Enid Marx: The Pleasures of Pattern

Enid Marx (1902–1998) was a leading artist and designer, collector and writer, who played an important role in British cultural life in the mid twentieth century. Associated with Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden in the ‘outbreak of talent’ at the Royal College of Art in the 1920s, she excelled as a designer and printer of hand-blocked fabrics before branching into industrial woven patterns for London Underground and the wartime Utility Furniture Scheme.
After making a significant contribution to book illustration, she went on to design postage stamps and patterns for laminates, becoming a Royal Designer for Industry and an advocate for better design training and industrial patronage. In parallel, with her friend the historian Margaret Lambert, she formed a collection of ‘Popular Art’, which was bequeathed to Compton Verney in Warwickshire, where it is an increasingly popular attraction.

Alan Powers has selected words and images from Marx’s extensive archive to create a rounded picture of her distinctive achievement. High-quality reproductions of a wide variety of designs illuminate Marx’s versatility, high
spirits and reconciliation of modernity and tradition through a rare gift for pattern making.