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Sculpting with Fiber
Woven and embroidered textiles have historically been relegated to the domestic realm, dismissed as functional and decorative objects lacking in the originality and expressive potential of the fine arts. Even tapestries—once revered as expensive investments that proclaimed the status and wealth of their owners—were regarded as woven imitations of paintings.
Varied in texture and irregular in shape, the monumental tapestries of fiber artists like Magdalena Abakanowicz and Jagoda Buic bear little relationship to the flat, evenly woven wall-hangings of the past. Instead, the interest in the process of making and absence of a narrative reflect the concerns of free informal abstraction characteristic of their contemporaries in painting like the Washington Color School painter Sam Gilliam, whose monumental stained canvas, Red April, 1970, may be found in the adjacent gallery.
The works of art in this exhibition are from the John Deere Art Collection.
The exhibition can be view through March 18, 2013.
Jacques Douchez, Untitled, 1970s, wool and sisal fiber, courtesy of John Deere & Company.
Maria Bierzynska, Promienisty, 1970s, wool and sisal fiber, courtesy of John Deere & Company.
Sunday April 14th