Bloomsbury Art and Design

Delightful exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looking the design work of the Bloomsbury Group and the output of the Omega Workshops.

Roger Fry founded the Omega Workshop in 1913 with the idea of giving artists creative freedom and injecting a sense of fun into interior design. I loved the quote from him “we have suffered for too long from the dull and stupidly serious”! Work produced by the workshop was not signed by individuals.

The exhibition included lots of the Omega reference designs which would be used as models on any objects. There was a also a great collection of rug designs and it was wonderful to see an original carpet shown with them. The explanations also talked about how Fry worked with manufactures to get the designs translated into objects.

Along the centre of the room was a display case with a selection of the ceramic designs many of them thrown and made by Fry. I loved a blue terrine with a tiger handle and a lovely large green vase. They had examples of the white and blue Omega plates and also some hand painted by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.

Larger objects in the show included Roger Fry’s painted spinet, a Lily Pond design screen by Grant and a needlecraft chair.

Most of the pieces seemed to be from the Courtauld’s collection and it felt like seeing old friends however there was one picture by Winifred Gill who had run the Workshop which I’d not seen before and I liked. It was a still life in shades of brown of objects on the floor, possibly on an Omega rug with chair legs in the background.

Closes on 24 September 2017

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