Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction foregrounds a robust if over-looked strand in art history’s modernist narratives by tracing how, when, and why abstract art intersected with woven textiles (and such pre-loom technologies as basketry, knotting, and netting) over the past century. Although at times unevenly weighted, the diverse exchanges, alignments, affiliations, and affinities that have brought these art forms into dialogue constitute an ongoing if intermittent narrative in which one art repeatedly impacts and even redefines the other. In short, the relationship between abstract art and woven textiles can best be described as co-constitutive, and their histories as interdependent. With over 150 works by an international and transhistorical roster of artists, this exhibition reveals how shifting relations among abstract art, fashion, design, and craft shaped recurrent aesthetic, cultural, and socio-political forces, as they, in turn, were impacted by modernist art forms.

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This exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Generous support provided by The Claire Falkenstein Foundation and The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation.

All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund. Major annual support
is provided by Meredith and David Kaplan, with generous annual funding from Louise and Brad
Edgerton, Edgerton Foundation, Emily and Teddy Greenspan, Mary and Daniel James, Justin
Lubliner, Jennifer and Mark McCormick, Kelsey Lee Offield, Koni and Geoff Rich, Lenore and
Richard Wayne, and Marietta Wu and Thomas Yamamoto.

Photos: Ed Rossbach, Damask Waterfall, 1977, cotton welting cord, commercial fabric, plastic, satin damask, wrapped, LongHouse Reserve, photo credit: © Charles Benton, courtesy The Artists’ Institute

Andrea Zittel, ‘White Felted Dress #3’ from A-Z Fiber Form Uniforms, 2002, wool, hand-felted, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by David and Susan Gersh. © Andrea Zittel, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA