A DARK, A LIGHT, A BRIGHT: THE DESIGNS OF DOROTHY LIEBES
At Cooper Hewitt
A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes was curated by Susan Brown, Associate Curator and Acting Head of Textiles at Cooper Hewitt, and Alexa Griffith Winton, Manager of Content and Interpretation at Cooper Hewitt.
Dorothy Liebes was born in Santa Rosa, California. She studied the history of textiles and art education at university in New York and then continued her textile education in Europe. In 1930 she opened her first studio in San Francisco.
A Long Chair designed by Marcel Breuer was on display as a nod to the one exhibited at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. Dorothy was director of the Division of Decorative Arts. That role allowed her to make a number of connections across the country in the art and design field that would help launch her decades long successful career.
The Liebes workshop in San Francisco.
A real crowd pleasing recreation.
The "Liebes look" was used in a variety of industries. Fashion was a big one.
Also, the loom-like installation design is clever.
They also did a great job of weaving (sorry) in period photos and artifacts. Here we see Marion Phal with a panel of "Mexican Plaid" and a real life example on display.
She also worked with a network of architects and designers. This included Frank Lloyd Wright, where her textiles were used for both furnishing and interior features like window coverings. In this case it's upholstery for a stool from the Price Tower in Oklahoma.
Usonian Exhibition house by Wright with Liebes textiles throughout.
Window coverings in the 1951
Mrs. Clinton Walker (Walker Art Center) House by Wright on Carmel Point in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Nice Versen lamp too Mrs. Clinton-Walker. More about the house here.
The upholstery on this Donald Deskey chair is also by her.
Henry Dreyfuss, Raymond Loewy, and Samuel Marx (this photo) were other notable designers she worked with.
There were so many great samples on display.
She also designed for the automobile and aviation industries.
Her designs were also used for the Pomona Tile Distinguished Designer series, along with Paul McCobb, George Nelson and Saul Bass.
The contributions she made to the textile industry can't be overstated. They went far beyond her own studio practice.
There was also a room documenting her involvement and importance in the craft world that went beyond weaving.
That's a Maija Grotell on the right.
I always enjoy a good ephemera vitrine.
I'm not sure how much she interacted with the Eames but I did see her name listed in their archives.
The book published with the exhibition is a good one. It's loaded with pictures and goes deep into the world of Liebes. It was edited by Susan Brown and Alexa Griffith Winton (Co-published by Cooper Hewitt and Yale University Press, 2023)
There were some examples of Liebes stick weave in the exhibition and this example from the book.
What wasn't in the book or exhibition was anything about her textiles being used on lampshades, but....
I did more digging around in her archives and to further confuse the stick weave lampshade saga, here is definitive proof that she too did them. More about that
here.
Also, some good early Knoll pieces.
I have a photo of me in front of it in 2004 when a Nelson ball clock was the sole image.
What a great museum and I lucked out with the timing to get to see this exhibition on the opening day.
A DARK, A LIGHT, A BRIGHT: THE DESIGNS OF DOROTHY LIEBES
Dorothy Liebes was born in Santa Rosa, California. She studied the history of textiles and art education at university in New York and then continued her textile education in Europe. In 1930 she opened her first studio in San Francisco. 
The Liebes workshop in San Francisco. 
A real crowd pleasing recreation.
