Summer by Design?

The Autumn equinox has passed, the leaves are turning, the nights drawing in and summer is fading into the distance. As promised in July, I return to my blog with renewed enthusiasm and will aim to post monthly on a wide range of cultural topics. I am also now tagging my posts to make it easier for you to search and will gradually go back to all my old posts to add these. To all my returning readers, thank you. If you are a new reader, welcome, I hope you enjoy my blog, please do feed back. To you all, please consider a like or subscribing to my blog so that I know I am still managing to interest you!

Despite commitments and holidays, I have managed to enjoy a rather serendipitous summer of design. Like us all, I have my likes and dislikes, and my taste, or lack of it, has tended to be classic rather than modern. However, I have had my eyes opened this summer by some excellent lectures and visits and I hope, in small ways, to bring this into my home in the future.

In late July, I attended an Arts Society lecture on Betty Joel, a British furniture designer active in the inter-war period. Betty was an amazing woman of whom I had never heard. Born in Hong Kong in 1894, she met her husband David in Ceylon and they returned to England together after the first world war. Without any formal training, she started her own business Betty Joel Ltd. and began designing furniture, using the expertise of local artisans using traditional construction, oak and teak. Betty was one of the few designers who assimilated modern aesthetics and produced a uniquely British response to the post-war needs. She herself said:

"I personally began to design furniture because I despaired of trying to adapt old furniture to the needs of my own entirely modern house".

Her designs were simple and straightforward. Her work in both furniture and textiles was distinctive for the use of curved lines and curvilinear shapes. Joel set herself the achievable objectives of producing refined and practical furniture for the modern home. She was successful in introducing a version of modernity into a wider audience through her wealthy clientele, and later through other producers who imitated this style. Commissions included work for the Savoy and St James’s Palace Hotel, and for the then Duchess of York. Sadly, with the breakdown of her marriage in 1939, Betty withdrew from the design world and did not work anymore though her husband David continued the business and renamed it David Joel Ltd. Betty Joel pieces are still on the market and command high prices. (source: i Design )

Also in July, I spent a relaxing break in the Cotswolds with friends and our must-do was a visit to Kelmscott Manor, the delightful country retreat of William Morris. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the Pre-Raphaelite artist, was a co-tenant for three years. The architecture, history, landscape, flora and fauna of Kelmscott had a profound effect on Morris and his thinking and everywhere there is evidence of his evocative and timeless designs. It is easy to see, in this rural idyll, where he got his inspiration, bringing the colours and designs of the natural world into the house. Sadly you cannot visit as the house has now closed for an extensive renovation project and will not open until 2021. However, this excellent video from the Past, Present and Future Project gives you a brilliant flavour of what is in store.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRPtW23rIA0

In August, I watched an excellent BBC Four TV programme on the Bauhaus movement. The Bauhaus was arguably the single most influential modernist art school of the 20th century. Its approach to teaching, and to the relationship between art, society, and technology, had a major impact both in Europe and in the US long after its closure under Nazi pressure in 1933. The Bauhaus was influenced by 19th and early-20th-century artistic directions such as the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau. These movements sought to level the distinction between the fine and applied arts, and to reunite creativity and manufacturing; their legacy was reflected in the romantic medievalism of the Bauhaus ethos during its early years, when it fashioned itself as a kind of craftsmen's guild. But by the mid-1920s this vision had given way to a stress on uniting art and industrial design, and it was this which underpinned the Bauhaus's most original and important achievements.

(source: the art story)

It is a fascinating story and you can still watch the programme here

A different kind of design, but equally fascinating and modern in its outlook, is the beautiful National Trust garden, Glendurgan, a thriving sub-tropical valley garden which runs down to the Helford River at the fishing village of Durgan in the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall.

Noted as a horticultural hotspot, Glendurgan is one of the best of Cornwall's characteristic valley gardens. Purchased by Alfred Fox in 1820, it was created following his brother's pioneering example at Penjerrick, where the innovative planting had already impressed many horticultural writers of the time. Alfred Fox planted Pinus Pinaster as windbreaks, as well as variety of vibrant trees and shrubs, and several orchards. The garden is an enchanting display of rare and exotic shrubs year-round and its maze, dating back to 1833, is a real challenge! Winding paths take you gradually down the valley until you reach the peaceful and picturesque fishing village (also NT) which is a step back in time. If you're down that way this is a must (source: Visit Cornwall)

I hope you have enjoyed this spotlight on design and perhaps are inspired to find out more about these influential and fascinating designs and designers.