WEAVNG A LIFE OF ART: DOROTHY LIEBES

FIBER ARTS HAVE FASCINATED BOTH Wife Dottie ( “We Keep Sheep, Y’Know”) and Daughter Suz (“On Stage at Scripps College”). Thus I was interested to read Katherine Roth describing “An eye-popping exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum” celebrating Dorothy Liebes.

Dorothy Wright Liebes, 1897–1972, American textile designer and weaver, “the mother of modern weaving.” Wikipedia image from Architect and Engineer.

Katherine Roth writes, “Weaver and designer Dorothy Liebes helped define the look and feel of 20th century luxury, from first-class airline seats to movie backdrops, hotel suites to bathing suits, metallic wallpaper to car upholstery…. Liebes was a master of color, texture, marketing and bling for decades, starting in the 1930s.” 

This and the following image by Elliot Goldstein/Smithsonian Institution via AP.

Roth writes, “ ‘A Dark, a Light, a Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes,’ which organizers say is the first exhibit devoted solely to her in over 50 years, opened in July and runs through Feb. 4, 2024. The title is taken from a Liebes rule for designing textiles, which produced vibrant results, particularly when viewed from today’s tendency toward neutrals and muted shades.”

Here are examples of Liebes’ art appearing in venues as varied, Roth notes, as “the first-class observation lounge of the S.S United States ocean liner… the first-class seating of American Airlines flagship 747; the glamourous textile backdrops of the 1947 film ‘Eastside, Westside’; and the dazzling upholstery of the 1957 Chrysler Plymouth Fury.”

Panels like this adorn the walls of a lounge on the S.S United States, 1952. Image by Matt Flynn/Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum via AP.

Whameroo Colors. Liebes said, “There is nothing like what I call a ‘whameroo’ color to make the whole thing come alive…. Don’t be afraid of color. Color is heady stuff, and the more one lives with it (as the 20th century man does), the more one can digest. After all, it isn’t the color, but the combination of color and values.”  

Image by Elliot Goldstein/Smithsonian Institution via AP.

Bling. Roth says, “She was equally enthusiastic about infusing her work with flashes of bling, which she saw as something essential: ‘Glitter is what the sun does to grass, what light does to nature.”

A power-loomed drapery fabric used for the Persian Room at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Image by Jaclyn Nash/Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum via AP. 

Liebes’ Varied Venues. “Some of Liebes’ early work,” Roth recounts, “include a Schiaparelli panel created for the 1937 Paris Exposition, and objects linked to the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition, where she began articulating her vision for the role of handcraft in modern design.”

Roth notes, “The exhibit also showcases her contributions to creating dazzling public spaces on a budget by combining handwoven and power-loomed textiles. There are saturated brilliant colors and extensive use of metallics. Examples are the Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel (where textile panels were embedded with tiny lightbulbs); the Marco Polo Club at the Waldorf Astoria; and the Usonian Exhibition House, built on the site where the Guggenheim Museum now stands.”

For Those of Us a Vast Continent Away. Roth adds, “For more on the exhibit, explore it digitally, or see a companion book edited by Brown and Winton (Yale University Press in association with Cooper Hewitt, 2023). ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2023