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Object Timeline

1975

  • Work on this object began.

2011

  • We acquired this object.

2012

2013

2014

2024

  • You found it!

Textile, Eclat

This is a Textile. It was produced by Knoll International. It is dated 1975 and we acquired it in 2011. Its medium is cotton and its technique is screen printed on plain weave. It is a part of the Textiles department.

With the creation of Eclat, a vibrant screenprinted textile for drapery and upholstery, weaver and artist Anni Albers delved into the art of screenprinting. This was a new textile-making direction for the designer, brought about by her experimentation with lithography in the mid-1960s. At that time, her husband was asked to work at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles, where the head of the workshop, June Wayne, encouraged her to try lithography. Albers experienced a newfound expressive quality in the medium and, by the 1970s, printmaking had become her primary focus. This knowledge of printmaking, as well as her passion for the techniques, no doubt impacted her subsequent textiles designs. Like other well-known works by Albers, the surface of this textile is animated by parallelograms that together create a dynamic three-dimensional effect. Eclat was intended as both a drapery fabric and for light upholstery applications, and was first available in a dozen colorways—this particular version is executed primarily in a persimmon color.
In 1957, Albers began her association with Knoll Textiles as a consultant on a line of new textiles, including a series of casement fabrics. These fabrics were quite typical of Albers’s work during her years as both a student and teacher at the Bauhaus and later in the United States, where she and her husband, Josef Albers, emigrated in 1933 to teach at Black Mountain College (1933–49). The design of these casement fabrics recalls her entirely functional approach to textiles with an ongoing curiosity about and experimentation with new fibers and techniques.

This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled A Puzzling Order.

It is credited Museum purchase through gift of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.

  • Textile (USA)
  • cotton, plastic strips, lurex (colored film-coated foil).
  • Gift of Anni Albers.
  • 1967-55-3

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Its dimensions are

H x W: 411.5 x 137.2 cm (13 ft. 6 in. x 54 in.) Repeat H x W: 43.8 x 44.5 cm (17 1/4 x 17 1/2 in.)

It is inscribed

Eclat Designed by Anni Albers for Knoll International 1975 (printed in selvedge)

Cite this object as

Textile, Eclat; Produced by Knoll Textiles (United States); USA; cotton; H x W: 411.5 x 137.2 cm (13 ft. 6 in. x 54 in.) Repeat H x W: 43.8 x 44.5 cm (17 1/4 x 17 1/2 in.); Museum purchase through gift of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund; 2011-41-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Making Design.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18790065/ |title=Textile, Eclat |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=1 May 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>