Drawing, Textile Design: Purpurnelke (Purple Pink)

These colorful gouache drawings are designs for textiles created by the Wiener Werkstätte [Vienna Workshops] in the 1910s and 20s. A design workshop for block-printed fabrics was established by the Wiener Werkstätte around 1911 and was one of their most commercially successful ventures. Before the workshop closed in 1932, more than 1,800 different patterns were created for use in fashion, accessories, and interior furnishings. The patterns reflect interest in Cubism, Futurism, and other contemporary forms of abstraction, and also borrow freely from traditional folk art motifs. The drawings, which document different available colorways for each design, might have been made for the various Wiener Werkstätte shops, as records for the individual designers, or for the fabric printers who were outside contractors.

Drawing, Textile Design: Purpurnelke (Purple Pink); Designed by Felice Rix-Ueno (Austrian, 1893–1967, active Japan 1935–1967); Made for Wiener Werkstätte (Austria); Austria; brush and gouache, graphite on paper; 35.1 x 29.8 cm (13 13/16 x 11 3/4 in. ); Museum purchase from Smithsonian Collections Acquisition and Decorative Arts Association Acquisition Funds; 1988-62-893

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibitions Making Design and Glass of the Avant-Garde: From Vienna Secession to Bauhaus.