Lenore Tawney
Peruvian, 1962
Linen (doublecloth)
240 x 45 cm, 94 1/2 x 17 3/4 in
© Lenore G. Tawney Foundation
INFO ON TITLE: 1. The title of the work reflects Tawney's interest in ancient textiles, whose weave structures and aesthetics were a great influence upon her. 2. In 1961 Tawney...
INFO ON TITLE:
1. The title of the work reflects Tawney's interest in ancient textiles, whose weave structures and aesthetics were a great influence upon her.
2. In 1961 Tawney spent three months studying Peruvian weaving techniques with Lili Blumenau, exploring gauze weaving, and learning how to incorporate twining, knotting and braiding into her “Woven Forms”.
INFO ON THE WORK:
1. For the exhibition 'Objects: USA' in 1969, Tawney conceived one of her most ambitious projects: a woven cube no less than twelve feet on each side, executed in varying checkerboards of double-thickness linen. Unfortunately, this monumental undertaking proved impossible to realize; the team that attempted it at Cranbrook Academy of Art ended up breaking their loom instead. (The image in the original catalog is deceptive; it is a photo of a small prototype.)
2. As a result, Tawney was represented in the show only with a small, if important, early weaving. For 'Objects: USA 2020', as a way of reflecting Tawney’s intention, the curator included Peruvian, which features a black checkerboard pattern of similar design to the projected cube. (See 'Other' for image of maquette for 'Cubed Cube').
3. LT Mirror of the Universe, 'using the open reed, Tawney created multiple-warp elements in an adaptation of the Peruvian gauze technique she had learned with the help Lili Blumenau in 1961, gently sloping inward toward the center, with periodic 'joints' made by introducing weft threads.' p.118
4. LT Mirror of the Universe, 'Wherever threads hung loose, she attended to them carefully, using a variety of wrapping and knotting technique to add a sense of visual closure. In discussing these finishing graces, she often noted the influence of Peruvian weaving, as well as braided Egyptian wigs that she had encountered in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.' p.119
commercial gallery shows:
Objects: USA 2020, R & Company, New York, US, 16 February - July 2021
Lenore Tawney: Celebrating Five Decades of Work, browngrotta arts, Wilton, Connecticut, US, 2000
1. The title of the work reflects Tawney's interest in ancient textiles, whose weave structures and aesthetics were a great influence upon her.
2. In 1961 Tawney spent three months studying Peruvian weaving techniques with Lili Blumenau, exploring gauze weaving, and learning how to incorporate twining, knotting and braiding into her “Woven Forms”.
INFO ON THE WORK:
1. For the exhibition 'Objects: USA' in 1969, Tawney conceived one of her most ambitious projects: a woven cube no less than twelve feet on each side, executed in varying checkerboards of double-thickness linen. Unfortunately, this monumental undertaking proved impossible to realize; the team that attempted it at Cranbrook Academy of Art ended up breaking their loom instead. (The image in the original catalog is deceptive; it is a photo of a small prototype.)
2. As a result, Tawney was represented in the show only with a small, if important, early weaving. For 'Objects: USA 2020', as a way of reflecting Tawney’s intention, the curator included Peruvian, which features a black checkerboard pattern of similar design to the projected cube. (See 'Other' for image of maquette for 'Cubed Cube').
3. LT Mirror of the Universe, 'using the open reed, Tawney created multiple-warp elements in an adaptation of the Peruvian gauze technique she had learned with the help Lili Blumenau in 1961, gently sloping inward toward the center, with periodic 'joints' made by introducing weft threads.' p.118
4. LT Mirror of the Universe, 'Wherever threads hung loose, she attended to them carefully, using a variety of wrapping and knotting technique to add a sense of visual closure. In discussing these finishing graces, she often noted the influence of Peruvian weaving, as well as braided Egyptian wigs that she had encountered in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.' p.119
commercial gallery shows:
Objects: USA 2020, R & Company, New York, US, 16 February - July 2021
Lenore Tawney: Celebrating Five Decades of Work, browngrotta arts, Wilton, Connecticut, US, 2000
Provenance
The ArtistThe Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, New York, US
Exhibitions
Weaving Abstraction: Ancient and Modern South American Textiles, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, US, 4 March - 17 June 2024Bauhaus Imaginista: Learning From, SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brazil, 24 October 2018 - 6 January 2019; travelled to Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, 15 March - 10 June 2019; Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland, 20 September 2019 - 12 January 2020
Wallhangings and Ceramics, 1844 Landmark House, 37 East Fourth Street (Lenore Tawney’s home and studio), New York, US, 1972
Publications
Objects: USA 2020. Glenn Adamson. New York: R & Company, 2020. Exhibition catalogue. page?Lenore Tawney: Mirror of the Universe. Edited by Karen Patterson. Sheboygan / Chicago: John Michael Kohler Arts Center / The University of Chicago Press, 2019. Exhibition catalogue. Illustrated in colour, pp. 133.
Bauhaus Imaginista. Edited by Marion von Osten and Grant Watson. London: Thames & Hudson, London, 2019. p. 139.
Lenore Tawney: Celebrating Five Decades of Work. Sigrid Wortmann Weltge, Sigrid and Kathleen Nugent Mangan. Wilton: Browngrotta Arts, 2000. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 12-13 and back cover.
Weaving Abstraction: Ancient and Modern South American Textiles, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, US, 4 March - 17 June 2024 Edited by Iria Candela and Joanne Pillsbury, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin Fall 2023, p.39.