frances Pritchard (Curator of Textiles)

FURTHER READING:

Book: Lesley Jackson, 20th Century Pattern Design (Mitchell Beazley, 2002)

Tibor Reich obituary: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary–tibor-reich-1319247.html

Textiles at the Whitworth: http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/collection/textiles/

Coral: Something Rich and Strange at Manchester Museum: http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/coral/

CORAL GOOGLE HANGOUT:

In the collection of the V&A Museum

Denby (1962)

1966 Cannon kitchen towels

Bill Blass 1971 Trompe L'oeil Belt Print Cream & Navy Coat

Silk dress by Mariska Karasz, ca. 1927.

(source: Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Model U Seng i in archive Jean Paul Gaultier fw98 couture for the new JPG Christmas campaign

Pam Hogg, Spring 2023

Pam Hogg Portrait by Kevin Davies i-D magazine #72 The Raw Issue, 1989

Pam Hogg Fall 2015