Modernist Textured Carpet
Marion V. Dorn (1899-1964) was originally trained as a painter and this led her to develop her skills as a textile designer. During her formative years she worked in Paris and New York, and it was at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris that she first encountered the Modernist rug designs of Ivan da Silva Bruhns and Maurice Dufrene. By 1930 she began her association with the Wilton Royal Carpet Factory. Throughout the following decade her work was exhibited in many of the most important decorative art exhibitions. She later moved to New York where she began a collaboration with leading textile and carpet designers, culminating in her appointment as Creative Director of Edward Fields, Inc. from 1949 to 1962. At the time of her passing, Edward Fields was in possession of an extensive library of Marion Dorn designs still to be executed. The present carpet is a quintessential example of her creative genius, hand-tufted in her trademark sculpted style.