GFF 2011: Contemporary Days

Long before Ikea broke down and flat-packed modernism for the masses, Robin and Lucienne Day were hard at work designing the foundations of what now seems commonplace. Murray Grigor’s Contemporary Days takes a gorgeous look at the iconic husband and wife team’s innovative furniture and textiles with a minimalism that, like the couple, is mutually complimentary. Lucienne with her gift for pattern, wanted to bring colour back to post-war textiles and saw her work as fine art.

Robin demonstrably excelled in problem-solving, bringing a new beauty within functional, affordable 3D form. As much as we love getting lost in the aesthetics of shows like Mad Men, it really does feel special looking back at the real thing, especially when visually told with the simplistic elegance and lack of pretence of its softly muted subject matter. Contemporary Days resonates most emotively in its representation of a family enterprise, which brings goosebumps to the skin and a prickle to the eye.