This research will investigate and evaluate how Art Deco was inspired in textile form by Kuba Art and the printed Textile Design output as seen in the work of the Wiener Werkstätte (WW) textile designers. It provides a foundational knowledge of the influence of motifs, patterns and shapes employed in WW printed textiles, from the Kuba Kingdom, in the Congo Free State ((CFS) present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo), in the opening two decades of the twentieth century, that no one to date has established. It builds upon the Viennese early Art Deco Africa-linked product design knowledge by analysing it purely in the context of Textile Design, informed by Kuba Kingdom artefacts from the Congo Free State, in Viennese collections, whilst being cognisant of the exploitation and atrocities that took place because of Belgian Imperialism. It examines several WW textile findings, focusing on WW designer, Maria Likarz Strauss (MLS), whilst extending existing Kuba Art-informed knowledge of fellow Viennese artists such as Gustav Klimt. The study examines how the Art curriculum at the Applied Arts School (foundational learning for most WW designers) was influenced by the newly appointed staff and their relationship with Primitivism, hence, guiding the creative output of the learners. It develops a mixed methods visual analysis and historical methodology utilizing Kuba Art symbolic, pattern and ethnomathematical findings whilst synthesizing a framework for visual investigation of WW material culture with the aim of mitigating subjective conclusions. Kuba textile artefacts will be compared to MLS’s Irland (1910-13) textile design as part of a ground-breaking primary and secondary source investigation at the Welt Museum, Vienna, the findings of which, demonstrate the use of Kuba Art motifs and associated geometrical shapes in Irland (1910-13) seen as a prime example of early Art Deco textile design through its related use of line, rectangle, diagonal and symbolism, thus indicating the potential for MLS, to have been visually informed by viewing Kuba Textiles.
| Date of Award | 27 Mar 2026 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Claire Barber (Main Supervisor) & Andrew Hewitt (Co-Supervisor) |
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