It was good to see the wall panels and scarves designed by Matisse for my old boss Zika Ascher on show at Tate Modern this summer.
I remember spending days in the basement of his Hampstead home sifting through scarves by, amongst others, Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Ivon Hitchens and Cecil Beaton. Mr Ascher told me that he didn’t pursue Picasso for a scarf design as he was afraid the artist would seduce his beautiful wife Lida. How true this was I never knew but Zika was one for the ladies himself.
The Ascher Artists Scarves project was commercially unsuccessful at the time with only a few of the edition scarves actually selling out. There remains what I consider to be a ridiculous hierarchy in the art world concerning fine art and textiles, something I have questioned over the decades in my art. After all, much painting takes place on canvas so textiles are an integral part of the process. And how are limited edition prints on fabric any different in value from those on paper?
All photos here are taken from the Ascher book produced to coincide with the exhibition at the V&A museum in 1987.
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