The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester in the north of England is currently showing an exhibition of the work of textile designer Althea McNish. Her designs were not only highly innovative, they were highly influential in helping to shape the look of Britain in the 1960’s and 70’s. If you grew up in that era, McNish’s work you will be readily familiar with the style of her work, especially in the numerous watered down copies found in the design of textiles for summer blouses and dresses, wallpapers and other household items in high street stores up and down the country. She even designed the fabrics for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s dresses for her tour of the Caribbean in 1966.
As Britain had once designed and created textiles for the clothing of women in its colonies in West Africa in the form of wax prints (and Manchester was central to this textile trade), so McNish (of the former colony of Trinidad) created designs for the textiles of Britain.
As an introduction to the life and work of Althea McNish, the Whitworth Art Gallery provides the following excellent summary in its exhibition notes:
Althea McNish (1924-2020) was one of the first designers of Caribbean
heritage to gain international recognition in the field of textile design andwould go on to become one of Britain’s most influential and innovativedesigners. Her painterly designs took natural botanical forms to the edgeof abstraction, using a riotous colour palette that overturned the staid rules of British post-war design.
Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, McNish showed artistic promise from a
young age and became active in the Trinidadian art scene. Age 26, she
emigrated with her family to the UK, arriving in London on 9 November 1950.
McNish studied commercial graphics at The London School of Printing
and Graphic Arts and in 1954 won a scholarship to the Royal College of
Art where she studied textiles. Within days of graduating her career as a professional designer was launched when her designs were commissioned by Liberty and Zika Ascher. McNish would go on to develop a hugely successful design career spanning more than forty years in textile design, as well as commissions for commercial interiors. Teaching in higher education followed and she was an active member of professional design bodies. In 1976 she was awarded the Chaconia Gold medal of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for ‘meritorious service to art and design’.
McNish established her career at a time when many people in the UK
would have been familiar with the racist taunt to “go back home”. McNish subverted this prejudice, inserting her Caribbean identity directly into the British home through her popular wallpaper and fabric designs.
A few minutes walk from the Whitworth Art Gallery is the multi- million pound Circle Square development. A mixed use neighbourhood of accommodation, retail and leisure properties, the area is especially popular with Chinese students not least because of the presence of Hello Oriental, a three story market hall of Asian food. It’s ground floor houses a Chinese bakery, below that a Vietnamese restaurant and on the lowest floor a Chinese and Korean restaurant and mini mart. Hello Oriental is rightly popular especially with students and it is a welcome addition to the city’s excellent Asian food scene.
FOOD, FILMS 'N' TINGS 