Enid Marx was a brilliant noted pattern maker that had
an eye for detail along with a talent for the laborious handcrafted skill of hand-block printing. Her natural eye for crisp designs accompanied with her extensive knowledge of many printing techniques and an understanding of importance of scale, lent her designs to become sought after in the 1930’s. During this period Marx many of her designs consisted of abstract and geometric textiles. During her 70 year career, Marx had the opportunity to design stamps, logos, wrapping paper, book covers, wallpapers and many different decorative textiles.
During the late 20’s she was commissioned by Chatto and Windus (left picture) to produce two designs for book jackets, however ended up designing her first range of patterned papers designing 15 in total. Twelve of these were purchased and used for book covers by publishers for Curwen Press. (below picture)
In 1937 the London Passenger Transport Board requested she design a fabric for on London bus and tube seating. This exceptionally durable fabric was a cotton-velvet that was also referred to as Moquetto. With a comprehensive brief she needed to consider a design that would be bold enough to be distinctive though not too bold to dazzle passengers. The design also needed to be fresh and ultimately camouflage the daily grime of the underground along with filthy clothing of tradesmen.
During the late 30’s Marx and close friend, Margaret Lambert undertook their first folk art project for the book “When Victoria began to Reign”. She also designed PVC and rayon linings for "Watajoy luggage company". These patterns included propeller driven planes in which she later removed the propellers to modernize the design.
A lot of her stunning designs were produced using the hand block textile printing techniques keeping alive the principles of this arts and craft movement. An example of this hand block print called, Waves.
http://venetianred.net/2009/11/13/a-different-canvas-the-british-abstractionists/
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