- Product:
- Rug
- Manufacturer:
- Phillips
- Architonic ID:
- 4104461
- Country:
- United States
- Address
- Telephone
- Website
Key facts
Product description
Marion Dorn was born in San Francisco and studied at Stanford University before moving to Paris. After having worked there for four years, she settled in London with graphic designer E. McKnight Kauffer. There, Dorn became a prolific textile designer, particularly well-known for her modernist, abstract carpets, some of which were included on the ocean liner Queen Mary. In 1940, she moved back to the United States and worked out of New York.
About 1928-29...as the fashionable 'modernistic' interior became increasingly streamlined with walls and furnishings in neutral shades, rugs with strikingly abstract designs in strong colors were sought after, mainly by an affluent minority, to provide a focal point and a decorative relief.
In England, Marion Dorn and McKnight Kauffer were quick to respond to this need and held an exhibition of their rugs at Tooth's in January and February 1929. In common with earlier carpet design reformers they had taken the utmost care to avoid '...any suggestion of the solid' and kept their decoration flat and horizontal.
From the Wilton Royal handlooms in the 1930's came three rugs [now in the V&A] by Dorn. Through the 1930's this talented designer supplied exclusive designs for Wilton Royal 'Wessex' hand-tufted rugs and power loom carpeting for the Savoy, Claridges, and the Berkeley. THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, May 1978, p. 315
Wool, with woven signature
99 3/4 x 76 in. (253.4 x 193 cm)
Literature:
Christine Boydell, THE ARCHITECT OF FLOORS: MODERNISM, ART AND MARION DORN DESIGNS, London, 1996, p. 63 (for the model in the opposite color scheme)
About 1928-29...as the fashionable 'modernistic' interior became increasingly streamlined with walls and furnishings in neutral shades, rugs with strikingly abstract designs in strong colors were sought after, mainly by an affluent minority, to provide a focal point and a decorative relief.
In England, Marion Dorn and McKnight Kauffer were quick to respond to this need and held an exhibition of their rugs at Tooth's in January and February 1929. In common with earlier carpet design reformers they had taken the utmost care to avoid '...any suggestion of the solid' and kept their decoration flat and horizontal.
From the Wilton Royal handlooms in the 1930's came three rugs [now in the V&A] by Dorn. Through the 1930's this talented designer supplied exclusive designs for Wilton Royal 'Wessex' hand-tufted rugs and power loom carpeting for the Savoy, Claridges, and the Berkeley. THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, May 1978, p. 315
Wool, with woven signature
99 3/4 x 76 in. (253.4 x 193 cm)
Literature:
Christine Boydell, THE ARCHITECT OF FLOORS: MODERNISM, ART AND MARION DORN DESIGNS, London, 1996, p. 63 (for the model in the opposite color scheme)