Kvadrat honors textile pioneer Frans Dijkmeijer with dual Milan Design Week exhibitions

Kvadrat celebrates the launch of its 'Twisted Flower' collection at Milan Design Week with a two-part tribute to Dutch textile artist Frans Dijkmeijer. An exhibition titled 'Frans Dijkmeijer: The Silent Pioneer' opens at Triennale Milano, curated by Marco Sammicheli, marking the first public presentation of Dijkmeijer's work. Simultaneously, Kvadrat's Corso Monforte showroom features an installation dedicated to 'Twisted Flower', designed by Binocle with color concept by Giulio Ridolfo. Dijkmeijer, who died in 2011, collaborated with Kvadrat from 1992 and worked for textile brands including Kendix, Artex, and De Ploeg over six decades. His approach, described as 'textile tectonics' by Sammicheli, focused on structural patterns using a limited palette of white, blue, and black yarns, possibly due to color blindness. Ridolfo, a color expert with a fashion background from Domus Academy, began working with Kvadrat in 2004 and collaborated with Dijkmeijer on textiles like 'Steelcut', enhancing them with botanical-inspired hues. The Triennale exhibition includes hundreds of Dijkmeijer's woven samples alongside objects from his eclectic collection at his chateau in Cestayrols, France, and features new commissions by artists Renick Bell, Valentina Furian, and Francesco Tosini. Kvadrat's vice president of design Stine Find Osther recalls Dijkmeijer sending small envelopes of complex weaving samples to their Ebeltoft headquarters. The exhibitions run from April 20-26, 2024.