Historical information
Michael O’Connell (1898-1976) arrived in Melbourne in 1920 with no professional training apart from that of a soldier on the Western Front. During the 1920s however he discovered a talent for design and, returning from a visit home to England via France and Italy in 1929, focussed on textile design with his wife Ella. This fragment of a wall hanging shows clear indebtedness to the School of Paris, Matisse in particular, and other designs from the early 1930s indicate that O’Connell was familiar with the work of Raoul Dufy who had created some successful and popular fabric designs for Paul Poiret.
Physical description
Textile piece featuring women and geometric pattern
