An Op-Art carpet
By Verner Panton (1926-98), for UnikaVaev Copenhagen, made in Denmark, c1961. Of Scottish and New Zealand wools.
7ft 7ins x 7ft 4ins : 226cm x 224cm.
Following the Scandinavian weaving tradition of rugs with long pile, known as rya rugs, in the early 1960s the manufacturers made similar rugs though woven mechanically using Axminster technique, these were termed shagpile. The present carpet is made by the company UniVaev, which means unique weave in Danish. The company still exists today, but now only produces textile fabrics.
Verner Panton, born in Gamtofte, Denmark, studied at Odense Technical College before enrolling at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen as an architecture student. He worked from 1950-1952 in the architectural firm of Arne Jacobsen and founded an independent studio for architecture and design in 1955 .He was an innovative and versatile designer working in furniture, lighting, textiles, carpets and interior design schemes with emphasis in using plastic materials and bright colours.
As he states: the main purpose of my work is to provoke people into using their imagination. Most people spend their lives living in dreary, grey-beige conformity, mortally afraid of using colours.
Many of Panton's works are in permanent collections of museums including: The Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the largest collection is at the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany.
It is interesting to note that this futuristic Panton design predates Victor Vasareley's Op Art work of the late 1960s, also that this is the original version, in the early 1970s another variant with more colour was produced.
Literature: Leslie Pina, Herman Miller Interior Views, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1998, page 75, illustrates a similar Panton carpet in the Elkins Shoe Store, Boston, photo, 1962.
Reference: Rya/Finlandia 50
Price : £ 8,000
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