Working against the passage of time
Isabelle Crawford, undergraduate student, History at University of Cambridge
Over the past few weeks I have been making enclosures for designs on paper, slowly working my way through drawers of artworks from the 1950s. Although some of the artworks have been more challenging than others to make enclosures for, the most difficult part of the process has been not being able to take pictures of the more interesting motifs and colour combinations that I have encountered. This artwork is one that I have thought about on my journeys home, and one that I wanted to share not because it is the most immediately eye-catching design, but because it wears its age in a beautiful way.
The surface of this acidic green artwork has become worn over time, revealing brighter shades along the crease lines. It is possible that when the designers at Warner & Sons bought the artwork they were similarly interested by this effect, as in some areas the natural wear has been enhanced by the strategic use of paint. When the artwork was translated into ‘Anna’, a screen-printed cotton chintz produced in 1959, the worn effect was retained in the mottled texture of the background. Screen printing was suited to this type of fine-grained texture, and it is possible that the designers were leaning into this new possibility as the technology developed during this period. In contrast to the background, for ‘Anna’ the figures were restored to a sketchy completeness that continued the worn effect, but made the overall design more legible.
3405 ‘Anna’, hand painted paper design purchased by Warner & Sons from French design studio Giraud, 1959.
‘Anna’, screen-printed cotton chintz manufactured in 1959.
The artwork was originally created by Giraud, a French design studio, in the Chinoiserie style. Chinoiserie was a style that was reworked by designers in the 1950s, as it had been since it was first popularised in Europe in the 17th century. In this case, the designers were interested in Chinoiserie as a style that had its own history.
3405 ‘Anna’, hand painted paper design purchased by Warner & Sons from French design studio Giraud, 1959 (detail).
The artwork itself has developed an additional layer of character through its lifetime as a working document that was carefully used and stored for decades. On a personal level, I really like this combination of bright colour with a more delicate mottled surface texture. Although the task that I am doing at the archive involves working against the passage of time, I think that there is something quietly meaningful about the way that age and use have changed this artwork. It was through making a new enclosure for this artwork that I was able to spend time getting to know it, and that has been one of the most rewarding aspects of the task.