For Kazakh artist Almagul Menlibayeva, fabric is both a way to tell a story and a metaphor for storytelling itself. In photography, video and digital works she uses fabric as a subject and a character. Take The Red Butterfly, which features a woman swathed in seemingly endless red fabric, wearing numerous skull caps, and in…
Category Archives: TEXTILES
Like many artists of her generation, mid-20th century sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth saw the importance of honing an intimate personal style, one that could reflect the same language as her art. And like her bold, sleek sculptures, her way of dressing was equally as elegant, classic and refined, often with practicality in mind. Along with…
There is a quiet, entrancing magic to Marc Chagall’s art, a quality that allows us to escape the challenges of life, if even just for the briefest interludes. Deep indigo blues like BLUE WHALE appear often, invoking the dark blue air of dusk, when day turns into night and the mind slowly shifts into a…
With a successful career spanning more than 60 years, Serbian-American artist Marina Abramovic has jokingly named herself the “grandmother of performance art.” In this time, she has pushed her body to the extreme, inflicting pain, suffering, trauma and violence on herself in the name of art. Her work is no theatrical performance – instead it…
British painter Francis Bacon made some of the rawest and most visually arresting images of the late 20th century. A true painter’s painter, Bacon embraced the viscous, tactile energy of oil paint, applying it in great streaks and swathes to emphasise the emotional impact of his brutally confrontational subjects. These included contorted bodies and faces,…
SILVER LAKE BLUE’s soaring, luminescent blue stretched out across Helen Frankenthaler’s vast, abstract art, invoking endless blue skies or glassy pools of water. A pioneer like no other, Frankenthaler made her name in 1950s New York, a leader in the second wave of Abstract Expressionism. Her light, airy canvases broke away from the impasto, painterly…
In this series, I’ll look at art works featuring fabric by three very different women from Kazakhstan. I’d like to find out why Almagul Menlibayeva created epic videos and photographs of women swathed (or strangled?) by traditional fabrics in front of historical monuments. I’ll discover how Gulnur Mukazhanova reapplies felting techniques to create haunting face…
American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat came of age in 1980s New York, a time when the worlds of art, fashion, music and celebrity were colliding into one. Much like his contemporaries and friends Andy Warhol and David Bowie, Basquiat brandished a public image that was as quirky, distinctive and irreverent as his art. Loose Armani suits…
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham made her name in the mid-20th century as a leading figure of the radical St Ives School in postwar Cornwall. But her long and varied career extended well beyond this timeframe, lasting up until her passing in 2004. She continued to be an innovator in her later years, delving into new territory that…
Dressing up is at the core of American photographer Cindy Sherman’s art, and it’s a passion that has fuelled her career for more than fifty years. Taking her own body as a starting point, Sherman has dressed up in a whole range of fantastical disguises, from old Hollywood starlets to terrifying clowns and fraudulent fortune…
Lee Krasner was an inimitable pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, storming her way into the 1950s New York art scene with bold, bombastic paintings. Fleshy, soft shades of beige like that of MUSHROOM Linen are nestled into some of her most famous works of art, and their warm, earthy shades bring in a living, human presence….
Asafo flags are one of Ghana’s most fascinating historical artefacts, telling vivid, colourful and intimate stories about Ghanaian culture. These vibrant and spirited flags are a 400-year-old tradition of making that has been passed down through one generation to the next, and amazingly, they are still being made today. Older flags act as cultural emblems…
Warm rust reds like AUBURN Linen tinged many of Georgia O’Keeffe’s most famous paintings, invoking dry autumn leaves, worn out buildings or the barren wilderness of old America. O’Keeffe was one of the most pioneering painters of the early to mid-20th century and she captured the spirit of America during this momentous period in history…
Andy Warhol is the undisputed king of American Pop Art, creating some of the world’s most iconic and emblematic works of art. Multiples, seriality and repetition were key themes in his art – think Campbell’s Soup Cans or Marilyn’s face – so perhaps it’s no surprise that among his many creative ventures he turned his…
Austrian artist and writer Oskar Kokoschka made a remarkable contribution to early 20th century culture, spearheading a series of daring and inventive new visual languages. In his early career, he was a pioneering decorative artist, illustrating fantastical stories with a flat, Oriental style, while his mature art was swirling with wild, expressionistic energy. Throughout these…
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