Raymond Elston was a British textile designer, furniture designer and abstract artist. He was influenced by abstract expressionism and modernist principles and is remembered for his early work with the fashion and furniture designer Terence Conran, and for the mobiles he exhibited in the early 1950s with the Constructionist Group.
Little is known of Elston's early life. He attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts between 1948 and 1951. Victor Pasmore taught there during this period, during which Elston got to know Anthony Hill [1] [2] and Terence Conran. [3]
In 1951 Elston, "a trained fashion designer", [4] worked with Terence Conran, making denim clothes for the Lancashire-based textiles company David Whitehead Ltd, as well as making wood and metal furniture with Conran and Gill Pickles. [5] [6] He shared lodgings in Sloane Court West with syntactic artist Anthony Hill, after Conran had moved out. [7]
In 1964, Elston was designing interiors and furniture for Contract Interiors Ltd at 203 Kings Road, London SW3. [8] [9] Some of his work is illustrated in Conran's books. [10] [11]
Elston had been a member of the Chelsea Arts Club in London since at least 1993. [12] In 1994 he was interviewed by author Nicholas Ind whose book, entitled Terence Conran: The Authorised Biography, recounts Elston's early experiences with Conran and Anthony Hill. [13]
Elston's artistic style - based on his work with mobiles, stabiles and furniture design - was abstract and modernist.
Elston is largely remembered for his mobiles, reflecting the influence of Alexander Calder, [14] however the main body of his work throughout his life involved designing and manufacturing textiles together with furniture design and decoration - initially in collaboration with his friend Terence Conran. [15]
Examples of Elston's work can be found in exhibition photographs taken between 1951 and 1953, [16] books published by Conran [10] [11] and other authors, [17] articles in journals [18] and websites [19] [a]
Elston exhibited his work with Adrian Hill and other members of the Constructionist Group, between 1951 and 1953; Conran joining him in the Third Weekend Exhibition. [14] [20] Neither Elston nor Conran contributed to subsequent fine-art shows; Conran expressing disappointment at the lack of interest in his own work. [21]
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America.
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Sir Terence Orby Conran was a British designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. He founded the Design Museum in Shad Thames, London in 1989. The British designer Thomas Heatherwick said that Conran "moved Britain forward to make it an influence around the world." Edward Barber, from the British design team Barber & Osgerby, described Conran as "the most passionate man in Britain when it comes to design, and his central idea has always been 'Design is there to improve your life.'" The satirist Craig Brown once joked that before Conran "there were no chairs and no France."
Events from the year 1932 in art.
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John Ernest was an American-born constructivist abstract artist. He was born in Philadelphia, in 1922. After living and working in Sweden and Paris from 1946 to 1951, he moved to London, England, where he lived and worked from 1951. As a mature student at Saint Martin's School of Art he came under the influence of Victor Pasmore and other proponents of constructivism. During the 1950s, Ernest exhibited with the British Constructivist art movement. Ernest later became a core member of the Systems Group.
Anthony Cedric Graham Hill, also known as Achill Redo, was an English artist, painter, relief-maker, and mathematician, originally a member of the post-World War II British art movement termed the Constructionist Group whose work was essentially in the international constructivist tradition.
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John Dennis Lennon was a British architect, interior designer, and furniture designer. He was responsible for the interior design of the Queen Elizabeth 2 and of 190-192 Sloane Street, London.
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