Elenhank Designers, Inc.
Terrain
1969
Scroll
Elenhank Designers, Inc.
Terrain
1969
Physical Qualities
Linen, acrylic coating, 203 x 50 3/4 in. (515.6 x 128.9 cm.)
Credit Line
Purchased in Memory of Alice Bolger with funds contributed by her Friends, Staff and Board of Trustees of The Baltimore Museum of Art
Object Number
2011.86
Terrain is a bold screen-printed fabric inspired by the topographic views and contour maps made possible through modern aerial photography. The design could be entirely fictional or could represent an actual location in the state of Illinois or northern Indiana, an area admired by its designers, Henry and Eleanor Kluck. Together, they formed the company Elenhank Designers, Inc. in 1948. Produced in several colorways, this combination of thin white, opaque white, café-au-lait, and black paint on a dark brown linen ground is indicative of the interplay of opaque and transparent colors on fabrics for which Elenhank was known. The fabric is coated in acrylic, probably indicating an intended use as a wall covering. Elenhank developed and produced many hand-printed fabrics to be sold through architects and interior designers as custom fabrics and wall coverings for homes, offices, and commercial businesses. As Midwestern textile designers, the Klucks were influenced by Chicago’s leadership in architecture during the late 1940s and thereafter.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2011; Cora Ginsburg, LLC; Eleanor and Henry Kluck Family Archives
New Arrivals: Gifts of Art for a New Century
Christa C. Mayer Thurman, Rooted in Chicago: Fifty Years of Textile Design Traditions, Museum Studies, The Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 23, no. 1, 1997, pp. 42-48, 76-96, plates pp. 72-79. This design p. 47, figures 8 & 9.
