Associated Artists

Associated Artists was a design organization active for a short but influential period between 1880 and 1883. Their extremely focused operational history yielded specialized decorative arts pieces that are preserved in major American collections.

The organization’s known output centered primarily on textile design and specialized interior decoration components. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds five documented examples of the firm's design work, establishing their significance within late nineteenth-century American aesthetics. These unique, museum-quality holdings provide key insight into the materials and patterning utilized by the collective.

Works represented in museum collections include four distinct textile designs: the Apple-blossom textile, the Changeable-color textile, the Clematis textile, and the Copper metallic textile. These examples demonstrate the organization's interest in integrating complex naturalistic and metallic elements into functional textiles. Also held in collections is the notable object, the Candace Wheeler double frame. While their primary contribution was original design objects, the firm's patterns are studied via surviving Associated Artists prints and design studies. Reproductions of their design work are occasionally available as high-quality prints for archival research.