This is a brief synopsis of an article appearing on the UK's Craft Council website in April, about Althea McNish, in response to the exhibition about her life's work now showing at William Morris gallery. I have included a few comments from the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Design Museum website's page about Althea.* 5 June 2022
My summary is taken from this article published on the Craft Council website, 1 April 2022.
The point in the article that struck me most forcibly was that despite Althea McNish's undeniable impact as a designer in post-war Britain, her contribution has been left out of the design canon and she has been pretty much ignored by art historians. For obvious reasons, I would think.
The article notes a couple of points that give clear evidence of her brilliance from the outset:
1/ She was awarded a scholarship by the Royal College of Art, one of Britain's most prestigious postgraduate art schools, to pursue her studies in textile designs.
2/ Immediately upon Althea's graduation from RCA, the chairman of the prestigious Liberty London store bought her entire graduation portfolio of designs on the spot. What is more, he also introduced her right away to one of the foremost textile designers already working in Europe at the time, and so Althea was able to begin her career upon graduation at the very top, not having to work her way up. She began her career designing for Liberty London and Zika Ascher. In the years ahead, she also designed for Dior, Balenciaga, Cavendish Textiles, and other top-of-the-line firms in the fashion and design industry.
Excerpts from two articles on Althea's design technique:
The Craft Council article also pointed out that Althea's skills as an artist, which she had developed in Trinidad, and her knowledge of printing for graphic design developed in London prior to attending RCA were instrumental in her seminal designs. She was able to produce designs of great technical complexity because of her drawing skills and knowledge of printing that few designers could replicate because of the skill required to make them. Printers would tell her that her textile designs were impossible, and because of her skills in printing, she would demonstrate to them that the designs were, in fact, capable of being produced.
Althea McNish also came on the scene at a time when the layout of homes and buildings was changing to more open-plan designs. Those new layouts meant that "Her large, colourful and intense designs fitted the bill perfectly, and were a foil to post-war gloom in the UK," according to the article. It also stated, "One of her works, Golden Harvest, was a best-seller for Hull Traders for over two decades, until it closed in 1980. It was inspired by a visit to the home of her RCA tutor Edward Bawden in Essex. There she saw wheat fields for the first time, which reminded her of the sugarcane plantations of her childhood in Trinidad."
An article on the Cooper Hewitt design museum website adds a few more details about this design and by extension, the reasons for Althea's appeal as a designer. "She even gave the wheat fields of Essex a fiery glow not typically associated with the English countryside. The British public, more than ready to abandon the drabness of the postwar period, readily embraced McNish’s bright and vibrant color palette. "
That museum's article acknowledged Althea McNish as an "underrecognized pioneer of 20th century textile design." It describes her signature style as being that of hand-drawn flowers and tropical plants against a background of bold, bright colours. The Cooper Hewitt article also notes the following:
"As a student, she had developed new methods of screen printing that made her painterly style possible and immediately set her apart from her contemporaries. Instead of following the Pop and Op Art influences so prominent in this period, McNish intentionally turned to the vibrant colors and plants of her native Trinidad." -- https://www.cooperhewitt.org/2022/02/22/althea-mcnish/
Althea and racism
The Craft Council article, discussed first, drew heavily on comments by the curator of the current exhibition at William Morris, Rose Sinclair. Ms. Sinclair is a lecturer at Goldsmith's College, University of London, who knew Althea McNish personally and wanted to, in her words, correct some of the mistaken ideas about Althea's life and bring her legacy to a new generation of designers. I hope to interview Ms. Sinclair for my podcast documentary.
My blog references a statement from a V&A curator in a podcast interview, who said that Althea claimed she never experienced racism. Ms. Sinclair's comment on that differs; her memory of Althea's comment on racism is that her father told her to simply ignore it and focus on getting on with her own life.
As noted in an earlier blog post, memories are slippery things. It is conceivable she may have given both answers and they are not necessarily contradictory, but the result of the dynamics of the conversation taking place at the time, the person she was speaking with, and her recollections at an emotional level when she was discussing the topic on two different occasions.
So I think the truth on this question on whether she experienced racism can likely be summarized as follows: Althea's self-confidence and belief in her own ability to make great things happen, coupled with the kindness of some exceptional individuals like the chairman of Liberty, and the advice from her father to guide her, permitted her to live her life in such a way that overt racism did not hinder her in accomplishing what she wanted to do. In other words, racism did not stop her fulfilling her dreams, so it might for all intents and purposes not have existed.
* Thanks to my peer critique group colleagues at the Transart Institute for the two authoritative articles cited in this blog post..
20/06/2022 I feel it important to add the link to this wonderfully comprehensive article that appeared today in one of our local newspapers, about her. I am not adding a comment. It beautifully summarizes her life: https://newsday.co.tt/2022/06/19/colour-is-mine/