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The Omega Workshops were founded in 1912 by Roger Fry, an artist and influential art critic, later to become one of the Bloomsbury Group of artists. Fry's aims were to improve British taste in the decorative arts, to widen the taste for artistic products and to employ struggling young student painters. Fry established the Workshops as a challenge to the perceived dullness and formality of interior decoration, seeking to energize the decorative arts by promoting a more spontaneous and painterly approach ... “to keep the spontaneous freshness of primitive or peasant work while satisfying the needs and expressing the feelings of modern cultivated man" The Workshops opened on 8 July 1913 at 33 Fitzroy Square, Bloomsbury, London to cautiously enthusiastic reviews. At the opening Princess Lichnowsky, the German Ambassador's wife, named the six printed linens. Mechilde she named after herself, Margery and Pamela after Fry's sister and daughter and Maud after Lady Maud Cunard. Fry’s friends Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell were co-directors. Twenty “artist decorator”, students from the Slade School of Art were employed, but so as not to be distracted from their painting, were only allowed to work less than three and a half days a week. Edward Wadsworth, Jessie Etchells, sister of Frederick, and Nina Hamnett were some of the students who later became famous. Edward Wolfe, one of the last artists to join the Workshops recalled that the Omega was an extremely colourful and creatively exciting place, with an atmosphere that encouraged the artist to pick up and decorate whatever came to hand. The keynote of the Workshops was spontaneity. Fry’s ambition was for the artists to become multi talented, designing furniture, ceramics, book illustrations, as well as painting and sculpture, rather like the artists of the Italian Renaissance. He felt that objects and furniture should be bought for their aesthetic qualities rather than the reputation of the artist, so he insisted that all the work was anonymously produced. Designs were unsigned and marked only with the symbol O or Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet. During the 19th century Omega was used to mean ' the last word ' on a topic . Omega became the centre of avant-garde design in Britain in the
years immediately before 1914 period and a precursor of the Art Deco
style. Influenced by contemporary painting, all the artists and designers
in his co-operative were interested and excited by French Post-Impressionists.
Fry had organised two Post-Impressionist exhibitions in 1910 and
1912 showing the work of Matisse, Picasso and Cezanne, a movement
not accepted or recognised by the London art establishment. Whilst
in Paris choosing paintings for the exhibitions he would have visited
the Atelier Martine, a studio for the Decorative Arts, set up by
Paul Poiret in 1911. Fry also wanted to promote painting and the
decorative arts together and sell the products. The firm established
a fashion for abstract and geometric design influenced by Cubism.
The Fauvists use of colour was also influential to the Workshop’s
products. As well as fabrics, carpets, screens, painted furniture,
lamps, trays, pottery, tiles, boxes, bead necklaces, parasols, opera
bags, fans and silk scarves were all produced. An interior decorating
service offered painted murals or abstract patterns on walls, doors
and fireplaces, all in a comfortable and colourful style. Furnishing fabrics were one of the most succesful products produced
by the Workshops . Six linens were designed by Roger Fry, Vanessa
Bell, Duncan Grant and Jessie Etchells and hand block printed in
France by Besselievre, at the Maromme Print Works Company, Rouen.
The Company had a London office at 6 Snow Hill which is where Fry
would have placed his order. Fry in a letter of May 1913, reported
that "the French firm that's doing them are full of enthusiasm
and are altering all their processes to get rid of the mechanical
and return to older, simpler methods". It has always been assumed
that wood blocks covered in felt were used. Winifred Gill remembered
that the Maromme factory was overrun by the Germans during the war
and Fry had to find a firm further south who could take over the
printing. The identity of this firm is unknown. Miss Gill recalled
that "they evolved a scheme of making lino-type metal blocks
to print with and in order to give a slight play of light and colour
in the surface as well as not too rigid an outline the metal was
washed over with glue and sprinkled with flock which gave it a softer
surface and a softer edge". Fry in August 1917, in an interview
with the magazine Drawing and Design , said that the roller-printing
of the machine was used in the production of Omega linens. Thus a
variety of processes might have been used. Fry was very pleased with
the results and lent examples to the Victoria & Albert Museum
in November 1913. They were accepted as a gift in December and Maud
can be seen on display in the 20th Century galleries. The Museum
thought that they "might become great curiosities in the future".
* Maud, the fabric illustrated , was named after Omega’s patron, Lady Maud Alice Burke Cunard (1872-1948). Maud was an American heiress and the socialite wife of Canadian, Sir Bache Cunard. Sir Bache grandfather was Samuel Cunard the shipping magnate who came from Bush Hill, Nova Scotia. Sir Bache’s family estate was Nevill, Holt, Leicestershire, UK. Maud had recently left Bache to pursue her passionate love affair with the conductor Thomas Beecham. Their daughter Nancy was a well known poet, publisher and political activist. The design was available in four colour combinations all with a white background and measured 31 in (79 cm) wide . The printed linens were priced from 2s 9 d to 4 s per yard. There is also a graph paper design probably to be used for a rug or carpeting, which was never manufactured. The Omega Post-Impressionist sitting room at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1913 showed a length of Maud hanging on a wall. This was the Workshop’s major undertaking after its opening. The fabrics were also used for garments. A blouse was made using Maud fabric in 1914-5 by the Workshops, worn by Roger Fry to a party of the Ballet Russe in London in 1918. In 1914 linen tunics were being made to measure using Omega printed linens. There is a photo of Nina Hamnett in one made up from Maud fabric, as well as a painting of her by Roger Fry with the cushion on a chair covered in Maud. The Omega Workshops closed in 1919, their clients having lost their enthusiasm for purchasing avant garde items during the First World War.
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