The printing
museum is known for its extensive collection of printed
fabrics and for the variety and the freshness of their
colours.
This time,
however, the museum would like to show black-and-white printed
fabrics.
To this day the
technical, historical and plastically aspects of these
black-and-white printed fabrics are often misjudged, however,
compared to the different other colours they also are very
various.
This exhibition
is an occasion to present rare old fabrics and
contemporary fabrics together. These fabrics could be
collected during the last 40 years thanks to donations of
European editors of furniture fabrics.
From tiny
samples of the middle of the 19th
century to the large panels of furnishing fabrics made
by contemporary designers, the exhibition is presented in
form of a fresco of an extraordinary diversity. This variety
is consolidated by the origin of the fabrics coming from
France, Germany, Switzerland, but also from
Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Japan.
The
exhibition is also an occasion to underline the work of the
artists, who often are sacrificed by the production process.
They help
art to enter in the everyday life with textiles which
represent an essential element of the decorative art.
These
black-and-white printings sometimes also are means to transmit
messages, like for example the message of tolerance
registered in the work of the artist, Clara Halter, by
the word peace which is translated into different
languages.
Black and white
give special emphasis to various printing supports and can
be combined in infinite alliances.
They play
with printed and empty surfaces, draw calligraphies, suggest
or describe landscapes, cities and geometrical forms.
Also fauna
and flora are represented considerably in the museum. In
partnership with the Zoological garden of Mulhouse, the
exhibition presents animal skins printed on textiles, pictures
of animals and big flowers to renew the glance of the visitors
on nature.
The combination
of black and white makes us discover a particular world with
lot of details.
Black (absence
of any colour) gives all its deepness and power to a white,
which is subjected to the black but nevertheless reacts with
its own arguments. Linen and voile show their modernity, their
transparency and their elegance by smart plays with the light.
Drafts,
prints, engravings, lithographies, fabrics for dresses or
furniture, some of them signed by Raoul Dufy, Piero
Fornasetti or Sonia Delaunay, face exhibits of the
daily life, which offers the visitors an exhibition with lot
of surprises.
From the entrance
hall to machine hall, the museum gets dressed in black and
white, and offers to the public a colourful visit.
