Summary

Tea towel, circa 1954. Designed by John Rodriquez, an influential Australian textile designer from the 1950s to 1970s. Screen printed by hand.

This design was awarded the montly Society of Interior Designers' Good Design Award in November 1954 (reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, 4 November 1954, p.3S). These 'towels' were available in tones of pale and dark green, green, red and yellow.

Physical Description

Corroboree design. Grey on white.

Significance

See Narrative 'John Rodriquez Textile Collection'.

The significance of this object lies, in part, in its use of Aboriginal imagery. The use of Australian motifs, including Aboriginal imagery, flora and fauna, became fashionable during the 1940s and 1950s. These motifs expressed a growing sense of Australian identity while the nation was experiencing the social upheavals of war and mass migration. Many immigrant artists also began to adopt these motifs as they settled into their new country. Aboriginal imagery expressed complex attitudes to Australia's first inhabitants: as culturally interesting, representing connection to place and landscape, yet signifying a distant, pre-civilised time, in contrast to modern Australia. The fact that much of the Aboriginal imagery was appropriated without permission or compensation was far from the thoughts of most commercial artists of the time.

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