Enid Marx (1902-1998)
Main details
| Reference number | 1996/4971 |
|---|---|
| Name | Enid Crystal Dorothy Marx |
| AKA | Marco |
| Born | 1902 |
| Collection | |
| Object type |
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| Completeness | 58% |
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Biography
Attribute Value Biography Enid Marx was born in London, the second cousin thrice removed of Karl Marx. Educated at Roedean, Marx benefited from an enlightened head of art who permitted young pupils to draw from the nude. In her final year at the school, Marx was allowed to draw virtually full time. She also studied carpentry, thus receiving a grounding in the use of tools. After Roedean, Marx went on to study at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and at the Royal College of Art, but left without her diploma because abstract artwork such as hers was not held in high esteem. In fact, Sir Frank Short had refused to teach her; she managed to take the course only because Eric Ravilious sneaked her in after hours and taught her what he had learned that day.
Marx first became a designer of textiles with Barron and Larcher (1925-7) and later had her own studio on Hampstead Hill, where she designed and made hand-blocked textiles. Her designs became fashionable and attracted some well-to-do customers. She also worked as a painter, printmaker, children's book author and illustrator, designer of book jackets, trademarks and postage stamps. Although she had been interested in textiles since she had been a child she first thought of designing textiles at about the time she left the Royal College of Art. Marx was an outspoken campaigner for a wide range of issues. One of her campaigns was for the establishment of a national museum for English folk art. She herself amassed a large collection of decorative objects, including fabrics, cigarette cards, inn signs, ceramics, corn dollies and gingerbread moulds.
In 1937 Marx was commissioned by Frank Pick to design woollen moquette seating fabric for Underground trains. This work for the LPTB was among her favourite. She was told that the material had to "look fresh at all times, even after bricklayers had sat on it". It was also not allowed to look dazzling as it was destined for moving vehicles.
Marx was a member of the Design Panel of the Utility Furniture Advisory Committee (1944-7), the first woman engraver to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry (1944) and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists. After the war, she returned to designing book jackets, this time for Penguin. She was also commissioned to design postage stamps for the coronation of Elizabeth II.
She taught and lectured on the history of textiles, and published two books with Margaret Lambert "English Popular and Traditional Art" 1946 and "English Popular Art" 1951.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she was commissioned to produce woodcuts, engravings and linocuts, packaging, calendars for Shell Oil, London Transport posters, greetings cards, book jackets, and laminates for Harrisons of High Wycombe. In 1965, she became head of the department of Dress, Textiles and Ceramics at Croydon College of Art, leaving after five years to pursue her own work. She preferred the life of a freelance, remarking that her "career has always just happened."Employment London Transport, 1937-1964Role Artist,