Angus, Peggy, 1904-1993

Peggy Angus (1904-1993) was a highly inventive designer of flat patterns, an artist, a committed teacher and a socialist. Her belief that art should be available to all and that patronage was beneficial to the artist influenced her lifelong approach to her practice. Equally, she encouraged every type of artistic activity equally. Although best known for her wallpapers, her earlier ceramic tile designs of the late 1940s to early 1960s are an important and, until now, largely overlooked aspect of her work. Many of her tile designs were commissioned for post-war public buildings by leading English modernist architects. As such they are important examples of ideas that were dominant in architecture and design at this time, a desire to humanise modern architecture through the use of colour, art and a range of building materials. Peggy Angus was a gifted artist and teacher who produced inspired designs for tiles for Carters of Poole and her 'bespoke' wallpapers which were created individually and printed for clients and friends. She was a friend and contemporary of Enid Marx, Barnet Friedmann and Edward Bawden, and was married to the architectural historian Sir J M Richards.