In Grainger’s own words. Transcriptions of the text for Grainger’s
display legends on the topics of towel clothes and beadwork are below:
Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961)
Towel clothes made by Rose Grainger, Percy Grainger & Ella Grainger
Grainger Museum display legend, c.1955-1956
Typescript on paper glued to card backing, painted blue border
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne
“The artist is not (as so many so called “inartistic” people seem
to like to believe) a being supernaturally gifted with skill for
some branch of art. To sing, make music, paint, draw, carve and
dance is natural to all humanity, and it is only a lopsided
civilisation, mad on “specialisation”, that scares the “tame cats”
of humanity into abandoning their natural right to an allround
manysided life. The artist-type is not quite so tame-cat-like and
more easily avoids what Tennyson calls “the falsehood of extremes”.
So the artist tries to keep the balance between normality and the
slavish modes and crazes of the moment. In a licentious age he is a
puritan; in a puritanical age he is a hedonist; in a dirty age he
strives to be clean; in a drab age he is colour-seeking.
“My mother was devoted to Lafcadio Hearn’s stories of Japan and
she worshipped many aspects of Japanese civilisation – for instance
its cleanliness. And she and I often discussed the filthiness of
European clothes: men’s coats in which the sweat of years is allowed
to gather,our shoes that bring the dirt of the streets into our
homes. And around 1910(after we had both been fired by the beauty
of Maori and South Sea island clothes and fabrics seen in museums
in New Zealand and Australia)my mother mooted the idea of clothes
made of Turkish towels – cool in summer, warm in the winter, and
washable at all times. I leaped at the idea, seeing therein a chance
to return to something comparable with the garish brilliance of the
“skyblue and scarlet” garments of our Saxon and Scandinavian
forefathers. I resented very much that the darkness and dullness of
more southerly European fashions (after the Norman Conquest) had
ousted the bright colourfulness natural to the north of Europe
(think of the clothes made of bird’s feathers described in Lady
Gregory’s translations of old Irish Tales). The result of my
mother’s and my teamwork is the field of towel-clothing is seen
in Towel Clothes 1.
“Between 1910 and 1914 I wore these clothes while giving many of my
lessons in London and continually during my composing holidays in
Denmark. In 1932 or 1933 my wife and I took up again this idea of
clothing made of towelling and when in Australia in 1934 and 1935 we
were amazed by the beauty of the bath towels on sale in Australia –
some imported from England, Chekoslovakia and America, but most of
them (and among them the most beautiful ones) manufactured in
Australia. Here was a chance to show what could be done with the
beauty born of machinery – a beauty as rich and subtle, in its own
way, as anything made by hand or loom. The problem was to use the
towels with as little cutting and sewing as possible, and in this
skill my wife shone.”
Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961)
Beadwork & other native curios
Draft text for a Grainger Museum display legend, c.1938
Manuscript on paper
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne
“In Jan.? 1909 (while staying at Warwick House, Christchurch) Rose
Grainger & P.G. went (separately) to the Christchurch museum & both
(separately) fell wildly in love with the African & other beadwork
displayed there. P.G. made drawings while in the museum & soon
started copying native beadwork himself (the big necklace with free
hanging beard is one of their results & so is the blue & white
belt—copied from an Island belt shown by a German on board the
German Lloyd Steamer 1st ½ of 1909), buying the beads in (Sydney?)
& stringing them on unwound brown fishing line. On getting to
Sydney after N. Zealand (Feb or March 1909) P.G. bought a lot of
beadwork & other native curios (& photos of natives) at Tost &
Rohu’s opposite G.P.O. Sydney (Martin Place). The S’African ones
had been brought to Australia by Australian Boer War soldiers.
After Sydney P.G. bought the Island wristbands (beads, blue & white)
in Queensland—all (I think) from a Swedish greengrocer who had
taken beadwork from Kanaka sugarcane-field-workers in payment
for vegetables.
“On returning to London both Rose & P.G. did much beadwork—among
others a small tablemat (coral color & white?) made by R.G. & given
to Mrs Nina Grieg. The American Indian beadwork was bought by Rose G.
and P.G. while living at 680 Madison Ave, (The Southern), New York
City, around 1915–1917. Some American Indian beadwork was maybe
added later.
“A few other gifts were added by friends. Ella Grainger bought some
nice shell money things to America when marrying P.G. (1928), when
she also brought the big Solomon Island mask.
“The cabinet stood in the street-level hallway at 31a Kings Rd,
Chelsea, London (not far from the wooden settee). After being stored
in London during the war it came to White Plains, N.Y. (7 Cromwell
Place), where it stood in hallway, facing front door.”
