LONDON.- This spring, a unique selection of intricate and hand-drawn designs from celebrated visual artist Marthe Armitage (b.1930) will be on display at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, including rarely seen works on paper and sketches.

Marthe Armitage: Pattern Maker will feature more than 40 prints, objects and archive materials from the lifelong career of Marthe Armitage, who at 95 years old spent decades dedicated to the art of hand-drawn and hand-cut designs for wallpaper, curtains and more.

As the former home of renowned architect Sir John Soane (1753–1837) and built as a testament to his own practice and principles, Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery is a fitting place to showcase an artist who draws on architectural influences to create and innovate nature-led designs meant for enrichening the rooms and homes we inhabit.

From beginning her career printing wallpaper solely for her family, to later designs being featured in Hammer Horror’s return to cinema with The Woman in Black and giving lectures on wallpaper designs at the V&A, the life and career of Armitage is a testament to a creative drive that has grown stronger with every decade.

Now visitors to Pitzhanger will have the opportunity to step into the decorative world that she has been quietly and steadily creating from her Chiswick home and Brentford studio, where designs are built from single colours to blossom into motif-rich and complex patterns.

From the first ever lino block she created in 1964 to her most recent 2023 print Chess, the retrospective exhibition will showcase her expert craftmanship and attention to intricate detail, also delving into what has inspired her during a fascinating career.

Graduating from Chelsea School of Art, Armitage first raised a family, which included spending two years in India. Here she watched craftsmen at a bazaar print patterns onto fabric using simple wood blocks, and this experience would inspire her to eventually work on her own designs using the technique of linocut.

Acquiring a 100-year-old hand-operated offset lithographic press and adapting it for her own specifications began a journey of designing and printing for the next 50 years, drawing from botany and architecture, specifically the chestnut trees and angelica plants of her native Chiswick.

On display will be early patterns Angelica and Chestnut which highlight Armitage’s interest in botanical images and history, and showcasing plants found on her riverside doorstep at Strand on the Green.

Visitors will be able to see several ‘firsts’ that Armitage made, with the final pencil drawing, original lino block and first wallpaper print of Angelica on display. Sketchbooks will show how her ideas originated; for instance how Chestnut went from initial drawing to the final lino block.

Working from home with a studio above her garage (assisted by her daughter), the exhibition will also look to create the atmosphere of Armitage’s workspace. A corkboard-style wall space will be illustrated with various influences and objects from her career, including photographs from her local environment, pamphlet designs for the Strand on the Green community, as well as colour swatches and other materials that have informed her processes over the years.

The bedroom at Pitzhanger will also be undergoing a “Marthe makeover”; an upholstered slipper chair in Chestnut, four-poster bed draped with curtains, cushions and a skirt in textbook Armitage fabric.

Further in the exhibition the botanical meets architectural principles, as Armitage’s complex and multilayered designs open up fantastical worlds. Working drawings, watercolours and the final wallpapers will reveal a myriad of influences and outcomes, from Kew Gardens inspired Pagoda to Chiswick House, Geranium and a V&A vase inspired Gardeners.

This exhibition is a perfect opportunity to engage with a visual artist who champions hand-drawn and hand-crafted designs, it serves as a testament to why Armitage is still in demand and sought after by fellow designers.

Marthe Armitage, said: “Well, it’s a tremendous honour. I am delighted and very excited.”

Rebecca Lyons, Director of Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, said: “We are delighted to showcase the work of Marthe Armitage, whose lifelong dedication to pattern making has produced some of the most beautiful prints in modern design. Inspired by both the natural and architectural worlds, her work finds a particularly fitting setting at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery.”

Accompanying the exhibition will be a reprint of the previously sold-out book The Making of Marthe Armitage: Artist & Patternmaker, with a limited number of signed copies available.