Cooper-Hewitt Adds Trove Wallpapers to Permanent Collection

Ara features a repeating pattern of cinematic spiraling cigar smoke while Indi's pattern of blackbirds is a graphic tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 10/6/2009

In an acquisition befitting of its name, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum has added two wallpaper patterns from New York-based manufacturer Trove to its permanent collection's treasure chest of 10,000 wallcoverings.

The collection, dating from the late 17th century and the largest and most varied in the United States, now includes Trove's Ara and Indi wallpapers, both of which highlight the natural design themes the company is known for.

Ara pays homage to the silver screen with a repeating pattern of cinematic spiraling cigar smoke and is available in three- or six-foot-wide repeats. The darker Indi also salutes the cinema—its intertwining pattern of blackbirds in motion is a graphic tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's classic film The Birds.

Trove's wallpapers not only mimic the natural world through their unsystematic and organic arrangements, they have less impact on it than standard wallcoverings. Made of post-recycled consumer waste paper, they feature washable non-toxic, wax-based coatings and UV-resistant, organic eco-solvent inks which have 140-year lifespans.

Ara and Indi will be joining heady company in the Cooper-Hewitt collection of wallpaper pieces, full rolls, sample books, advertisements, and printing tools. They trace the transformation of the medium from what was once a hand-printed luxury product to the mass-produced décor we know now. In addition to its examples from France, England, the United States, Japan, and Scandinavia, the Cooper-Hewitt's Wallcoverings department also holds 17th-century gilded leather wallcoverings and German wallpapers from the 1950s. Growing aspects of the collection include early American wallpaper and wallpaper designed by contemporary artists like Jee Levin and Randall Buck, the creative forces behind Trove.

In addition to the Cooper-Hewitt, Levin and Buck's Trove designs can be seen in Nobu restaurants, Club Monaco stores, and Fairmont and W hotels.

Images courtesy of Trove.