Bolt to Florida Tech for Mid-century Modern Exhibition:British Bolts; Opens May 21
MELBOURNE, FLA.—The Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts at Florida Institute of Technology announces the opening of British Bolts: Artists’ Fabrics of the Mid-Century on May 21. This exhibition, curated from the extensive private collection of H. Kirk Brown III and Jill A Wiltse, has caught the attention of the New York Times for its focus on modernism in design.
British Bolts displays how the textile industry in post-World War II Britain changed dramatically. Postwar efforts to give Britons a feeling of recovery and progress and the promotion of better-quality “national” design led to the commissioning of artist-designed textiles.
As the works in this exhibit demonstrate, the result was an explosion of bold and innovative styles and more painterly textiles. These demonstrated the unique potential of screen printing, with its ability to capture the quality of brush-stroked color.
British Bolts examines the variety of aesthetic influences and approaches of the period’s designers.Mid-20th-century artists featured in this exhibition include male designers Terence Conran, Henry Moore, John Piper, and William Scott and female designers such as Lucienne Day, Jacqueline Groag, Marian Mahler and Paule Vézelay.
Shanna Shelby, curator of the Denver, Colo.,-based Wiltse-Brown Collection, will give a free gallery talk on opening day, Saturday, May 21 at 2 p.m. British Bolts will be on view through Aug. 27, 2011.
The Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts is open Tuesday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Saturday, 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, directions or to arrange a group tour, contact the Ruth Funk Center at (321) 674-8313, email textiles@fit.edu, or visit: http://textiles.fit.edu.
CUTLINE: Lucienne Day (1917 – 2010)
Apollo
1950s
Manufactured by Heal Fabrics
Screen-printed cotton
Collection of Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III
