Painting with Wool: The Woven Worlds of Miriam Sacks
“I have often been asked what made me begin doing this work I call tapestry ~ Tapestry meaning a fabric fully strong: not transparent and as Lurcat calls it, a true hide. I do not use a loom to weave but merely a needle which is my brush and with which I paint and weave with freedom over a plain canvas.”
- Miriam Sacks
With these words, Miriam Sacks articulated a position that remains radical: tapestry not as a revivalist craft, nor as mural substitute, but as a mode of painting with wool.
City by Night, 1967
Opening this March, Painting with Wool: The Tapestries of Miriam Sacks at Sworders’ Cecil Court gallery in London (2–27 March 2026) revisits a practice that persistently bridged fine art and textile. Working directly onto canvas without cartoons or preparatory weaving plans, Sacks built her images through horizontally structured layers of thread, varying densities to create massed colour and tonal gradation. Vertical threads and stitches were then introduced, catching and binding the surface into relief. The result is neither embroidery nor orthodox tapestry, but a hybrid skin of wool: dense, tactile, light-absorbing...
(...)
Want to read more of this article?
We are proud to be a subscriber-funded publication with members in 185 countries. We know our readership is passionate about textiles, so we invite you to help us preserve and promote the stories, memories, and histories that fabric holds. Your support allows us to publish our magazine, and also ‘what's on’ information, and subscription interviews, reviews, and long-read articles in our online blog.
ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? CLICK HERE TO ACCESS CONTENT
Or, to continue reading….
Magazine subscribers automatically get free access to all our online content. We send the access code by email with the publication of each issue. You will also find it on the envelope containing your magazine. Please note the access code changes every issue.
-
Image Credits:
Lead: Miriam Sacks, New Worlds, 1967. Courtesy of Janet Sacks & Angela Dymott.
All further images courtesy of the artists estate and Sworders Cecil Court Gallery.