'Pattern Play' exhibition in Palm Springs shows creative process of Jacqueline Groag

British textile designer Jacqueline Groag was an innovator during the mid-century modern era — bringing color and patterns to a monochromatic post-war Europe, designing home furnishings, textiles and fabrics for fashion houses such as Chanel, Lavin and Paul Poiret. 

The Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center is profiling her with the exhibition "Pattern Play: The Contemporary Designs of Jacqueline Groag" featuring some her groundbreaking designs. 

The exhibition, which opened in May, is on display through Nov. 20 and was curated by Darrin Alfred, the curator of architecture and design at the Denver Art Museum. 

During a recent walkthrough of the exhibition, the scent of vintage fabric from the dresses and textiles permeated the gallery past the colorful tulip patterned sign introducing the exhibition with a mannequin sporting one of Groag's dresses featuring a pattern of village homes. 

Groag, who was born in the Czech Republic in 1903, is considered to be one of the most influential and versatile pattern designers of the post-war era. Her design work includes textiles and furnishings for British Rail and the British Overseas Airways Corporation. She died in 1986. 

Following World War II, designers such as Groag and her contemporaries celebrated a renewed sense of freedom that defined midcentury modernism as we know it through creativity bringing color and vibrant and dynamic patterns to home furnishings and fashion. 

"This idea (was) coming out of restrictions associated with the war and rationing and not having access to a lot of textiles," Alfred told The Desert Sun. 

A 1946 British magazine cover featuring Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, who would later become Queen Elizabeth II, wearing a dress featuring Groag's tulip design is included in the exhibition and speaks to the popularity pattern designers had during that period. 

"(The designs) were well-received," Alfred said. "After the war, you'd find printed textiles that would be used for curtains, bedding and there were upholstery fabrics created with these very contemporary, bright and modern pattern designs were wildly popular." 

Many of the patterns on things such as a 1950 yellow dress fabric with black intersecting lines, clovers, hearts and squiggly lines are abstract. A 1955 cloth featuring toy soldiers repeats itself with the drum switching from left to right.

The whimsical and lighthearted artwork of Swiss-German abstract artist Paul Klee's was an influence to many post-war designers, along with images from nature and new technology such as x-rays and atomic energy. But as the optical illusion style of "op art" sprung up, along with the "pop art" of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, contemporary art continued to influence design. 

"During the 1960s, someone like Groag was inspired by op art and pop art as opposed to the art Paul Klee was making prior to that," Alfred said. "(Designers) were also keen or aware of trends and things that were prevalent and using those current images or inspirations to create relevant patterns for that time period." 

Alfred said he chose Groag's work to reveal some of her creative process, which is shown through some sketches of completed works next to the final product. 

"Some of these drawings break down how she created those patterns starting with an underlying grid structure and then applying patterns or visual motifs within that structure," Alfred said. "Then how she began to think about applying color to the patterns and the multiple colorways that would be available for those particular textiles." 

If you go

What: "Pattern Play: The Contemporary Designs of Jacqueline Groag"

When: Now through November 20 

Where: Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center, 300 S. Palm Canyon Drive

How much: $5 for general admission and free for children 18 and under, museum members and military/first responders 

More information: psmuseum.org/art/exhibitions/pattern-play

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.