Fashion in the late Middle Ages was an essential tool for marking one’s social status, with the more opulent and impractical denoting those of higher rank and nobility. Art of the era can tell us much about the types of clothing people wore, and what those garments said about their position within society. Notably, art,…
Category Archives: TEXTILES IN ART
Fashion during the High and Late European Renaissance was a true lesson in opulence, with exaggerated silhouettes that accentuated the human form, along with indulgent, luxurious fabrics adorned with sequins, embroidery and precious stones. Italy led the way during the early 16th century, shaping and influencing much of what was worn throughout Europe, leading to…
The great flourishing of arts and culture that took place during the European Renaissance inevitably made its way into the realms of fashion and textiles, shaping and informing the way people across Europe would dress for centuries to come. But with few surviving artefacts of clothing from this era, art has much to tell us…
Whether abstract, figurative, or somewhere in between, the epic, shimmering and painterly fabric installations made by African-born artist Abdoulaye Konaté reflect on Africa’s great history with textiles, and the political implications bound into every single stitched layer. Currently living and working in Bamako, he says, “My works witness and speak of power struggles which have…
In the hands of contemporary artist Faig Ahmed, traditional Azerbaijani rugs are given a fantastically surreal twist, with elements that seem to warp, melt, and dissolve into puddles on the gallery floor. An intricate fusion of high quality, traditional weaving techniques and digital design, his visually arresting artworks speak of a need to keep ancient…
History and memory are bound into the textile art of contemporary artist Ibrahim Mahama, who works with found, archival fabrics that have associations with Ghanian history, colonialism, and post-colonialism. It is worth noting that fabric is just one strand of his multifarious practice, which involves sourcing and transforming vast collections of similar found objects and…
The soft sculptures of Maria A. Guzmán Capron depict larger-than-life curvy, vibrant characters whose joyful effervescence reflects the rich complexity of Capron’s multicultural identity, which spans Europe, South America and the United States. She says, “I need a variety of sources, because that is the only way I will approximate the complexity of a self…
The colossal, tactile artworks of contemporary Ghanaian artist El Anatsui have a ghostly, liminal quality that is impossible to pin down, hovering somewhere between sculpture, woven textile, and installation. Made from salvaged scraps of plastic, wood, and, most recently shiny metal, his suspended structures perform the challenging trick of turning discarded scraps into treasure; whether…
The name Sonia Delaunay is synonymous with kaleidoscopic colours and prismatic designs that seem to splinter, shift and dance before our eyes. In a 60 year long career, her daring, vivid Simultaneisme encompassed paintings, textiles, fashion design, costume and interiors, making her one of the greatest pioneers of the Modernist era. While history has favoured…
Louise Bourgeois was one of greatest figures in modern and contemporary art, world renowned for the incredible scope and ambition of her sculptural work. Much has been written about the uneasy psychological tension of her art, which explores memories and traumas from her troubled past, casting light into the darkest recesses of her mind. But…
“No artistic success has given me such satisfaction as the sight of a peasant or a worker buying a length of material designed by me.” Liubov Popova Russian Constructivist Liubov Popova was a force of nature, expanding her creative ideas across painting, theatre set design and textiles. But many would say the bold, graphic power…
American artist Sanford Biggers has an incredibly diverse and eclectic practice encompassing a vast range of media, including film/video, sculpture, installation, music and performance. But his eclectic textile art is one of the most celebrated aspects of his oeuvre, in which he stitches together a vast array of fabric swatches into brilliantly bright, daringly experimental…
One of India’s most gifted artists, Mrinalini Mukherjee tracked new and unchartered territory with her painstakingly intricate and monumentally scaled woven sculptures, that could each take her up to a year to complete. Working with dyed natural fibres including jute and rope, she created anthropomorphic structures resembling biomorphic forms, each one invested with its own…
American fibre artist Lenore Tawney is world renowned for her ghostly, ephemeral weavings and tapestries, which emulated the ethereal forces of nature, such as water, translucency and light. From the 1960s onwards she was one of a generation of textile artists including Anni Albers and Sheila Hicks who dissolved the boundaries between textile design and…
A master weaver of the 1950s to the early aughts, British textile designer and artist Peter Collingwood made highly skilled rugs, split-ply baskets, wall-hangings and installations with intricate and fascinatingly complex designs. With a muted, pared back colour scheme, he focussed his energy on producing exquisite geometric patterns resembling Celtic knots or Afghan rug patterns….
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