BROWNGROTTA ARTS' SPRING EXHIBITION: ACCLAIM!
Image: Untitled Columnar, Olga de Amaral, cotton, wool, horsehair (reconstructed) 83.375” x 22”, 1970s. Image courtesy of Tom Grotta
browngrotta arts' next exhibition will celebrate artists who have won significant awards. The roster of artists and awards included in Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists (29 April-7 May 2023) is impressive: Sheila Hicks, Lenore Tawney, Peter Collingwood, Yeonsoon Chang, Jiro Yonezawa, Ulla-Maija Vikman, who are Legion of Honor, Gold Medal, OBE, Artist of the Year and Cotsen Bamboo Prize winners, respectively. There are more recent recipients, too — including Anneke Klein, who won the grand prize at the last Textiles of Today exhibition. Acclaim! will highlight what we realised while organising it: While contemporary fibre art may have moved in and out of popular favour since the movement’s inception in the 1960s, its practitioners were consistently creating innovative and accomplished work. As one result of that persistence, there has been a recent uptick in the resale market for fibre art as auction houses and collectors rediscover work from the last few decades.
Image: Tom, Simone Pheulpin, cotton, 7.75” x 14.5” x 11.25”, 2023. Image courtesy of Tom Grotta
Out of Favour, Fibre Art Persisted
After some years of being overlooked and undervalued, contemporary textile art has finally been embraced (again) by a wider world of museums and galleries. The current focus on artists working in fibre finds complex, thoughtful and accomplished work -- some produced today and some in years when gallery and museum attention was slight. “What may appear to be an explosion of textile producers, from a historical perspective, is an explosion of interest and awareness of a tradition that has always been important, deep and rich,” Adam Levine, director of the Toledo Museum of Art told Art News last year. (Katya Kazakina, The Art Detective: Textile Artists Are Back in the Public Spotlight in Museums and Galleries. Art Collectors? They’re Still Catching Up, February 4, 2022). Even when out of popular favour, in other words, fibre artists were undeterred.
Image: detail of Microgauze 84, Peter Collingwood, 1970
This Spring, browngrotta arts will highlight mixed media, fibre sculpture and contemporary textile artists artists who have created and advanced the field of fibre arts over the last five decades, when their work was in vogue and when it was not. The nearly 50 artists in Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists, have each achieved formal art acknowledgement in the form of an award or medal or selective membership. In the US, that may mean the award of a Gold Medal from the American Craft Council — 10 of the artists in Acclaim! belong to that group. In Canada, it means membership in the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, which three of our artists have achieved. The late master-weaver Peter Collingwood received an OBE, Order of the British Empire. Yeonsoon Chang of Korea was selected Artist of the Year by the Contemporary Art Museum in Seoul. In France, Simone Pheulpin was awarded the Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris. Grethe Sørensen of Denmark and Agneta Hobin of Finland received the Nordic Award in Textiles. Sheila Hicks of the US, was awarded the French Legion of Honour and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center; Helena Hernmarck received the American Institute of Architects, Craftsmanship Medal and the Prins Eugen Medal conferred by the King of Sweden for "outstanding artistic achievement."
Image: The Path which leads to the center II, Yeonsoon, Chang, 2022
Results of recognition
Receiving an award can provide important affirmation for an artist. “There are no other large prizes in the UK for artists working in this medium,” says Jo Barker, winner of the Cordis Prize. “So what winning mostly felt like to me was a real validation of the career that I’ve had so far.” Such recognition can influence the direction of an artist’s work. For Grethe Sørensen, winning the Nordic Textile Award for her digitally controlled weaving work, encouraged her to continue in that direction. Once selected as Artist of the Year by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea, Yeonsoon Chang saw her textile work in the broader scope of contemporary art. “Objective recognition gave me courage to work and a sense of responsibility,” she says. For Chang, the award also meant expanded interest in her work from museums, galleries, and collectors. Winning Best Visual Arts Exhibition of the Year from the Circle of Critics of Art in Chile was a recognition of 40 years of work for Carolina Yrarrázaval and a confirmation for all those who believed in her work, clients, galleries and museums. More importantly, Yrarrázaval says, it was the first time that textile art received this award in Chile, placing it on par with all disciplines in visual arts. “It was not only a recognition of my personal contribution,” she says, "but also to this discipline, which for a long time was seen as a minor art.”
The work in Acclaim! creates a through line from the movement’s early days to its current creative explosion, highlighting the importance of persistence and the benefits of recognition along the way. Fibre art’s revival in museums, galleries and with collectors is built upon the dedication and extraordinary talent of artists like those featured in Acclaim!
browngrotta arts has compiled work by a diverse group of artists to create a varied and exciting exhibition. Visit Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists, at browngrotta arts, 276 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT 06897 from 29 April - 7 May 2023.