Robin and Lucienne Day Hit the Silver Screen

The premiere coincides with the opening of Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain, on view at Washington, D.C.'s Textile Museum through September 12.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 5/13/2010 12:00:00 AM

A new documentary chronicling the days of Robin and Lucienne Day, the legendary British husband and wife design duo, makes its premiere at National Geographic Museum’s Grosvenor Auditorium in Washington, D.C. on May 15.

The 7:30 p.m. debut of "Contemporary Days: Robin and Lucienne Day Design the UK" is timed to coincide with the opening of "Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain," on view at Washington, D.C.’s Textile Museum through September 12. A question and answer session with director Murray Grigor and cinematographer Hamid Shams follows the screening.

Presented by Design Onscreen—The Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film, the film explores how the couple's modernist sensibilities helped transform British design after World War II. While tracing the Day’s professional progression over their 70-year careers, Grigor focuses on Robin Day’s revolutionary furniture designs, which introduced materials like polypropylene, steel and plywood to British homes, as well as Lucienne Day’s abstract textile designs, which leveraged affordable elegance to postwar British consumers.

Meanwhile at the Textile Museum, the exhibition concentrates on Lucienne Day’s textiles, as well as those of two design contemporaries, Jacqueline Groag and Marian Mahler, in addition to a selection of furniture designed by her husband.

Tickets to the film’s premier are $15 and must be purchased in advance on Design Onscreen’s website.