Lucienne Day

On show at TheGallery in Bournemouth, the exhibition celebrates the life and work of one of most influential designers of the post-war generation, born 100 years ago.

“Lucienne Day: Living Design” is an exhibition that celebrates the life and work of one of most influential designers of the post-war generation, born 100 years ago on the 5th of January 1917. The exhibition at TheGallery will tell the story of Lucienne Day’s design career, unfolding in a sequence of photographs drawn from the archives of the Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation.

**Top:** Lucienne Day, Reissue of Calyx furnishing fabric, (Heal's Wholesale and Export 1951), Classic Textiles 2003. Courtesy of the Robin & Lucienne Day Foundation. Courtesy of the Centre for Advanced Textiles, Glasgow School of Art. **Above:** Robin and Lucienne Day with Telechair in their Cheyne Walk studio. Copyright the Robin & Lucienne Day Foundation

It begins in 1940 with her Diploma Show as a textile student at the Royal College of Art, and the work leading up to her career breakthrough at the Festival of Britain in 1951 with the pioneering “Contemporary” design Calyx. It continues with her prolific output of patterns for furnishing and dress fabrics, table linen, carpets, wallpapers and ceramics for numerous companies in Britain and abroad during the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition concludes with her “second career” in the last two decades of the century as a designer of handstitched fine art wall-hangings in the new medium she invented and termed ‘silk mosaics’.

Lucienne Day viewing Aspects of the Sun (1990) at John Lewis coffee shop, Kingston-upon-Thames Copyright the Robin & Lucienne Day Foundation — Lucienne Day viewing Aspects of the Sun (1990) at John Lewis coffee shop, Kingston-upon-Thames. Copyright the Robin & Lucienne Day Foundation

This photographic history is complemented by a vibrant display of original silk mosaics and an impressive array of current or recent productions of her designs for curtains, dress fabrics and tea towels, demonstrating the continuing vitality of her design legacy. In a lifetime of dedicated design practice, Lucienne Day created a body of work which is steadily coming back into commercial production to excite and inspire a new generation.

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Left: Lucienne Day, Jack Sprat tea towel, Thomas Somerset, 1959. Courtesy the Robin & Lucienne Day Foundation. Credit to Collection of Jill A. Wiltse and H.Kirk Brown III, Denver. Right: Lucienne Day, Black Leaf tea towel, Thomas Somerset, 1959. Courtesy of the Robin & Lucienne Day Foundation. Collection of Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III, Denver

Lucienne Day decorating Rosenthal china. Copyright the Robin & Lucienne Day Foundation

Lucienne Day, Artwork for Perpetua furnishing fabric, British Celanese, 1953. Courtesy the Robin & Lucienne Day Foundation. Photographer: John Lewis

12 January – 22 March 2017
Lucienne Day: Living Design
TheGallery, Arts University Bournemouth
Wallisdown, Poole, Dorse

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Lucienne Day

On show at TheGallery in Bournemouth, the exhibition celebrates the life and work of one of most influential designers of the post-war generation, born 100 years ago.

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Innovation and timeless elegance

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