Frances Mary Burke

Frances Mary Burke (10 January 1904 – 14 October 1994) was an Australian artist. She holds a significant place in the development of Australian design and evolution of printed textile design in Australia. She is recognised not only as a textile designer, but also as a design activist, homeware retailer, manufacturer and business woman.

Biography Frances Mary Burke was born in Spotswood, Victoria on 10 January 1904. She was the youngest of three children of Francis Henry Burke, tailor's presser, and his wife Frances Veronica, née Brown, a former tailoress. Before taking up the opportunity to train in art and design, Burke had been a nurse at Mount St Evin's and Homoeopathic hospitals, qualifying as a registered nurse in 1927. By the early 1930s she was living with fellow nurse Frances Mary (Fabie) Chamberlin who was to remain her life partner and business partner. Burke was awarded scholarships in 1934, 1935 and 1936. In 1936 she attended George Bell’s art school, training with Russell Drysdale, Peter Purves Smith and life-long friend Maie Casey, later Baroness Casey and Vicereine of Bengal. Burke had gone on to design some of her first patterns after viewing the artworks of Margaret Preston at the Museum of Victoria. which specialised in print fabrics with fellow Melbourne Technical College graduate Maurice Holloway. While Burke designed, Holloway took charge of printing. Burway Prints was Australia’s first registered textile screen printmaking business.

As early as 1938 her designs were being acknowledged as "an inspiration to all lovers of Australia nature". The Melbourne Age social column described her designs, on show at the 1938 Arts and Crafts exhibition. Designs included the use of 'the vivid red waratah, a flower that adapts itself very well to the conventional designs, the banksia (or bottle brush), West Australian flannel flowers and the wattle in some most original patterns'. The writer concluded that the designs were "distinct and unusual" and advocated readers to support Australian designs and to consider putting "native designs" in domestic interiors, especially when they were so attractive.

With the limited supply of imported fabrics, Burke's career took off during World War II. One of Burke's most popular designs was the "Tiger Stripe" design, with a singular horizontal, curvilinear motif. It was originally created for author Joan Lindsay, and an example of this design can be viewed in the e-gallery below in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. In 1944 Burke was commissioned by Maie Casey to create the Indian-inspired design "Bengal Tiger" for Casey to wear and she was photographed wearing her ensemble by Cecil Beaton. The collection featured some of the best of post-war design and production methods. The shop stocked furnishings, fabrics, and domestic utensils designed in a Modernist style, and also showcased furniture by noted Melbourne designers Clement Meadmore and Grant Featherston.

In 1949, Burke felt the need to be "refreshed" and headed for a three month research tour of the United States. Burke travelled in her capacity as a member of the Provisional Council of Industrial Design as well as a designer of noted furnishing textiles. She went with the intention of acquiring the skills to stimulate Australian manufacturers' enterprise and production with new ideas. One of her main areas of interest was examining the way colour was used by American designers, including the use of colour in America to prevent accidents in workshops. and textile art by Olive Ashworth.

Commissions Burke received many important commissions including:

Sir Reginald Anset t’s Hayman Island Resort, 1949

The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences also holds a collection of Burke's mid-century modern textiles which includes many designs that draw on the inspiration of Australian nature.