Beyond Bloomsbury. Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19

Experiments in Design will open as an exhibition at the Courtauld Institute of Art on 18 June and close on 20 September 2009. The first full survey devoted to the Courtauld’s unparalleled collection of Omega design drawings, bequeathed by Roger Fry’s daughter, Pamela Diamand, in 1958 Offers a fascinating new insight into the work of the Bloomsbury group with the emphasis on textile design, as well as furniture, ceramics and other domestic wares, the book will be an important addition to the published works on the history of avant-garde design in the 1910s
The exhibition takes a fresh look at a singularly creative moment in the history of modernist craft and design in Britain. Founded by the artist and influential critic Roger Fry in the summer of 1913, the Omega Workshops Limited was a laboratory of radical design ideas, and involved many of the most avant-garde artists of the day.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue edited by Alexandra Gerstein, Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts of The Courtauld, published by Fontanka Press in association with The Courtauld Gallery. New research commissioned for the catalogue explores the Omega’s working practice, its legacy and its place in relation to early twentieth-century textiles, ceramics and design. The essays are written by an international team of specialists and young scholars, with an introduction by Professor Christopher Reed, the recognized authority on Bloomsbury visual culture. Other essays are by Dr Grace Brockington, Claudette Joannis, Akiko Kato, Mary Schoeser, Elizabeth Sheehan, Dr Julian Stair, and Dr Jon Wood.
http://www.studio-international.co.uk/reports/omega09.asp