Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women
Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women at the Smithsonian Renwick Museum gathers the work and stories of 27 U.S. women artists who have found in fibre a powerful, beautiful, and implicitly or explicitly subversive means of expression. Drawing on the Smithsonian’s deep archive of fibre art, it is a confident exhibition, of extraordinary and beguiling pieces in lapidary display. It is also an embracing and inviting one, offering up insights into the journeys, struggles and dreams of each artist in her life and in her work.
Image: Lia Cook, Crazy Too Quilt, 1989, dyed rayon; acrylic on woven and pressed abaca paper, 63 1⁄4 x 86 7⁄8 in. (160.7 x 220.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Renwick Alliance and Bernard and Sherley Koteen and museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, 1991.199, © 1989, Lia Cook. Image above: Miriam Schapiro, Wonderland, 1983, acrylic, fabric and plastic beads on canvas, 90 x 144 1⁄2 in. (228.6 x 367.0 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of an anonymous donor, 1996.88.
“Each artwork carries the story of its maker, manifesting—stitch by stitch—the profound and personal politics of the hand,” says Mary Savig, who with Virginia Mecklenburg and Laura Augustin Fox curated the exhibition. “Collectively, they highlight the depth and diversity possible in the medium of fiber.”
Image: Lia Cook, Crazy Too Quilt, 1989, dyed rayon; acrylic on woven and pressed abaca paper, 63 1⁄4 x 86 7⁄8 in. (160.7 x 220.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Renwick Alliance and Bernard and Sherley Koteen and museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, 1991.199, © 1989, Lia Cook. Image above: Miriam Schapiro, Wonderland, 1983, acrylic, fabric and plastic beads on canvas, 90 x 144 1⁄2 in. (228.6 x 367.0 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of an anonymous donor, 1996.88.
“Each artwork carries the story of its maker, manifesting—stitch by stitch—the profound and personal politics of the hand,” says Mary Savig, who with Virginia Mecklenburg and Laura Augustin Fox curated the exhibition. “Collectively, they highlight the depth and diversity possible in the medium of fiber.”
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