Undaunted by the closed textile galleries at the V&A I was browsing in the shop when I came across a delightful book about a designer from the 1930's. I had never heard of her by name but of course I knew her work.Instantly recognizable and this was the book that I read on the train home.
The Sign of the Rainbow by Betty Miles about Margaret Calkin James born in 1895, a truly gifted artist and one of those whose work just appeals to my eye instantly.
Enrolling in Central School of Arts and Crafts was unusual for a woman in the early 20th century and the emphasis was on "secure technique as the pre-requisite for confident self-expression". Add in Margaret's "lively freedom of expression and awareness of new ideas" and you have a recipe for something very special indeed.
The Rainbow Workshops in Great Russell Street in Bloomsbury, established after the Great War and very much in the tradition of the Omega Workshops of Roger Fry, became one of the first galleries opened by a woman to promote art,craft and design.The idea of selling directly to the public was innovative and a way of avoiding the conservative retail trade and thereby promoting new ideas.
Like me you may have unwittingly been looking at Margaret Calkin James's work for years and not realised, how about these London Transport posters?
Or this endpaper from a republished edition of The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart? This School Room fabric incorporates some of Margaret's favourite motifs, the ark on the waves,stylized plant forms, a Dutch boy and a dancer and a Christmas tree to remind them all year round of family togetherness.
There were a series of beautiful book jackets for Jonathan Cape which almost make me think it is time for the return of the Art Deco dust jacket, somehow they seem timeless.
Perhaps Art Deco has never quite slipped from our consciousness?
Later in life Margaret suffered a stroke which deprived her of speech and the use of her right arm.You can only begin to imagine the devastation.However reading this book one thing becomes quickly apparent, Margaret Calkin James was a quietly determined lady with an indomitable spirit. Nothing was ever going to stop her creativity and she embarked on a series of designs in wool embroidery using her left hand.
One very remarkable and exceptionally talented artist whose work deserves to live on and who now merits an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (head to the website and log on with your library ticket number ) and I am grateful to Elizabeth Argent, Margaret's daughter, for permission to share some of the images here.
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