PHOTOGRAPHS: CHRIS FLOYD, JOHN HEDGECOE AND GRANGER, NYC/TOPFOTO, COURTESY OF SOTHEBY’STALK ING POINTS
Left: Stella
Tennant and
Isabella Cawdor
in front of
William Scott’s
‘Abstract
Painting’
(1967). Below:
Barbara
Hepworth in
Cornwall with
her sculpture
‘Bryher II’ in
about 1961CULTURE
SH A R E D
CANVAS
A new show in London celebrates
the link between
sartorial and artistic creativity
By FRANCES HEDGES muted shades – that goes with the territory –
but we also introduce surprising injections of
v i br a nc y t o l i f t ou r de s i g n s ,’ s a y s Te n n a nt. ‘ O ne of my
favourite artists in the show is Ivon Hitchens: he has this rich,
earthy palette, but then there might be an acid yellow or a bright
orange.’ Likewise, Cawdor found herself drawn to the depth of
hue and texture she saw in the abstract paintings of William Scott.
‘I love the richness of the paint – layered, scraped back, with these
reds coming through,’ she says. ‘The energy is palpable.’
That tactile quality, which brings the hand of the maker into the
work, also characterises the beautifully crafted, intricately patterned
fabrics at Holland & Holland. ‘Making tweed is a mathematical
process, but you can often find little quirks that come from the
artisan,’ observes Hucker. ‘Similarly, British artists were interested
in the rigour of the constructivist and cubist movements, but their
approach was generally looser and more organic.’ Space, form,
texture, colour: as this exhibition will prove, artists and designers
rely on the same essential building blocks to realise their extra-
ordinary visions.
‘Holland & Holland x Modern British Art’ is at Holland & Holland, 33
Bruton Street, London W1 (www.hollandandholland.co.uk) from 8 to 13
November, ahead of Sotheby’s Modern & Post-War British Art sale
(www. sothebys.com) on 19 and 20 November.Fashion and art have always occupied
a shared space in the British imagination;
now, they are coming together in
a unique project that explores the way
both designers and artists have res-
ponded to the beauty of our national
landscape. Holland & Holland has
joined forces with Sotheby’s to
launch a capsule exhibition of art-
works from the auction house’s
forthcoming Modern & Post-War
British Art sale, held in its flagship
store on Bruton Street. Curated by
Stella Tennant and Isabella Cawdor, the
creative duo behind the countrywear brand,
the display will showcase the blend of tradi-
tion and modernity that characterises both their
own designs and the work of a pioneering school of
20th-century British artists including Paul Nash, Barbara Hep-
worth, Patrick Heron and Peter Lanyon.
For Tennant, the visceral presence of the elements in the work of
the St Ives school resonated strongly with her design aesthetic.
‘I love how dark and atmospheric Nash’s paintings are – you can
really feel the weather in them,’ she says. ‘And with Hepworth, you
can see how the erosion of the rocks in Cornwall shaped her
sculptures. These artists were thinking about their environment
all the time, just as we do when making our tweeds.’ Simon Hucker,
a specialist in modern British art at Sotheby’s, sees a parallel between
Holland & Holland’s creations, which are inspired by the brand’s
long heritage as well as by contemporary countryside living, and
the way painters such as Ben Nicholson derived ideas from long-
established artistic conventions while experimenting with new
ways of representing their ever-changing surroundings. ‘They
sought to weave a language that takes influence from the land-
scape as well as from modernism,’ he says.
A fascination with colour lies at the heart of this artistic move-
ment, as it does for Tennant and Cawdor. ‘We naturally have a lot of