The Omega Workshops was a design enterprise founded by members of the Bloomsbury group and established in 1913. It was located at 33 Fitzroy Square in London.
Beginnings
In forming the company, critic Roger Fry aimed to remove what he considered to be the false divisions between the decorative and fine arts, and give his artist friends an additional income opportunity designing furniture, textiles and other household accessories. Fry was keen to encourage a Post-Impressionist influence in designs produced for Omega. However, Cubist and Fauvist influences are also apparent, particularly in many of the textile designs.
To ensure items were only bought for the quality of the work, and not the reputation of the artist, Fry insisted works be shown anonymously, marked only with the letter omega. The products were in general expensive, and aimed at an exclusive market.
Designers and Manufacturers
In addition to offering a wide range of individual products, such as painted furniture, painted murals, mosaics, stained glass, and textiles, Omega Workshops Ltd offered interior design themes for various living spaces. A commission was taken to decorate a room for the 1913 Ideal Home Exhibition, and an illustrated catalogue, including text written by Fry, was published in autumn 1914.
Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant produced designs for Omega, and Wyndham Lewis was initially part of the operation. Lewis however split off at an early stage, taking with him several other participants to start the rival decorative workshop Rebel Art Centre after accusing Fry of misappropriating a commission to decorate a room at the Ideal Home Exhibition in the autumn of 1913. In October 1913, Wyndham Lewis, Frederick Etchells, Edward Wadsworth and Cuthbert Hamilton announced their resignation from Omega in a letter, known as the 'Round Robin', to its shareholders and patrons. This letter contained accusations particularly against Fry, criticising the workshops products and ideology. This split not only led to the formation of the Rebel Art Centre, but also the Vorticist movement.
Most manufacturing for Omega was outsourced to professional craftsmen, such as J. Kallenborn & Sons of Stanhope Street, London for marquetry furniture; Druad Ltd of Leicester for tall cane seat chairs and a company in France was used to manufacture early printed linens.
In the autumn of 1913 Fry, who also created the designs for Omegas tall cane seat chairs, started designing and making pottery. After he considered book design and publishing in July 1915, the Superintendent of printing at Central School of Arts and Crafts collaborated with Omega in designing four books that were later outsourced for printing.
The range of products continued to increase throughout Omega Workshops six year existence, and in April 1915 Vanessa Bell began using Omega fabrics in dress design, from which dressmaking became a successful part of the business.
In January 1918, Omega were commissioned to design sets and costumes in the Israel Zangwill play ‘Too Much Money’.
Closure and Legacy
Omega closed in 1919, and was officially liquidated on 24 July 1920. Media coverage of the workshop had always been mediocre, and it had relied heavily on the patronage of wealthy London society within artistic and literary circles. A series of poor financial decisions and internal conflicts all contributed to its decline. At the time of its closure, Fry was the only remaining original member working regularly at the workshop. Despite this, Omega became influential in interior design in the 1920s.
Edward Wolfe worked at the Omega Workshops, handpainting candle-shades, trays and decorating furniture. Wolfe, who died in 1982, was one of the last of the Bloomsbury painters.
A revival of interest in Omega designs in the 1980s led to a reassessment of the place of the Bloomsbury group in visual arts.
See also
References
- Christopher Reed. Bloomsbury Rooms: Modernism, Subculture, and Domesticity. Yale University Press, 2004.
- Tate Online Archive, [1]. Retrieved 9 March 2009
