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Home>Exhibitions>2024>Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction

# Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction

Now on View

## March 17 – July 28, 2024East Building, Concourse Galleries

This transformative exhibition explores how abstract art and woven textiles have intertwined over the past hundred years.

In the 20th century, textiles have often been considered lesser—as applied art, women’s work, or domestic craft. *Woven Histories* challenges the hierarchies that often separate textiles from fine arts. Putting into dialogue some 160 works by more than 50 creators from across generations and continents, the exhibition explores the contributions of weaving and related techniques to abstraction, modernism’s preeminent art form.  

See a variety of textile techniques including weaving, knitting, netting, knotting, and felting. Understand the wide-ranging reasons artists from Anni Albers to Rosemarie Trockel and Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians/Cherokee Nation) have engaged with this art form. Some seek to effect social change, others to address political issues. Engaging with textiles as subject, material, and technique, others revitalize abstraction’s formal conventions or critique its patriarchal history and gendered identity. 

Explore this overlooked thread of art history that centers new voices: creators once marginalized for their gender, race, or class. 

## Explore Selected Works

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Marilou Schultz (Navajo/Diné), *Replica of a Chip*, 1994, wool, American Indian Science and Engineering Society

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Ed Rossbach, *Damask Waterfall*, 1977, cotton welting cord, commercial fabric, plastic, satin damask, wrapped, LongHouse Reserve. Photo © Charles Benton, Courtesy The Artists’ Institute

 

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
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

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Anni Albers, *Design for a 1926 Unexecuted Wall Hanging*, c. 1924, gouache and pencil on reprographic paper, The Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation. © 2023 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photocredit: Tim Nighswander/Imaging4Art

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Olga de Amaral, *Cintas entrelazadas*, c. 1969, wool and cotton, Courtesy of the artist

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Shan Goshorn, *Color of Conflicting Values*, 2013, Arches watercolor paper, printed with archival inks, acrylic paint, and gold foil, Collection of Edward J. Guarino

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Igshaan Adams, *Vroeglig by die Voordeur*, 2020, wood, plastic, and stone beads, wire, tumeric, tea, and fabric dye, Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Sheila Hicks, *Peluca Verde*, 1960–1961, wool, Sheila Hicks

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Rosemarie Trockel, *My Dear Colleagues*, 1986, plastic and wool, Stadtische Galerie Karlsruhe, Garnatz Collection. Publication only: © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023. Rights only: © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Regina Pilawuk Wilson, *Syaw (Fishnet)*, 2011, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Collection of Debra and Dennis Scholl, Miami Beach, Florida

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Lillian Elliott, *Swirl*, 1983, reeds, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. Milton and Martha Dalitzky

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Senga Nengudi, *The Threader*, 2007, digital video, color, sound, 5:23 minutes, Courtesy of the artist; Thomas Erben Gallery, New York; and Sprüth Magers.© Senga Nengudi, 2023, Courtesy Sprüth Magers and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Ed Rossbach, *Rag Basket*, 1973, obliquely plaited commercial fabric and corrugated paper; with applied silk-screened cotton plainweave, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Daphne Farago CollectionCourtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Lenore Tawney, *Vespers*, 1961, linen, Lenore G. Tawney Foundation

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Agnes Martin, *Untitled*, 1960, oil on canvas, Lent by Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Gift of the Bayard and Harriet K.Ewing Collection 1993.105.12

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Aleksandr Rodchenko, *Varvara Stepanova*, 1924 (printed 1997), gelatin silver print mounted on archival paper, Courtesy Howard Schickler

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Art
Sophie Taeuber-Arp, *Composition*, c. 1918, graphite and body colors on paper, Kunst Museum Winterthur, Donated by Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach, 1977. © SIK-ISEA, Zürich (Jean-Pierre Kuhn). © 2023 Stiftun Arp e.V., Berlin / Rolandswerth / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

## Dive Deeper

Video
Artists at Work: Liz Collins Weaves a Promised Land
Watch as Liz Collins invites us all into the “rich and limitless” creative space of textile art. 

Story
Who is Anni Albers? 8 Things to Know
Meet the daring artist whose weavings and prints changed the way we see textiles.

Video
Zoe Leonard on Rigorous Conceptual Art
Watch Zoe Leonard discuss her career with Lynne Cooke, senior curator, special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, as part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series.

 

video
Unveiling Contemporary Artist Ann Hamilton’s 30-Year Odyssey
Watch Ann Hamilton discuss her nearly 30-year career as part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series at the National Gallery of Art.

## Events

April 17 – July 17
Exhibition Tour
This tour reveals the myriad ways textiles intersect with and influence modern artists and movements, exploring the overlap between abstract art, fashion, design, and craft. Learn about dynamic moments when social and political issues have activated textile production and artmaking—from oil painting to weaving, basketry, netting, knotting and knitting.

May 4
Screening of Talks
**Ann Hamilton and Zoe Leonard**

In conjunction with this exhibition, we will be sharing two recorded talks by exhibition artists Ann Hamilton (2011) and Zoe Leonard (2018). These presentations were part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series, which provides a forum for distinguished artists to discuss the genesis and evolution of their work in their own words.

May 24
Gallery Talk
**Bibiana Obler and Lynne Cooke**

Join us for a conversation with scholar and exhibition catalog contributor Bibiana Obler and Lynne Cooke, exhibition curator. They will discuss the myriad of ways textiles intersect with and influence world-renowned modern artists and movements. 

May 25
In Conversation
**Laura Huertas Millán and Zoe Leonard**

Join us for a screening and conversation between artists Laura Huertas Millán and Zoe Leonard about their practices, poetics, and strategies across photography and film. Exhibition curator Lynne Cooke will moderate.

**Organization**                        The 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.

The exhibition is curated by Lynne Cooke, senior curator in the department of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art.

**Other venues** Los Angeles County Museum of Art, September 17, 2023–January 21, 2024National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, November 8, 2024–March 2, 2025The Museum of Modern Art, New York, April 20–September 13, 2025

**Sponsors** The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation provided major support for the exhibition. 

Additional funding is also provided by the Director’s Circle of the National Gallery of Art.

**Passes** Admission is always free and passes are not required

**Banner detail**: Marilou Schultz (Navajo/Diné), *Replica of a Chip*, 1994, wool, American Indian Science and Engineering Society

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