Sunflowers on a tea towel
On Sunday I went to Tate Britain to see the 'EY Van Gogh and Britain' exhibition. I discussed it in an insta-post and will not repeat my views on the exhibition. But since then, something has been troubling me. When I was at the Tate shop, I saw tea towels on sale with Van Gogh's paintings reproduced on them. My first thoughts were that it was tacky to use, say, 'Sunflowers' on a dishcloth. Then I had second thoughts. Why not hang a tea towel as one would do with a poster or a large reproduction? I also knew that Van Gogh had actually painted on tea towels when he was too penniless to buy canvasses.
Suddenly I began to see the tea towel in an entirely new light.
When I reached home, I started reading about tea towels and discovered a new world, so to speak. Tea towels have often been highly decorated, their functionality becoming incidental. The Art of the Tea Towel by Marnie Fogg is a visual history of the humble tea towel, and yes, tea towels can be very artistic and a collector's item themselves.
The 1960s, through Pop Art, taught us to view decoration and functionality as interchangeable. Art was everywhere, and tea towels reigned supreme as artistic works.
I am now intrigued, and I feel like beginning my very own collection of tea towels. I will not use them to dry dishes, I will just keep them, and one or two Van Gogh tea towels might brighten up my walls.
So off I am again to Tate Britain, to visit once more the exhibition - I want to look more carefully at those paintings by Francis Bacon whose subject matter is Van Gogh and to buy a couple of tea towels...
Comments
Post a Comment