WHATEVER the painter and fabric designer Althea McNish touched turned to gold—and pink, orange, lime and purple. She was a one-woman colour explosion against the grey conformity of post-war Britain.
That golden touch was demonstrated only two days after she completed her studies in printed textiles at London’s Royal College of Art (RCA) in the 1950s. Existing work was snapped up by Liberty department store, the head of which, Arthur Stewart-Liberty, then packed her off in a taxi to meet ‘The Mad Silkman’, Zika Ascher. A Czech émigré artist, designer and businessman, Ascher was noted for uniting radical art with chic design. He promptly commissioned a scintillating new collection from the recent postgraduate, which would be bought by leading French fashion houses Dior and Balenciaga.
This dream start in professional life was all the more remarkable because McNish was part of the Windrush Generation, having left her native Trinidad with her mother in 1951, to follow her father to England. She landed, aged 27, with an amazing maturity.
Her images in paint and on printed fabric were as lush as Jean Rhys novels, but without their underlying melancholy—that pervading sadness borne of exile, colour bars and female powerlessness in a world of men. Together with terrific creative talent, McNish had a steely conviction that she could overcome all obstacles by advancing her ‘tropical’ eye.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin March 30, 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin March 30, 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
