On May 8, 1945 the British public woke to the news that Germany had surrendered and war in Europe was over. Thousands took to the streets in London and across the country. By coincidence at the Royal Society of British Artist's galleries in Suffolk Street, close to London's National Gallery, members of the Central Institute of Art & Design (CIAD) and guests from the wallpaper industry were meeting for the opening of 'The Exhibition of Historical and British Wallpapers'. It would prove a landmark moment for British design.
The movement to bring back decoration into our homes started before the war with modest Regency stripes and polka-dot patterns, and this trend was given a new emphasis in the Suffolk Galleries ‘Exhibition of Historical and British Wallpapers’ organised in 1945 …. That exhibition, a landmark in the development of postwar interior design, set the pace for the next few years.
Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin delivered a rousing speech on the importance of 'The Homes of the People', heralding a period of post-war design fit to rebuild the country as a shining example of British achievement. The wallpaper industry had been badly affected through the 1940s from paper rationing, and production had been suspended. Similarly, the textile industry had been required to focus production on the war effort and artists and designers generally, were asked to turn their skills to war work.
CIAD and the National Gallery began organising the Wallpaper Exhibition in June 1944, the first time an entire industry worked together as a unit, featuring every company and sharing the cost. By extraordinary coincidence it opened on the very day war ended, and was widely reported in the news. Designed by architects Eric Brown and Stefan Buzas, it was specially featured in the July issue of Architectural Review, with a cover design by Graham Sutherland, and seen as "a remarkable achievement, setting an extremely high standard in exhibition display and technique". Sutherland's design 'Wallpaper for the small home' would later be manufactured by Cole and Son (Wallpapers) Ltd., in 1950.
The exhibition was organised in four sections; historical, technical, current and future designs.The historical section selected from 19th-century English & French papers, some designed by or under the influence of William Shand Kydd, and pattern books, including one by William Morris. Many came from the V&A collection. The technical section featured traditional hand block printing methods and newer multi-colour rotary productions. The largest section, Current Designs, featured 500 patterns supplied by manufacturers available in 1939, and deemed ready for production once paper supplies were released to the industry.
However, the section on future designs perhaps showed the clearest aspiration for good design in Britain. Having explored the past and illustrated the present, it projected forward by drawing on the cultural credibility of modern artists and designers, showing Britain's ability to compete in domestic and international markets. Work by notable designers Jacqueline Groag, Ashley Havinden, Marian Mahler, Enid Marx, Laurence Scarfe, Graham Sutherland and Hans Tisdall were featured. Of 400 designs carefully selected by CIAD, 130 were exhibited, with the remainder shown in portfolios available only to manufacturers.
The exhibition also promoted emerging industrial designers such as Lucienne Day (then using her maiden name, Conradi) and Mary Appleby Harper, who completed her studies at the Birmingham Municipal School of Art in 1939. Like many, Harper's career had been interrupted by the war although she had continued freelance work. She was an original member of the SIA Textiles group alongside Alistair Morton and Lucienne Day, and designed for Donald Brothers of Dundee and Gayonnes. She took up employment with Dunlop in 1947 designing PVC fabrics, with work shown at the Festival of Britain.
Harper's family had been artists and teachers in the Birmingham Art School system, that pioneered the interrogation of art and industry connections. Her heritage, training and commercial aspirations placed her perfectly to take advantage of the design needs represented by the Wallpaper Exhibition.
The exhibition attracted around 15,000 visitors during the three weeks it remained open. Her Majesty the Queen visited on May 25, and over 40 publications reported and reviewed it in a highly positive light. CIAD and the National Gallery's planning was prescient, and well conceived, but they couldn't have hoped for a more fortuitous moment to launch their ambitions for post-war industrial design than V.E. Day itself.
