A few weeks ago, I visited the Josef Frank exhibition at the Fashion & Textile museum in London. Josef Frank was an Austrian designer who spent much of his career designing colourful, eclectic fabric prints for Svensk Tenn in Sweden. It Is always truly inspiring to see such a cohesive body of work from a designer who has managed to develop a unique, individual style which is instantly recognizable as their work. Here are my top picks from the exhibition.
vegetable tree fabric
This print depicts many different types of fruit and vegetables all growing out of the same tree - its bold, colourful, graphic style and use of many different colours and motifs was representative of the whole exhibition for me.
rox & fix
This print of mountain silhouettes was inspired by Chinese landscape painting, and I loved it as it was so different from a lot the other things on show and had a wonderfully abstract, ambiguous quality to it. I’m hoping to incorporate landscapes/landscape art into one of my upcoming collections in some way - have a look at some of my inspiration on Pinterest and stay tuned!
window
This fabric was inspired by houseplants. I liked the simple sophistication of only using green and brown hues – it was a start contrast to many of the other fabrics which seemed to use every colour in the rainbow. Plus, it is very much in keeping with this year’s greenery trend - just goes to show how much trends go in circles!
carpet frank nr. 3
Of course I had to sneak a rug in somewhere (there were a few in the exhibition)! This relaxed geometric design really reminded me of my Harvest rug.
aralia
I loved this bright, floral fabric - the bright pops of yellow were really refreshing and the flamboyant, exotic flower shape really reminded me of my Passiflora rug.
terrazzo
The Terrazo fabric was inspired by a mosaic floor, and was a unique and refreshing change from the floral and vegetal prints that dominated the rest of the exhibition. It really reminded me of my Geology rug and wallpaper collection.
josef frank's watercolour paintings
One of the unique things about this exhibition was that it didn’t just focus on Josef Frank’s textiles but also his paintings, many of which have never been exhibited until now. I have been getting back into painting myself as well so it was nice to see parallels between the two disciplines in someone else’s work. My personal favourite was this painting of the hillside in the French countryside.
The exhibition is running until May 7, 2017 and has been very popular, if my Instagram feed is anything to go by! See it today at the Fashion and Textile Museum at 83 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3XF
