News, Visual Art

PREVIEW: Enid Marx: Print,Pattern and Popular Art, House of Illustration

The House of Illustration’s latest exhibition coincides with the 20th anniversary of the textile designer, printmaker and illustrator’s death. 

Photo of Enid Marx working on a textile design, post-1945 © Estate of Enid Marx
Enid Marx working on a textile design, post 1945 (c) Estate of Enid Marx. 

The exhibition will bring together over 150 pieces of the artist’s work and will be one of the most comprehensive retrospectives of her work.

Enid Marx is best known for her  fabrics for London Transport’s tube seats and the wartime Utility Furniture Scheme, she was also the first ever female engraver to be awarded the title of Royal Designer for Industry.

Talking about the exhibition Co-Curator, Olivia Ahmad, said: ‘Enid Marx was a pioneering designer whose broad interests in abstract modernism and Popular Art traditions inspired remarkable achievements in textile design, book illustration and printmaking. This exhibition, and Alan Powers’ book, comes at a time of increased focus on the achievements of the Royal College of Art’s interwar graduates, and in particular Marx’s male peers Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden. Her distinctive contribution to this critical period of British design deserves the same recognition.’

The artist’s career spanned over seven decades and was immensely varied as this exhibition will reveal. Her work included encompassing patterned paper for Curwen Press, book covers for King Penguin and the stamps for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.

Enid Marx: Print, Pattern and Popular Art will be on display at the House of Illustration from the 25th May until the 23rd September. For more information visit: https://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/whats-on/current-future-events/enid-marx-print-pattern-and-popular-art

 

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