‘art by the yard’ installation view at the textile museum, washinton D.C.
the textile museum in washington D.C. is currently displaying an exhibition featuring robin and lucienne day’s work, which opened on the same day as the premiere screening of the new documentary ‘contemporary days: robin and lucienne day design the UK’.
design onscreen – the initiative for architecture and design on film produced the new ninety-minute film on the influential british designers. the film traces the days’ personal and professional progression over the course of their careers, spanning more than seventy years.
the coinciding exhibition, ‘art by the yard: women design mid-century britain’ runs until september 12, 2010. the show features the work of the day’s in addition to the work of textile artists jacqueline groag and marian mahler. the show displays textiles together with preliminary drawings and collages, ceramics and period furniture much of which was culled from the collection of jill a. wiltse and h. kirk brown III, the founders of design onscreen.
http://www.designonscreen.org http://www.textilemuseum.org
lucienne and robin day
‘fall’ (detail) by lucienne day, 1952 (manufactured by edinburgh weavers) jill a. wiltse and h. kirk brown III collection of british textiles
‘art by the yard’ installation view at the textile museum, washinton D.C.
‘untitled (pebbles)’ (detail) by jacqueline groag, 1952 (manufactured by david whitehead) jill a. wiltse and h. kirk brown III collection of british textiles
‘untitled (mobiles black)’ (detail) by marian mahler, 1952 (manufactured by david whitehead) jill a. wiltse and h. kirk brown III collection of british textiles
‘untitled (bird chair)’ (detail) by marian mahler, 1953 (manufactured by david whitehead) jill a. wiltse and h. kirk brown III collection of british textiles
PRODUCT LIBRARY
Mar 30, 2021
Mar 24, 2021
Mar 19, 2021
thanks dextersdragon.
the dining chair for habitat also has interesting similarities, although here the single-piece seat-back/arm-rest is not acting structurally and it’s less formally resolved.
http://twentyfirstcenturyretro.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/robin-day-chair.jpg
thanks dextersdragon.
seems like your links confirm a Hille chair by Day from 1965.
http://twentyfirstcenturyretro.com/tag/robin-day/
rcvs1
There is a good selection of Luciene’s textiles design to buy on this website –
http://www.classictextiles.com/day.html
Not Wegner, definately Robin Day
Intriguing because at first I could only Robin Day’s chair I could find that was similar was his ‘675’ dining chair designed for Hille and more recently reproduced by Habitat.
The resemblance wasn’t close enough so I keep looking until unearthing these photos of Robin Day chairs sold on eBay last summer –
http://twentyfirstcenturyretro.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/bvchcw2kkgrhgoh-d4ejlll0wegbkqgrertq_12.jpg
http://twentyfirstcenturyretro.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/bvcgbgmkkgrhgoh-d8ejlllzkdlbkqgq6i58g_12.jpg
I asked several furniture and product designing friends to help identify it but unfortunately no one could come up with a name or reference number for the chair.
You’re quite right in spotting its striking similar to the ‘Monza’ chair. It would appear that Konstanin owes a nod in Robin’s direction
Either way it is fantastic that these seminal British designers are getting some well earned international credit. For although the New York Times rather sniffingly described them in the past as “a bit like the Eameses, but English”. I believe they were every bit as good as their American counterparts, though unlike the Eames, the Days tended to work independently with Lucienne as Textile Designer and Robin as a Product Designer.
This little exercise has proven to me that they Days profile really needs to be raised!
Are any of these fabrics available now?
err should be because….that back does look like Wegner but can’t find confirmation either way. A Wegner piece in a Day exhibit? Anyone else put us right here?
Question for Peter Fiell…..?
Bill,
the chair should be by Hans Wegner
does anyone know the name of the chair on the left in the first image? it looks like grcic’s monza chair for plank.