Jacques & Jacqueline Groag

Jacques Groag (1892–1962) was a prominent architect and interior designer, originally from Moravia, now in the Czech Republic, but later living in Vienna. His wife was the textile designer Jacqueline Groag (1903-1986), born Hilde Pick in Prague, who had trained under Josef Hoffmann. They moved into Lawn Road Flats in 1939 after first fleeing the Anschluss of Austria in 1938 and then the annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1939.

In Britain, Jacques worked on the Utility Furniture program under Sir Gordon Russell, was the main exhibition designer for the 1946 Britain Can Make It exhibition at the V&A, and worked with his wife on the 1951 Festival Of Britain, but he never designed another building again after arriving in Britain. His wife on the other hand was the most successful British textile designer of the postwar era, only equalled by Lucienne Day. Jacqueline was made an RDI (Royal Designer for Industry) in 1984, two years before her death.

Ursula Prokop is a doctor of history and art at the University of Vienna, and the author of the recently published book Jacques and Jacqueline Groag, Architect and Designer: Two Hidden Figures of the Viennese Modern Movement. She will be joined in conversation with Tel Aviv architect Shmuel Groag, Jacques and Jacqueline’s great-nephew.