Frederick Etchells’s work, specifically the Ideal Home Exhibition Rug, (pictured), 1913, was presented at Textiles Hub London during the autumn of 2013 as part of The Geometrics exhibition and symposium The Geometrics: Volume 1 co-curated by Textiles Hub London founding director Emma Neuberg and curator Daisy McMullan.

Etchells’s work was presented and discussed by Daisy McMullan in her role as curatorial assistant at ChelseaSpace Gallery at Chelsea College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London, which houses some of the Etchells archive. Etchells was an important British artist (1886 – 1973) and was central to the Vorticist and Modernist movements of early twentieth century British art.

The Ideal Home Exhibition Rug is an important and rare example of a convergence of Vorticism and Modernism integrated into a contemporaneous design for interiors. The bold yellow grid and diamond shapes moving across the composition predate Piet Mondrian, Calder and Memphis. The blue and pink outer framing of the composition alludes to Japonerie and African art of the nineteenth century and before.

Discover more here.