What a joy yesterday, when visiting an interiors exhibition at Manchester City Art Gallery,
to come across this textile reference with links to Bath.

Stones of Bath 1959
John Piper 1903-1992
Made by Arthur Anderson & Son Ltd 1962
Screen printed on Sanderlin(a satirised cotton fabric)

Naturally many of the students mention in their application and interview that they are inspired by the city, its architecture and its distictive sense of style.Of course once the successful applicants are here some of them base research around the cityscape,focussing on the beautifully preserved features of another era.
We as a department celebrate being here in this beautiful city by being involved within the community and forging links with local business’s too.

In 1959 John Piper was commissioned by textile and wallpaper manufacturer Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd to design five textiles as part of their centenary celebrations.Stones of Bath was a best seller.Screen printed textiles with a painterly design of earthy colours were popular during the late 1950s and early 1960s.Screen printing also allowed for textile designs with much larger pattern repeats then had ever been seen before.Stones of Bath worked well when seen in long lengths for floor to ceiling curtains.

Pipers textile design is neither completely abstract nor entirely representational.With glimpse of ancient architecture in an abstracted landscape, he expresses the city of Bath as unspoilt and timeless.Piper negotiated a unique path between tradition and modernity that appealed to Britain’s sense of national identity.

In the featured watercolour, also by Piper, of Lansdowne Place East and Lansdowne Crescent 1942 Piper focussed on the Georgian domestic architecture in Lansdowne where bomb damage was greatest
http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/exhibitions/houseproud.html<a