Shirley Craven & Hull Traders
A colourful touring exhibition opening at Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery looks at the textile designs of Shirley Craven (until 3 January)
Craven worked for the textile company Hull Traders during the 1960s and her wild and wacky designs seem to epitomise the decade. The company was set up by Tristram Hull in 1957, a man who was clearly deeply committed to good design as from the start he was employing big-hitters such as Eduardo Paolozzi and Ivon Hitchens. During the 60s Craven was one of his leading design stars. Her vibrant colours and powerful abstract designs were a dramatic break with the ‘safer’ designs of the past and won her a string of awards. On show here are designs such as Redland, a zingy geometric design of reds, purples and blues against an olive background, and the startling Connection, a zebra-inspired pattern but with the black and white horizontal stripes broken up with bold vertical bands of blue-grey.
The exhibition also features work by other Hull Traders textile designers including the Trinidadian-born Althea NcNish, John Drummond and Peter McCulloch. There’s also a section on their iconic furniture range tomotom. Launched in 1966 and designed by Craven’s husband Bernard Holdaway, it was both cheap, cheerful – being made out of brightly coloured cardboard and chipboard – and highly successful.
www.hullcc.gov.uk/museums
