Esoteric Survey

  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...

Modern lore, auctions and dealers abound would say Maria Kipp textiles were used in this Paul Laszlo interior.  Photo: Julius Shulman  Google would also lead you to believe that Maria Kipp did the lampshades. Auctions too Source: Orange Hat Auction The lamp is surely Laszlo. The problem is the shade most likely isn't by Maria Kipp.  Source: Orange Hat Auction As we can see here in this 1953 Architectural Digest photo of a Paul Laszlo interior, it was William Webb and not Maria Kipp who provided the drapes and lampshades. Source: Architectural Digest Laszlo incorporated a lot of Webb Textiles into his projects, as seen here in the Ohrbach residence in Beverly Hills. These drapes were electrically controlled.  Apparently, Webb was THE stick weave guy. Source: LA Times William Webb and his brother Robert operated William Webb Textiles Inc. out of a Pasadena studio located on West Union St. Founded in 1946, the brothers started by selling looms and would teach their cust...