Tibor Reich at Leeds
Age of Kings, detail, 1964, printed textile from Shakespeare series
The University of Leeds International Textiles Archive (ULITA) is displaying highlights from its loan collection of work by designer Tibor Reich until 26 June
Textile designer Tibor Reich was born in Budapest in 1916 and studied in Vienna before spending five years at the Textile Department of Leeds University in the 1940s. After graduation, he set up his company Tibor Ltd and opened a weaving studio at Cliffords Mills, near Stratford-Upon-Avon. His company became known for its innovative designs and was commissioned to make textiles for clients such as Lotus Cars, Concorde, Coventry Cathedral and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and Centre at Stratford. His designs were often very colourful – reflecting his lasting interest in the traditional costumes of his native Hungary – but he was also influenced by the Bauhaus and the experiments he carried out with Jacquard and Dobby looms while studying at Leeds.
ULITA’s exhibition includes several of Reich’s best-known pieces including the glowing Age of Kings produced for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. This depicts a stylised procession of medieval soldiers printed on brightly coloured cotton sateen and was used for the stage curtains for the Stratford room. Other pieces printed with the same boldly drawn, naïve historical figures are A Tournament and Agincourt. But Reich also designed abstract patterned textiles such as his Colotomatic range which was based on photographs of the structure of the atom. Atomic from this range is on show here.
www.leeds.ac.uk/ulita
