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s mass production began to threaten the very tish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackin-
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,(lexistence of original, handmade items in the late tosh, for instance, always found a more sympathetic
nineteenth century/ the decorative arts underwent a public for his brilliant textile designs in Germany
vital renaissance.This renewed creativity was par- and Austria than in Britain. His eerily obsessivepat-
ticularly apparent in fabrics, which played such an terns wove together roses and teardrops, tulips and -
important role in the interiors of the period. When lattices, waves and hourglasses,in variations that
the influential social theorist and designer William show an inexhaustible fluency of form. In the styl-
Morris came to decorate his own house, for instance, ized daisies and dahlias that he worked and re-
he took great pains to ensure that his wife's dresses worked, the vocabulary of Art Nouveau is taken
and the household fabrics matched perfectly. The sufficiently close to its limits that it suggestsother
passion for inventive and harmonious textiles con- styles that had not yet seenthe light of day.
tinued to gain ground throughout the earlier part of Mackintosh's influence abroad was so strong that,
the twentieth century, when some of the greatest between Vienna and Munich, modern design as a
artists, as well as the greatest designers,created fab- whole was referred to as Mackintoshismus. The
ric patterns. The designs for many of these textiles Scotsman's free-flowing formal inventiveness was
can still be found today in their original form as as- most ably absorbed by Josef Hoffmann, who had
tonishing works on paper, providing a fascinating first seenhis work in the pages of the art magazine
glimpse into the variety and development of mod- TheStudiobefore making a pilgrimage to Glasgow in
ern decorative styles. 1902to meet Mackintosh in person. Hoffmann him-
While Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement self was to become one of the most versatile creators
he helped initiate radically changed attitudes and of new forms that ranged from whole buildings,
styles in Great Britain, other architects and designers such as his PalaisStoclet in Brussels,to glassware
on the Continent began to make similar transforma- and patterns for fabrics. He also cofounded the
tions, which subsequently came to be called Art Wiener Werkstatte, a veritable powerhouse of inno-
Nouveau, Style 1900 or jugendstil. Cross-fertiliza- vative craftsmanship that produced some eighteen
tion was very much the order of the day. The Scot- thousand designs by over eighty artists (including
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OPPOSITE:TextilcDesign,Ren6Buthaud'
ABOVE:TextileDesigrt, Kent & Dawes,ctrca No lessa Painterthan circa7929.Gouacheon PaPer;ZZl" x78%"'
1928.Watercolorand pencilon paper;351"x Buthaucl'stextiledesignsemployed the same
31/'. Kent & Dawesincorporatedhistoric,chi- Paul Klee conceived figural imagery as that on his painted-fa-
noiserieand floralmotifsinto the"iazzmod- ieirce.Editions Craphiques Gallery,London'
ern" style.Yu-CheeChongFineArt, London' designsto be woven.
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the celebrated Gustav Klimt) for fashions and home clearly indicated that the situation had come full cir-
furnishings. Compared with the sinuous lines of cle. Indeed, the desire to create a shared aesthetic for
French and English Art Nouveau, these new designs all the arts, major and minor, fine or applied, became
manifested a stricter, more geometric approach to one of the driving forces that led to the most influen-
the elegant conjugations of natural form. tial artistic workshop, the Bauhaus, which got under
The gap between the fine and decorative arts had way in 191,9in Weimar. One article of the new faith
been widening ever since the French Revolution, was that no type of art or design was inferior to any
when the exquisite harmony between all the arts other, and that they should all be seen as having
came to be seen as synonymous with aristocratic their potential part to play in a total work of art.
decadence.A hundred years later, however, the re- Accordingly, when the Bauhaus set up its textile
surgence of interest in craftsmanship and design workshop, no lessa painter than Paul Klee specially
179
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conceiveddesignsto be woven. At the outset,a free-
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years. "We have a high occupancy, sign, even though France never gave black trousers that look like silk-but
you see," Bowling says, "and that birth to a coherent theory for all the the black cowboy boots bespeak his
means we're constantly needing to arts of the kind that had evolved in native Tennessee.He is married to
work on one part of the hotel or an- England, Austria and Germany. Ma- Maureen Starkey,the former wife of
other." Adding to the hotel's wear and tisse,Braque,Picassoand L6ger were Ringo Starr. The couple have a young
tear, an averageof five weddings are all briefly involved in design, notably daughter (she has three children
held in the garden and the banquet for the famous tapestry manufacture from her previous marriage). By his
room during summer weekends. In of Aubusson. Picassoand L6ger also own admission, Tigrett is a compul-
May and June, Bowling maintains, acceptedthe opportunity to come up sive workaholic: "The first year my
the hotel has to be booked two years with some memorable theatrical cos- daughter was born," he saysruefully,
in advance.Two years?"Sometimesa tumes. Unlike the postwar period, "I saw her only twenty days."
woman will come in and leave a de- when artists have tended to focus on Perhapssurprisingly, the most im-
posit," Bowling says,"then go out to portant thing in Tigrett's life is not
look for her groom." businessbut spiritual awakening.More
The Bel-Air's popularity requires Anni Albers than two decades ago the traumat-
no exaggeration.Its roster of former ic death of a brother launched him
guests ranges from Marilyn Monroe, concentrated on the on a passionatesearchfor a "master."
who had her own cottage,to Princess Traveling the globe, he discovered
resonance of
Grace.During a stint as a screenwrit- the Indian avatar Sathya Sai Baba.
er in the early 1950s,Carl Sandburg geometric patterning. The motto that appears everywhere
lived at the hotel and ate out of tin in the House of Blues (even on the
cans,which he would afterward line menu) is from Sai Baba: "Help ever,
up on the windowsill. Bette Davis, one medium only, barriers were easily hurt never."The Hard Rock Cafe was
Doris Duke, Howard Hughes, Audrey crossed,and a noted ceramist of the similarly informed by another of the
Hepburn, Garbo-the list runs right period, Ren6Buthaud, effortlesslyex- master'ssayings:"Love all, serveall."
through to Anthony Hopkins and Em- tended his range to include imagery Following the teachings of Sai Ba-
ma Thompson ("We practically had to for fabrics. ba, Tigrett believes that the world is
But the two artists in Paris who
made the most significant contribu-
tion to textile design were Raoul Dufy
Becauseof this spirit and SoniaDelaunay. Dufy's lively mo-
Car 50'smost
of inclusiveness,there is tifs, intended mainly for silk, were conspicuous
begun at the behest of the great cou-
little that is matching turier and art collector Paul Poiret.
achievementis to
or predictableabout the who used them for both dressesand disguisehow
furnishings. The Dufy-Poiret creations
Bel-Air todav. are best appreciated in a complete small the spaceis.
Art D6co setting, where everything
from the inlaid tables to the leather-
dynamite Thompson out," saysBow- bound books has been handmade to in an age called Kali Yuga-the dark-
ling with a laugh) and will no doubt blend into an intimate harmony. So- est and most despairing era man has
run into the next generation of stars, nia Delaunay combined aspectsof the ever known. Kali Yuga will be suc-
politicians,screenwritersand moguls. Bauhaus with her own remarkable ceeded,however, by a golden age of
For in a city that prizes illusion, there painterly flair in the "simultaneous enlightenment, marked by a resur-
is considerable appeal in a terrace contrasts" of color that she evolved gence of ancient wisdom.
where you can breakfast in winter be- for textiles. Such leading ladies of And if the cosmos can come full cir-
causethe ground is heated with bur- the period as Gloria Swanson and cle, so can Tigrett's life. As he sits in
ied pipes and where the butter comes Nancy Cunard appeared swathed en- the observation car, a recollection of
pressed into the shape of the hotel's tirely in Delaunayt striking motifs, childhood surges into his thoughts,
trademark swans. But even without where art and design were indissolu- lighting up his face with a broad
these touches, the Bel-Air has a long bly linked. In this feverishly fash- southern grin. He pats the arm of his
enough history and a sufficient tradi- ionable period leading up to World chair. "You know," says Isaac Tigrett,
tion of respectfor its surroundings to War II, the last concertedattempt was "I was four weeks old the first time I
have won an enduring place of honor made to create a total style uniting was here. And my earliest childhood
in the Los Angelescityscape.! all the arts.! memory is of Car 50."!