The Pattern of Life:
Enid Marx and Modern British Design

About the
Exhibition

Explore Enid Marx’s Influence on Modern British Design

Step into a world of abstract design in this major exhibition, the first to explore the influential patterns of Enid Marx and her community, as well as their impact on modern British design in the 20th century.

From Tube Seats to Textiles: The Work of Enid Marx

Marx is best known as the designer of woven London Underground (Tube) seat moquette fabric and as an illustrator of children’s books. However, she was also a prolific producer of hand block-printed textiles (ca.1925–1940) and later designs for fabrics woven for the public (ca.1936–1947).

Meet the Craftswomen Who Shaped British Design

While works of Marx’s contemporaries at the Royal College of Art, St Ives School and Bloomsbury Group, such as Eric Ravilious, Paul Nash, Bernard Leach, Michael Cardew and Roger Fry, are well known, Marx’s close community of craftswomen and designers, including Ethel Mairet, Phyllis Barron, Dorothy Larcher, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie and Norah Braden have sometimes been sidelined. Their approaches to handmade pattern and texture show how design acted as forms of personal, national and imperial expression, as well as embodying a series of double meanings reflecting queer identifications, intimacy and kinship.

A Landmark Exhibition Featuring V&A Loans

With major loans from the V&A and other national collections, this exhibition will chart Marx’s life through fabric, tracing the geopolitics of British design and the lasting impact of her work.