Trend focus: Art rugs

Rugs depicting artworks and paintings have been in demand for decades. Here COVER Editor Lucy Upward looks at what art rugs are available as part of COVER Curates

Rugs depicting artworks and paintings have been in demand for decades, it is an idea that never diminishes in excitement and possibilities. The notion that a beautiful handmade rug is also a limited edition artwork feeds well into the trend for unique, individualised interior spaces. 

With great skill, painterly marks, watercolour washes and meandering lines can be knotted into rugs in wool, silk or whatever materials are required. Interpretations of paintings and drawings can be expressed with the same vitality and passion that the origins possesses and, in some cases, can add a new dimension to the work. 

For COVER Curates, a number of the 16 companies participating in January are showing their own version of an art rug. 

London’s Knots Rugs is showing off its inspired collaboration with American artist Brian Coleman, whose gestural works are evocative and emotional interpretations of memories and future visions, a celebration of shape and form.

From Choudhary Exports, the creative Artsy in-house collections exude artistic sensibilities and are expressive works of art for the floor. 

Barbara Barran’s love of artist Gustav Klimt led to the creation of her Klimt Collection for her brand Classic Rug Collection. Red is one design—based on the painting Hope II. The silk elements glimmer against the composition’s matte wool areas and the side borders are two levels of cut-pile gold silk in two slightly different shades. 

Artist and art therapist, Dena Lawrence creates vibrant rugs based on her own expressive paintings, which take inspiration from the landscape and wildflowers of her native Western Australia, mingling with her love of India and Kashmir and the vibrant colours found in those places. 

For the start of 2022, what could be more uplifting than the colourful and immersive Fields & Forests flatweave collection? Created by Volver in collaboration with Norwegian artist Andreas Siqueland, it featured in a show of his work at the Kristiansand Art Hall in Autumn 2021.

For COVER Curates, Wool & Silk is launching the impressive and expressive After Hours collection, derived from the artwork of Santa Fe based artist Laura Wait. Each of the 9 designs in the After Hours collection has its own individual flavour. Strawberry Moon depicts ancient Asian scripts against modern graffiti symbols creating an intense layering of texts and cultures.

Homage by New York’s Rug & Kilim now has more than 150 patterns that reimagine iconic designs from diverse sources to offer ‘an encyclopaedia of designs’. Rug 24411 has a great textural appeal featuring cream, gold and white brushstrokes.

The Sonance collection is Creative Matters’ latest luxury hand-knotted rug offering in Tibetan wool and Chinese silk. Eight engaging designs, hand-knotted in Nepal, were developed through watercolour painting and depict different forms of sound, from abstract to musical. Ambient’s flowing composition has a sense of echoing tunes. 

Always playful in tone, the new Nodus rugs for 2022 include the joyful Paint by French artist and designer Arthur Ristor, whose work is an expression of bold colour and energy. 

Nine different interpretations of paintings and artworks, all quite different in mood and aesthetic but all full of life and created by skilled weavers at their best.