Monday 9 February 2015

Colour As I See It

^Dorothy Liebes, High Mass, circa 1943. Photo: American Craft Council


Exclusively for Saturated Space, Alexa Griffith Winton introduces us to the dyed world of Dorothy Liebes, who filled the gap left between the human need for tactile, sensual engagement with the surrounding environment, and the austere spaces created by post-war Modernist orthodoxy.


"Interiors magazine, in an obituary of textile designer and hand weaver Dorothy Liebes in 1972, called her, “the mother of the twentieth-century palette.” Liebes’ unusual and often bold use of colour, metallics, and unusual materials in her hand woven fabrics for the home helped shape the look of the post-war domestic interior in the United States. This essay looks at her approach to working with architects and interior designers within the context of her approach to colour, as well as some of Liebes’ many writings on colour published in both popular and design magazines."