All Over: A Dazzling Display of Patterns (1910-1945)

Between 1910-1945, a mere 35 years, Europe experienced a huge cultural shift from social norms to fashion styles and furniture to the realities of war and loss. Movement and modernisation were changing everyday lives in a multitude of ways, and the exhibition, “All Over: A Dazzling Display of Patterns (1910-1945)”, explores this transformation through the lens of one main theme – pattern. The Horta Museum partnered with four art-déco house museums in Brussels: Van Buuren Museum, the Boghossian Foundation/Villa Empain, the Maison Autrique and the Brussels Art Deco Society. It was the first time this type of city-wide collaboration has taken place. Benjamin Zurstrassen, the director of the Horta Museum, and the curator and exhibition commissioner for this exhibition, explains that “while we are each a smaller museum or institution, together we receive around 600,000 thousand visitors per year – which is as important as a big museum. We have many things in common and it was so helpful to share knowledge and experience to improve our individual programs. We are all dealing with same issues as small house museums, and we share a heritage.”

While most of the documentation that remains from the inter-war era is often notably in black and white imagery – photography or newspaper articles – and we often think of this era, design-wise, as more pared back and streamlined – moving away from the ornamentation of the 19th century, there were still important aesthetic developments in colour, pattern and texture. Much of these developments can be seen in carpets, wallpaper, and furnishing fabrics – the three supports onto which “All Over: A Dazzling Display of Patterns (1910-1945)” focuses. The exhibition also focuses on creations by Belgian and European artists, particularly female designers, anonymous designers – unknown artists and creatives who worked for a company to produce patterns and never put their name on their work, as well as well-known designers including Victor Servranckx.

The style of patterns on view at the Horta Museum is diverse – ranging from classical to a focus on mechanisation or nature to sumptuous textures and elegant designs. Importantly, the exhibition shows how these patterns and interior styles were experienced by the population at the time – where and how it fit or how it was presented. The Horta Museum received important loans from outside institutions and collections for the exhibition, including the Van Hoe Collection, Kortrijk, which lent a collection of soft furnishing designs that have never been exhibited previously. They were all designed by anonymous artists and reflect the variety of styles and ideas in pattern decoration at this time. “All Over: A Dazzling Display of Patterns (1910-1945)” also spotlights two artist-couples working at the time in Art Deco design and interiors: Eileen Gray and Evelyn Wyld and Sylvie Feron and René Baucher, through archival materials including photos and maquettes. The exhibition also brings to the forefront an overlooked artist of the time, Hélène Henry (1918-1965), a ground-breaking textile designer and weaver known her development of abstract patterns.

For the Horta Museum, this exhibition is an opportunity to show a more contemporary side to Art Deco, engaging new visitors and also challenging those who think they know the movement. “We want people to interact with the space in a new way,” says Zurstrassen, “so we are promoting a direct encounter between the visitor and the work, to remove any previous thought or knowledge that people might bring to the exhibition.” This includes a room in which there are no wall labels, rather the work is installed to allow viewers to sit and contemplate the patterns and imagery. In another room, a large piece of fabric designed by Hélène Henry is hung on the wall to show its rich pattern and colour.

In addition to the works on view, the museum will include a screening of extracts from the film “L’Inhumaine”, as well as brochures and advertising media from the major Brussels department stores of the time.

Throughout the summer, each of the house museums will work together to present a joint events programme and the Brussels Art Deco Society is organising guided tours, city walks, events, lectures, and late-night openings. “All Over: A Dazzling Display of Patterns (1910-1945)” is on view through August 17, 2025.

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