The Exhibition as Critical Craft Practice: London’s Little Gallery in 1939

Abstract

In the summer of 1939, an exhibition of hand-printed wallpapers by Edward Bawden and John Aldridge was held at the Little Gallery, a craft gallery in London co-run by curator Muriel Rose and Margaret Turnbull. This article analyzes the exhibition as critical craft practice, arguing that the exhibition both illuminates the capacities of craft as a critical process and itself constitutes a form of critical curatorial practice. Foregrounding considerations of labor and use, the Little Gallery’s exhibition evokes the studio and domestic space. Through a close examination of surviving photographs, some of which were published in press reviews, the article demonstrates how the exhibition encouraged a reflective engagement with craft. These images of carefully chosen combinations of wallpaper, furniture, and flowers framed the reception of both the Little Gallery and the designs of Bawden and Aldridge in the illustrated literature. The article argues for exhibition history itself as a form of critical practice that can allow for the contributions of curators to be recognized as a form of production and offer new insights into the work of craft.