Having just recently seen the Postmodern exhibition at the V&A I have been pondering the idea of cross pollination in design. It’s easy to look back at the past and think that all other eras knew their own minds and with purist zeal were able to create entirely new work, for and of the time, without reference to their predecessors or neighbours. Not so at all, which is one reason why I love scouting around the decorative arts in museums so much. Perhaps they validate my penchant for re-appropriation. Influence, or inspiration?; magical words that treat us to new ideas and open an old way to a new frame of vision.
One constantly trips over such influences as seen in this little side chair. I’m taken with the wool petit point embroidery detail from a collection at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It’s Mid 18th Century upholstery, Venetian ‘gilded’ (or tainted depending on your viewpoint) with a Rococco-Parisian ‘brush’.
