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Art Art & Books

Terrific textiles

MARLIS SAUNDERS at the Design Exchange (234 Bay), to April 23. $10, stu/srs $8. 416-363-6121. See listing. Rating: NNN


Just in time for the return of spring blossoms, the Design Exchange mounts Stop, Drop, Repeat, a collection of textile designs on paper by Marlis Saunders. Born in Germany in 1931, Saunders studied under Bauhaus artists like Johannes Itten and Georg Muche at the Textile Engineering School in Krefeld, a town near Düsseldorf where the silk manufacturing industry was rebuilt after the war.

Her studies skilfully incorporate the best of mid-century modernism: abstract geometric patterns striking bold or subtle colour loose, sketchy representation eccentric linear drawing that recalls the wire work of Alexander Calder poetic variations of texture and line that owe a debt to Paul Klee. Most were done in the 40s in Germany or after Saunders immigrated to Canada in the late 50s, when she sold designs to the A.B. Caya drapery company in Kitchener.

Unfortunately, the textile printing industry in Canada couldn’t support a major talent like Saunders, who later turned to painting in watercolour and jewellery. But it’s in the discipline of designing repeat patterns where she shines. Her creations work equally well in a variety of scales, whether as 5-by-5-inch sketches or blown up into 4-foot-square banners.

She also did a series of novelty prints for Caya inspired by aboriginal art, both Canadian, involving Inuit hunters or canoes, and Australian, whose geometric circles and dots lend themselves to the abstract exuberance of the Bauhaus style.

Cases hold a few samples of cloth – a floral scarf or Inuit-pattern drapes – but it would be interesting to know which ones actually made it into production and to have a few printed out so we could experience them as they were meant to be seen.

Some of Saunders’s designs certainly deserve a revival – maybe this show will inspire someone to put them into print.

art@nowtoronto.com

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