A Band Apart, Agency, and The Firm by Sarah Morris 05.09

Maharam introduces A Band Apart, Agency, and The Firm by Sarah Morris. A collaboration between British-American artist Morris and the Maharam Design Studio, these three unique patterns offer a modern interpretation of traditional tapestry.

The Maharam Design Studio’s history of collaboration with industry outsiders—including Maira Kalman, Hella Jongerius, Bruce Mau, and Paul Smith, among others—has resulted in a string of iconic textiles. In collaborating with Sarah Morris, Maharam turns its eye to the increasingly important cultural force of the art world in the company’s second collaboration with a fine artist.

Sarah Morris is a painter and filmmaker who lives and works in New York and London. Her large scale paintings abstract the complex patterns of the urban architectural environment and are typically executed in household gloss on canvases larger than 7' x 7.'Morris’ compositions employ a rigorous framework containing vividly colored shapes, in what she refers to as a “grid and tile” structure. The resulting compositions are highly dimensional while also super flat, recalling the axonometric projections of architectural drawings.

Based on the paintings of the same name, A Band Apart, Agency, and The Firm by Sarah Morris are a suite of textiles developed in collaboration with the Maharam Design Studio for contract upholstery application. The goal was to reproduce the designs as woven jacquards at an oversize scale as close to the originals as possible and to replicate her precise, saturated palette. With a 27" x 27" repeat, these textiles have dramatic impact when applied. Both Maharam and Morris were attracted to the added textural dimension that varying weave structures brought to the designs, which were originally painted in her characteristically flat, glossy style. The combination of weaving techniques creates tactile and compositional variety through the distinctive twill of the grids and contrasting structures of the tiles.

A Band Apart, Agency, and The Firm by Sarah Morris
Width: 56" (142cm)
Colors: 1
Content: 75% Polyester, 25% Cotton