LONDON - Two Temple Place announces its 2020 exhibition Unbound: Visionary Women Collecting Textiles.

Unbound: Visionary Women Collecting Textiles tells the story of seven pioneering women who went against all established norms to create some of the richest, most diverse and global public collections in the UK today. 

Textiles and costume give us a beautiful and intensely human insight into our history. Unbound: Visionary Women Collecting Textiles celebrates seven women who saw beyond the purely functional, to reveal the extraordinary artistic, social and cultural importance of textiles. From the exquisite anthropological collections of traditional Balkan costume by Edith Durham, to the ground-breaking contemporary South Asian collection of Nima Poovaya-Smith, these women defied the ‘traditional’ concept of collecting – an activity still more often associated with men – and forged the way for textiles as crucial documents of social history as well as works of art in their own right. 

This major collaborative project explores the innovative approaches of Edith Durham (1863 - 1944), Louisa Pesel (1870 - 1947), Olive Matthews (1887 - 1979), Enid Marx (1902 - 1998), Muriel Rose (1897 - 1986), Jennifer Harris (working 1982 - 2016 at the Whitworth, University of Manchester) and Nima Poovaya-Smith (Senior Keeper International Arts 1985 - 1998, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford), and presents the objects from a previously unexplored perspective, that of the female collector.

Unbound: Visionary Women Collecting Textiles includes sculptural 18th-century costume, intricately embroidered Balkan towels, headdresses and waistcoats, the 1920s and 1930s block printed fabrics of Barron and Larcher, as well as contemporary works: Alice Kettle’s huge machine embroidered panels Three Caryatids (1989 - 91), Yinka Shonibare’s 2007 copy of the last slave ship The Wanderer reimagined with ‘African’ batik fabric sails and Sarbjit Natt’s 1996 geometric patterned silk sari. These sit alongside archival photographs, sketchbooks and letters, many of which have never been shown in public. The exhibition looks at how these collections continue to influence us today and asks why textiles still have to fight for their place amongst the more established visual arts. 

Unbound: Visionary Women Collecting Textiles is created in partnership with seven museums and galleries: Bankfield Museum, Halifax; Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford; Chertsey Museum; Compton Verney; Crafts Study Centre, Farnham; the Special Collections at the University of Leeds and the Whitworth, University of Manchester.

The exhibition is curated by leading textiles expert June Hill and emerging curator Lotte Crawford, with support from modern craft curator and writer Amanda Game and Jennifer Hallam, an arts policy specialist.

The 12-week, free exhibition is devised for and with Two Temple Place in London as part of its successful Winter Exhibition Programme.

“Textiles sit within so many disciplines that it’s difficult to get a grasp of the diversity of human experience they encompass. That’s the challenge Unbound has set itself: to bring together material from across a wide spectrum and uncover different ways of seeing.” June Hill, Curator

“Many of these women collectors were described as having an ‘eccentric’ or ‘selective’ eye. To me this is a gendered issue that points to the hierarchy of their collections and status of women in a wider cultural sense as they were not perceived as professional collectors or curators. This exhibition challenges that perception and shines a light on their informed insight into the importance of textiles.” Lotte Crawford, Assistant Curator

The material Durham acquired during her travels in the Balkans between 1900 and 1914 has assumed even greater significance since the ethnic cleansing of Balkan museums during the conflict in the 1980s and 1990s. Durham donated her collection of textiles to Bankfield Museum in 1935. 

Giubba, 19th century, Albania. Photo: Calderdale Museums Collection, Halifax

Louisa Pesel features as a character in Tracy Chevalier’s new novel, A Single Thread, which focuses on the Winchester Cathedral embroideries.

Her collecting was always personal – reflecting her love of technical accomplishment and surface decoration – diligently researched and within a budget (she never spent more than £5 on an item).

Olive Matthews was instrumental in placing her collection at Chertsey, having set up a Trust in the 1960s to create a Museum space for the collection.

Brocade shoe without clog, 1735–45, unknown maker. Photo: John Chase Photography/The Olive Matthews Collection, Chertsey Museum

Spencer, 1817-1819, Silk, cotton lining © The Olive Matthews Collection, Chertsey Museum. Photograph by John Chase Photography.

That influence extended beyond the gallery into her work for the British Council for whom she curated international exhibitions, including a major show that toured nine venues in the US and Canada during the Second World War. 

Muriel Rose was a founding Trustee of the Craft Study Centre where her archive now resides.

In 1932 Marx and her life-long friend and colleague Margaret Lambert started to collect English popular art. An interest in pattern, identity and the integration of past and present design informed her collecting of material that was undervalued, if not on the brink of being lost. The Marx-Lambert collection also shows what attracts a maker’s eye, demonstrating how the objects collected inspired Marx and Lambert as designers.

Curtain with jungle repeat pattern (n.d.), Enid Marx. Photo: Harminder Judge/Compton Verney

Caroline Bartlett, Conversation Pieces, 2003, Embroidery hoops with printed and stitched fabric. © The Artist. Courtesy of the Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Phulkari, early 20th century, unknown maker. Photo: Paul Tucker; © Bradford Museums and Galleries

The collection grew from a dozen objects to nearly 2,000 throughout Poovaya-Smith’s tenure. It now contains the largest collection of contemporary art by artists of South Asian descent, including Sarbjit Natt, Fahmida Shah and Sehyr Saigol, whose works will be on display at Two Temple Place. This ground-breaking international collection explores questions of cultural identity and cultural appropriation inspired by – and acquired in full consultation with – the diverse communities of its home in Bradford.

25th January 2020 – 19th April 2020

Jelek 1913, Gold embroidery on black cloth, from the Calderdale Museums Collection, Halifax. Photography by Paul Tucker.