Portrait of Helen Hitchings

Somewhere we have lost feeling, and our intuitive and imaginative senses need stimulating again … we are mainly occupied with tasks that make no demand on the imagination …

We need desperately to feel and handle things for ourselves … as a stimulus to our own self-expression.

Helen Hitchings, 2YA Women’s Session interview, 1950

 

Inspiration for the modern home

In her gallery, Helen Hitchings wanted ‘to stimulate an awareness in a simple, practical way of the principles of good domestic design’. She spent a year searching for the country’s best modern works, such as textiles, furniture, and art.

May Smith, who had trained in London, was one of several designers enlisted by Hitchings to create modern, hand-printed fabrics. The light, portable furniture of Viennese-trained architect Ernst Plischke encouraged flexible living. His harmonising of furnishings and architecture mirrored Hitchings’ integration of design and art.

Hitchings also exhibited paintings by avant-garde artists such as Toss Woollaston and Douglas MacDiarmid. Point Halswell, Wellington remained in her personal collection for over 40 years.