Color Fashion: Wright Palette in Feedsacks

Feedsack ca 1950

Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian House

One of modernism's principles was the idea of enabling the middle class to enjoy the same stylish design as the upper classes, a theory architect Frank Lloyd Wright incorporated into his line of small, efficient Usonian houses begun during the Great Depression.

Wright's design ideas---rooms open to nature, built-in furniture, wood and window walls, concrete, and carports rather than garages---became the standard for middle class housing after World War II.

Modern architecture became so commonplace its innovative qualities became difficult to see. The problem with the principle of widespread innovative design is that it eventually becomes mundane.

I think of feedsack prints as the ultimate in trickle-down design. In these examples we see the influence of the Wright palette (Russel & Frank.)

From an autograph quilt dated 1954