Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction

Want to appreciate more art and design in your daily life? Just look down. The apparel we wear reflects not only our personal tastes and values but also a profound relationship to modern art. Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction reveals the myriad ways textiles intersect with and influence world-renowned modern artists and movements.

Woven Histories delves into dynamic moments when social and political issues have activated textile production and artmaking with heightened focus and urgency. Traced chronologically with 160 works made in a range of techniques—from oil painting to weaving, basketry, netting, knotting, and knitting—the exhibition explores the overlap between abstract art, fashion, design, and craft.

Pictured (L to R): Untitled (S.310, Hanging Five-Lobed Continuous Form Within a Form with Spheres in the Second, Third, and Bottom Lobes), Untitled (S.089, Hanging Asymmetrical Twelve Interlocking Bubbles), and Untitled (S.027, Hanging Six-and-a-Half Open Hyperbolic Shapes that Penetrate Each Other)

Installation photo of the exhibition Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Sep 17, 2023 – Jan 21, 2024), Artwork @ 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner, photo @ Museum Associates/LACMA