Chichester

There are two fantastic exhibitions on at Pallant House in Chichester at the moment - John Piper textiles and Radical Craft. 

The second is a look at some artists and craftspeople who are creating amazing work including more than a few who are working with yarns, fabrics and thread. There will be a blog entry about this next week with photographs but this is just to let you know to get to it if you can because it is very good. 

The first show is John Piper and his textile works, The Fabric of Modernism, and it was for this that we went to Chichester. Only a couple of hours from London, Pallant House is always a great place to spend time and there are always good exhibitions. When we heard that the John Piper was going to be on, we booked immediately to go and we have not been disappointed. 

The show itself is three rooms; two of paintings and textiles and one of tapestries. The fabrics are absolutely stunning with beautiful examples of the mid-century pieces that were produced for Sandersons and David Whitehead. And the bookshop has not disappointed either with new acquisitions for the library including three books on John Piper. 

These shows are well-worth the trip (as is the small showing of photographs from Helen Muspratt in the lower gallery) and the icing on the proverbial cake was a visit to the Cathedral to see the original Piper tapestries in situ, along the way discovering a Hans Feibusch and a Graham Sutherland which we did not know about. Next week I will put pictures on the blog of these but sadly we were not able to take photos of the actual show. Do go and see it if you like mid-century design. F.A.B!