Saturday, March 25, 2017

Abstract and Floral Designs of E.A.Seguy - Part I
Art Essay

Marie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed the other posts in this series:
Abstract and Floral Designs of E.A.Seguy - Part II
Abstract and Floral Designs of E.A.Seguy - Part III


Introduction
Whether you are engaged in creating ArtCloth, Art Quilts or Wearable Art you my find yourself becoming a scavenger for ideas in terms of subject matter, patterns or image making. Of course you may slavishly copy someone else's artistic constructs, but most artists are too egotistic to slavishly follow another. Most likely you will interpret Piet Mondrian in your own voice as Jane Dunnewold has done or let the markings of Rauschenberg affect your markings as is evident in some of Joan Schulze's Art Quilts. Whatever approach you take, be sure you do it in your own creative style.

Joan Schulze, The Angel Equation.
Technique: Silk and cotton fabrics, paper; appliquéd, laminated, painted, pieced, and printed; machine quilted.
Size: 144.8 x 142.2 cm.

In France there has been a long and distinguished tradition of finely printed folios of designs for various technical purposes issued by artists and designers. The images that are given below come from two such publications by celebrated designer E.A. Seguy. The first publication - Suggestions pour Etoffes et Tapis, 60 Motifs en couleur was published by the Parisian firm Ch. Massin of rue des Ecoles. The second - Floréal, Designs et Coloris nouveaux - appeared under the imprint of the publisher Calavas. Both are dated to ca. 1925 and both represent the finest printing technique of the day, being carried out in the stencil process best known by the French term pochoir.

Seguy's career in the production of grand design books was a long and distinguished one, and as early as 1901-3 he had produced the series of sixty plates which appeared in Les Fleurs et lemurs Applications decorative in two volumes in the Librairie des Arts décoratifs. This publication was clearly inspired by the work of the influential designer Grasset whose own volumes La Plant et sea Applications ornamentals set the pattern for such an approach to the design process in the Art Nouveau period. Enjoy!


Abstract and Floral Designs of E.A.Seguy
The following designs are a selection drawn from the publication Suggestions pour Etoffes et Tapis.

From Plate 1.

From plate 2.

From plate 2.

From Plate 3.

From Plate 4.

From Plate 4.

From Plate 4.

From Plate 5.

From Plate 6.

From Plate 6.


Reference
[1]S. Calloway, Abstract and Floral Designs - E.A. Seguy, Bracken Books, London (1988).

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