Woven Histories – Textiles and Modern Abstraction,
Lynne Cooke, The University of Chicago Press, 2023, 283 pages, 179 color photographs.
Exhibition catalogue accompanying four exhibitions: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2023–2024; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2024; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2024–2025; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2025.
Lynne Cooke is a curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and with this exhibition she wanted to demonstrate that abstraction has found its place not only in painting but also in the textile arts of modernism over the past 100 years. In doing so, she challenges the idea that weaving is merely a practical textile technique, and instead traces the many forms that warp and weft can take when used by abstract artists of the last century. Once again, the old division between fine art and crafts is being called into question. Approximately 150 works in various media were shown, ranging from textiles and basketry to painting, drawing, and sculpture, in order to explore the correspondences between abstract art, weaving, craft, and fashion.
This was an important exhibition that I would have liked to see very much myself, but which I was unable to visit due to distance and the political situation. The exhibition did not aim to present textile art as a narrative addressing social problems, as was the case, for example, with Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (see my blog post from January 11, 2025). Instead, the curator proceeded chronologically, beginning in the 20th century with Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Sonia Delaunay, and Anni Albers. Other artists are also discussed; clothing is included as well (e.g., Andra Zittel, Varvara Stepanova), important teachers are highlighted (Ed Rossbach), and the catalogue describes in detail how artists’ approaches shifted from designing for industry (Bauhaus and the Russian Revolution) to creating individual artworks. Rossbach, for example, created a work of art that no machine could ever produce.
The curator also takes a broad view that includes artists from Europe; for instance, she addresses the work of Rosemarie Trockel, whom I finally came to understand better through this catalogue. Other outstanding artists include Gunta Stölzl, Olga de Amaral, Sheila Hicks, Kay Sekimachi, Lenore Tawney, and Ruth Asawa, as well as younger generations such as Teresa Lanceta, Liz Collins, Igshaan Adams, Diedrick Brackens, and many others.
The catalogue contains a longer essay by Lynne Cooke as curator, “Modernist Histories: Braided, Interlaced and Aligned,” as well as five shorter contributions: Darby English, “Unavoidable Nature”; Briony Fer, “Textile Thinking”; Bibiana K. Obler, “Not Your Grandmother’s Labor”; Elissa Auther, “Dimensions of Basketry”; and Michelle Kuo, “Textility and Technology.”
The catalogue is highly recommended and is available via Amazon for €54.60.
