Pages

Saturday 11 June 2011

Fibre Art, NYC, Part 1

Thought I would share some of my "finds" from my recent trip to NYC. One of the fibre pieces I saw I wasn't able to photograph. It was from a show at the Gagossian Gallery in Chelsea, "Pablo Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: l'Amour Fou". It struck me because it was very much a Picasso, using commercially-printed fabric collaged to canvas, with paint.

The one shown below is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, by Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui. Titled "Durasa II", 2007, it is made of thousands of aluminum caps and seals from liquor bottles that are flattened, shaped, perforated and assembled with copper wire. "His work is anchored in his traditional culture (Ghanaian kente cloth); Western art (mosaic, tapestry, chain mail armor, the paintings of Gustav Klimt); and contemporary life (alcohol consumption, the detritus of consumerism). 'Dusasa' may be translated as a 'communal patchwork made by a team of townspeople,' like his assistants."
Detail:
This next one is called "Hanging" by Ted Hallman, 1965, from the Brooklyn Museum of Art. "The juxtaposition of natural fibers with the luminous new synthetic material was wholly original at the time." It "introduced Americans to the ... emerging craft movement and helped to bridge the perceived aesthetic gap between so-called craft and fine arts." 1965, people!
I'm going to continue this in another post, because I'm not able to add more photos to this one.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much, Heather, for these links in the fine art world to our textile art. I remember seeing the same/similar? Klimt painting twenty odd years ago and being struck with the same thought. Of course, it is only when you are standing in front of a picture that you can see the materials used - photos don't give that information. I bet there are loads of art works out there that included textiles in some way or other.
    I often spot quilts in films - I suppose our eyes are 'trained' to spot these things.

    Hilary

    ReplyDelete