Material Matters Journal

Those of us that love textiles know the magic they hold, the stories they tell and the influence they have had on both world economies and our souls.

In our society today it is often the very best of contemporary artists that reflect or influence our thinking. Therefore it is very reaffirming that so many these days are taking their inspiration from textiles.

The latest of these to get major billing is Richard Tuttle with his large scale work at The Tate’s Turbine Hall entitled “I Don’t Know – The Weave of Textile Language” and an exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. Tuttle, a collector of textiles from around the world, has focused and expanded his knowledge beyond the obvious to the subtle resonance that only contact with hand and mind can command. The work itself doesn’t do it for me but the accompanying book (of same title ) illustrates his sensitivity and deep knowledge of the subject of textiles. He is a connoisseur, anthropologist, cultural historian, poet and artist.

The Tate at the moment seems to be having a bit of a romance with textiles, having just done Matisse (including his textiles) and the upcoming Sonia Delauney planned for next year.

The lovely Robert Kime has reproduced the Barron and Larcher ( in our modernist section) and printed in pink and green and delighted me by renaming it Esther. 

Robert is one of few designers that buys the original sample and does not just take things from our website and reproduce with no reference to the original. We have added him to the link section.

We have also added a few new textiles to the African, Indigo and Abstract sections.

I do miss not exhibiting in the US any more. I really looked forward to touching base with my American clients at least once a year. So to all of you happy Thanksgiving and also (as I am never up to date with this site) Happy Christmas and may 2015 bring you all you wish it to.

Esther Fitzgerald

Clara Vuletich writes: “Esther Fitzgerald is a rare textile dealer and a lover of textiles. I wanted to have a conversation with Esther after visiting her home for an ‘open house’ day, where I saw all her treasured textiles and artifacts on display throughout her home. I immediately sensed Esther was a woman who had a knowledge of textiles from an historic and socio / cultural perspective, but she was neither an academic, a designer or maker. She was this other type of textile ‘actor’, the rare textile dealer, who has developed a deep knowledge of the subject through a ‘grassroots’ training – touching, repairing, ironing and looking at textiles, rummaging in archives, and trading them for monetary and aesthetic value.”

I have added two new links to our website – www.nadiaphillipsaboriginalart.co.uk and www.adambarkermill.com

Both these are connected to my growing interest in colour.  We have also added small clips from the BBC Culture Show in reference to Matisse colour, culture and textiles. I have become intrigued by the Aboriginal art of Australia because until the art co-ordinators took pigment to the Outback in the 1970s their colour palette would have been just earth tones.

This is extremely interesting from the point of view of expression and added a completely other dimension to their art.   This is the reason why I have added Nadia Phillips to the website.  Also Adam Barker Mill has been exploring the idea of light and colour for many years.  I personally believe that Matisse’s interest in the colour combinations seen in Islamic and tribal art were what inspired him to do his later works, The Cut-Outs, now at The Tate.   I hope at some point to do an exhibition with Nadia Phillips illustrating the power and cross-pollination of designs in textiles and in Aboriginal art.  

The “Artist Textiles” Picasso to Warhol where we were showing one of our Omega textiles, had it’s most successful exhibition to date.  It is now touring Holland and later on Canada.  We have just added an Omega piece to the Modernist section of the website.  Other new things added to that section are embroideries by Gallenga and a Henry Moore scarf also exhibited in the “Artist Textile” exhibition.  We have also added a beautiful Tibetan rug to the Asian section.

I went to New York in October 2013 to see The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition “Interwoven Globe”. It was very exciting to walk along Fifth Avenue – to read the banners of a major textile show at one of the most important museums of the world .It wasn’t consigned to the small galleries but took over the major exhibition space. The exhibition was of worldwide textile trade from 1500 -1800 with a beautifully illustrated book. It was stimulating and thrilling to look at pieces that once I had seen in the wild open market place,profiled -to illustrate our world cultural story . One or two of the exhibits I had actually owned but the one that amused me most was chintz petticoat. 

This I had found this at an auction house over 25 years ago, at the time a few of my textile dealing colleagues referred to me as Esther Fitz-Getty .This was because I had a habit of buying things I thought great, regardless of having the means to pay for them. My theory was that if you bought the best that was available finding the money was just a detail . The chintz had an estimate of 400 but I ended up paying four thousand pound. As I left the room a lovely, elderly, Hungarian friend came up to me. She said that I worried her – and how was I going to pay for it? I tried to reassure her I really wasn’t mad and she must have believed me because with in a few minuets she had returned with 4000 pounds worth of warm notes. 

Explaining that I was to pay for the petticoat and when I sold it to split the profit with her…..I think it was the most reaffirming expression of faith anybody had ever expressed in me. Elizabeth wasn’t a wealthy woman, she lived in social housing for the elderly near Notting Hill Gate, she traded in lace on a Saturday at Portobello Rd – I was a horse worth backing! I was very touched by her confidence in me and was thrilled to tell her, her hunch had paid off, when I had eventually sold to the petticoat to the Met. Seeing it hanging there in one of the world’s greatest museums was a wonderful reminder of the richness and variety of this business. 

Elizabeth would now be 103 and had only died two years ago. How happy she would have been to see it there!  

The next exciting thing to happen was just before Christmas – when the BBC culture show contacted me about a program they were doing on Matisse to coincide with the Tate opening in March. Matisse had collected textiles and had cited them as being a great influence in his development of his cut-outs. Matisse also had an interest in Islamic art. The ‘Culture Show’ will air on 3rd of March on BBC 2.

BBC culture show team, being welcomed by Esther’s dog Dorothy

At the end of January I went to the private view of “Artist Textiles” Picasso to Warhol at The Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey where they have borrowed the Omega textile by Roger Fry from us. It was a really interesting show and well worth a visit, it is on until end of May. 

We have new acquisitions in Asian, Abstract, European, Modernist and Islamic and Under £400 
categories.

I hope in all this extreme weather you are all keeping dry and warm. 

Very best wishes Esther

We exhibited at Olympia this summer but it was sad to see that we were the last dealer to exhibit solely textiles. It felt very much like” last man standing” Given in the past we had the whole of the Hali fair and the top most dealers such Francesca Galloway and The Textile Gallery showing textiles in Olympia it was cause for reflection.

The market for art is very much at the top, the rich are indeed rich but not seemingly comfortable with modest prices . The master piece fair in London this year was once more a place to be seen but maybe trying too hard to mug a rich person. However this year Olympia did have some of its original charm and lot of dealers reported that it was once more a place to buy for stock. Maybe the market had to burn out to rise from the ashes a more modest beast. I have always thought my role in this life was to educate and stimulate and maybe younger folk can now enter this world now prices are forced to be realistic.

As the last man (woman ) standing we did do enough business to make it worthwhile and it is always a great opportunity to touch base with you all. I did manage to find a few new objects which should be up on the site very soon. I am very excited to find a pashmina with such an early date and the Mughal cover was a treat to come across renewing ,as it did, my belief that it was still possible to find rare things. 

Our modernist chair covered with the Barron and Larcher curtains from Girton will be exhibited at the Gordon Russell Design Museum this September.

I am not sure our Facebook link really works but i shall endeavour to be more efficient with it. As it is back to school time – I wish you a good new term.

It has been a difficult year to find great objects and a difficult year for institutions to pay for objects that they wish to acquire as public funding has been reduced hugely. Our web presence however has really grown – this is mostly from people adding us to pinterest.

I was in the V and A bookshop the other day looking at the range and number of books now written on textiles, none of which existed thirty odd years ago when I started to become interested in textiles. It was a brilliant time to find wonderful things that few people knew anything at all about I was indeed in the right place at the right time.  

Today we are number one on a world google search for “rare textiles”. We will be adding a new section to the website over the next few weeks ,which will be rare objects, chosen on the same basis as the textiles. We are doing Olympia in June from 6th -16th and will be presenting a good group of newly acquired modernist piece’s and some abstract Asian and African textiles along with a collection of African carved chairs.

I am happy to email anyone tickets for this or alternatively you can pick them up at the door.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Very Best Esther