Times Magazine - Scenes from domestic life
“THE WORLD OF RUGS HAS OPENED. ALL SORTS OF INTERESTING ARTIST HAVE EMBRACED THE MEDIUM”
CONTEMPORARY RUGS
These days, rugs by fancy designer names are strewn about the painted floors of Notting Hill mansions, the bare boards of city lofts and the flagstones of rural houses, but it's not so long ago that if you wanted a change from wall-to- wall carpet, you'd almost certainly have turned to something antique. Twenty years ago, Christopher Farr, originally a painter, started selling antique rugs ranging from fine Persian carpets to ethnic pieces from most of the 'stans. He hit upon what was then quite a novel idea - getting a modern designer, the wonderful textile artist Kate Blee, to come up with something contemporary, fresh and new. It was a fantastic success, but it was Brave New Rugs, a show he organised in 1991 with rugs created by students at the Royal College of Art, that made him see that here was a whole new market. "From that day on," he says, "we never sold another antique rug." Contemporary designerwares were the way forward and nobody else was doing it.
He went on to commission Romeo Gigli, the fashion designer, and Gary Hume, one of the famous Young Brit Artists, and later the artist Gavin Turk and the austerely pure architect John Pawson. He'd found his niche. More importantly, he'd found it just as tastes were changing and new City money was more prepared to embrace the new, the avant-garde and the challenging than the previous generation.
Since then, the whole world of rugs has been opened. All sorts of interesting artists have embraced the medium, from the wonderful Christine van der Hurd, one of whose subtle silky pieces enhances my own painted floorboards, to Luke Irwin whose collections are inspired by such varied notions as crop circles, geometric patterns, animals and florals.
Then, of course, one can't talk about modern rugs without acknowledging what Chris and Suzanne Sharp of the Rug Company have done to turn the perception of rugs from old and venerable antiques into a vibrant, modern way of refreshing the home. They, like Christopher Farr, have gone the designer route, turning mostly to the likes of Paul Smith and Vivienne Westwood, the house of Marni and Matthew Williamson to inject a bit of oomph, verve and modernity Customers these days are much more sophisticated and want to know what Lulu Guinness says or what Neisha Crosland has come up with. My favourites are by possibly the lowest-profile designer of them all - Suzanne Sharp herself.
Christopher Farr was the first to have the idea of harnessing artists and designers to the ancient skills of carpet-making. Since his company turns 20 this year, Farr is celebrating by launching a collection of rugs designed by himself (he's a painter, remember). Interestingly, he has managed almost to halve the price by dint of re-inventing the art of hand-tufting (in which tufting is done with a hand "gun" and which is less exclusive than hand-knotting, the rug-making gold standard). He still uses high-quality wools that are hand-dyed and hand-spun and thus give great "feel", but the new technique is much quicker, gives a faster lead time and there is greater flexibility in terms of shape, design and finish. His rugs are notable for their very painterly qualities - some have echoes of Ben Nicholson. others of William Scott and Howard Hodgkin. What is great news for those of us simply wanting something lovely for the floor is that his new collection, beautiful in a restrained way, is half the price it would have been if he had used the old manufacturing methods. This means that a 12ft x 9ft rug would now retail for about £3,000, when a year or so ago it would have been about £6,000.
