Lenore Tawney Region of Fire 1964 India ink drawing

Artist and weaver Lenore Tawney at work on a tapestry, circa 1966.

Lenore Tawney, Red Circle, (pen and black and red inks on cream wove graph tracing paper), 1964 [The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. © Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, New York, NY]

Woven Histories

Textiles and Modern Abstraction

Production by Brad Ireland and Christina Wiginton, Editing by Magda Nakassis,

National Gallery of Art, Washington copublished by The University of Chicago Press, 2023, 284 pages, ISBN 978-0-226-82729-2

euro 65,00

email if you want to buy [email protected]

Exhibition dates : Los Angeles County Museum Art 2023, Washington Nat.Gall.Art 2024, Ottawa Nat.Gall.Canada 2024,New York MoMA 2025

Richly illustrated volume exploring the inseparable histories of modernist abstraction and twentieth-century textiles.   Published on the occasion of an exhibition curated by Lynne Cooke, Woven Histories offers a fresh and authoritative look at textiles—particularly weaving—as a major force in the evolution of abstraction. This richly illustrated volume features more than fifty creators whose work crosses divisions and hierarchies formerly segregating the fine arts from the applied arts and handicrafts.   Woven Histories begins in the early twentieth century, rooting the abstract art of Sophie Taeuber-Arp in the applied arts and handicrafts, then features the interdisciplinary practices of Anni Albers, Sonia Delaunay, Liubov Popova, Varvara Stepanova, and others who sought to effect social change through fabrics for furnishings and apparel. Over the century, the intersection of textiles and abstraction engaged artists from Ed Rossbach, Kay Sekimachi, Ruth Asawa, Lenore Tawney, and Sheila Hicks to Rosemarie Trockel, Ellen Lesperance, Jeffrey Gibson, Igshaan Adams, and Liz Collins, whose textile-based works continue to shape this discourse. Including essays by distinguished art historians as well as reflections from contemporary artists, this ambitious project traces the intertwined histories of textiles and abstraction as vehicles through which artists probe urgent issues of our time.

24/12/23

Tawney, Lenore, 1907-2007 + Charlton, Maryette, 1924-2013

Lenore Tawney. Lenore Tawney postcard to Maryette Charlton, 1977 Sept.. Maryette Charlton papers, circa 1890-2013. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C. 20560

Lenore Tawney -  Two Forces Meeting and Opposing (Hanging), 1959.  Linen, wool, silk, rayon, nylon and acetate, plain weave with supplementary brocading wefts /  190 × 79.8 cm.   x                        

“I’m following the path of the heart. I don’t know where the path is going.”

Lenore Tawney working in 1979. Photo by George Erml.

Lenore Tawney, Little River, 1968 and Dark River, 1962

Lenore Tawney, Cloud Garment, 1982

Richard Serra, To Lift, 1967

Lenore Tawney, The Great Breath, (India ink on graph paper), 1964 [© Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, New York, NY]

Lenore Tawney in her Coenties Slip studio, New York, 1958.

Art in America

Weaver Lenore Tawney, at work.Lenore Tawney (1907 – 2007) was an American artist who became an influential figure in the development of fiber art.

Artist and weaver Lenore Tawney at work on a tapestry, circa 1966

Lenore Tawney - Underwater Wind, Hanging, 1965.   Linen, silk and wood, slit tapestry weave with wrapped, cut fringe; embellished with feathers; silk and linen knotted fringes / 122 × 40.8 cm.  x