Discover the unknown and virtually unrecorded world of textile designs by the influential pop artist and icon Andy Warhol. Dating from his early career as a commercial designer and illustrator in the 1950s and early 1960s, Warhol’s textiles are now considered an important part of his body of work. These designs added considerably to his ability as an artist, which was then almost entirely devoted to realising the demands and deadlines of professional clients, leaving limited room for fantasy and vision.
The exhibition includes over 45 of Warhol’s textile patterns from the 1950s and early 1960s, depicting an array of colourful objects – ice cream sundaes, delicious toffee apples, colourful buttons, cut lemons, pretzels and jumping clowns exhibited both as fabric lengths, some in multiple colourways, and as garments. Some of the most important manufacturers in American textile history are also represented, such as Stehli Silks, Fuller Fabrics Inc., and M Lowenstein and Sons.