Earlier this year, Françoise Grossen sent bga these congratulations on our 25th anniversary. Grossen’s remarkable contributions to the field predate ours. In 1972, her work was featured in, “Rope Art: A new form fit to be tied,” in Life Magazine in an article on the exhibition Deliberate Entanglements. “Françoise Grossen, a Swiss better at knotting than entomology, concocted a 20-foot Inch Worm” the magazine wrote. “Some viewers at New York’s Museum of Contemporary Crafts thought it moved.” (Life Magazine, December 1, 1972, pp.86-90). This year, Grosssen’s work, Ahnen Galerie, 10 braided bundles of dyed manila rope with appendages, 13 x 116 x 92 inches, was acquired by the Racine Art Museum. Ahnen Galerie is now on display in High Fiber: Recent Large-Scale Acquisitions in Fiber, http://www.ramart.org/content/high-fiber-recent-large-scale-acquisitions-fiber, at the Racine Museum of Art through January 20, 2013.
Looking Forward/Looking Back: Françoise Grossen
November 26th: Our Online Exhibition Opens With an Offer for CyberMonday
On Monday, November 26th, browngrotta arts will present an online version of our 25th anniversary exhibition,Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture at browngrotta.com. The comprehensive exhibition highlights browngrotta arts’ 25 years promoting international contemporary art. Viewers can click on any image in the online exhibition to reach a page with more information about the artists and their work.
“Some works in Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture reflect the early days of contemporary textile art and sculpture movement,” says Tom Grotta, founder and co-curator at browngrotta arts. “There are also current works by both established and emerging artists, which provide an indication of where the movement is now and where it may be headed.”
Since Monday the 26th is CyberMonday this year, sales of art, books, catalogs, videos or dvds placed online or by telephone that day will be discounted 10% (excluding tax and shipping). In addition, bga will make a donation to the International Child Art Foundation for each sale made from November 24th through December 31, 2012. Visit browngrotta.com. For more information call Tom at 203.834.0623 or email us at art@browngrotta.com.
Hot off the Press: Our Largest Catalog Yet
The catalog for Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture is an ambitious venture for us. Currently weighing in at 182 pages, it features a timeline of art textile events from the 40s to the present, including the Lausanne Biennials (1962 to 1995), Fiber/Revolution in Milwaukee in 1986, Beyond Weaving in Greenwich, Connecticut in 2006, and key dates for fiber pioneers like Dorothy Liebes, Lenore Tawney, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Ed Rossbach. The catalog also includes two essays, one by designer Jo Ann Stabb, formerly on the design faculty at the University of California, Davis, on the emergence of contemporary textiles and fiber arts, the other by Lesley Millar, Professor of Textile Culture at the UK’s University of the Creative Arts, on recent developments in the field and what’s ahead. The catalog will be available in our online bookstore at http://browngrotta.com/Pages/c37.php for $55.00, plus shipping and sales tax where applicable.
Make a Day of It! Visit Retro/Prospective and Other Art Events Near Wilton, CT
If you plan to come to Wilton, Connecticut between October 26th and November 4th for browngrotta arts anniversary exhibition, Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture, consider adding a stop at one of the other cultural venues in our area on your trip. There are several exhibitions to choose from — all within 30 minutes of browngrotta arts:
Flinn Gallery
Greenwich Library
9 x 9 x 3: New Visions
101 West Putnam Avenue
Greenwich, CT 06830
203.622.7947
through November 28, 2012
Katherine D. Crone, Blades of Grass, Wood, Usuyou Gampish, nylon monofilament Digitally altered photograph, inkjet printed, bookbinding stitched
9 x 9 x 3: New Visions is an exhibition of works created by members of the Textile Study Group of New York to fit inside wooden boxes with 9” x 9” x 3” exterior dimensions. Juror for the exhibition was Janet Koplos, who is a contributing editor of Art in America, where she was senior editor for 18 years. Among the artists included in the exhibition are: Katherine D. Crone, Margaret Cusack, Jeanne Heifetz, Nancy Koenigsberg, Carole P. Kunstadt, Yasuko Okumura, Gail Resen, Lois Russell, Barbara Schulman, Naomi Tarantal, Charlotte Thorp, K. Velis Turan, Saaraliisa Ylital and Erma Martin Yost. The Gallery hours are: Sunday 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm and Thursday 10:00 am – 8:00 pm.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
Wendell Castle
Wandering Forms— Works from 1959–1979
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT 06877
203.438.4519
through February 20, 2013
Wendell Castle birdsyeye Maple Veneer and Mahogany Table, private Collection
photo by Tom Grotta
Celebrated American designer/craftsman Wendell Castle (b. 1932) has been creating unique pieces of handmade sculpture and furniture for over five decades. Castle, who has consistently challenged the traditional boundaries of functional design since the outset of his career, was instrumental in helping to shape the American studio furniture movement throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He remains one of the most important American furniture makers working today.”To be inventive and playful and produce furniture which is a complement to nature, rather than in contrast to it is my philosophy,” Castle wrote in the catalog for the exhibition, Fantasy Furniture, held at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, New York in 1966.”My idea is not to reconstruct or stylize natural forms, but to produce a synthesis or metamorphosis of natural forms.” The Aldrich Museum hours are: Tuesday to Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
united states
Artist’s Projects
through February 24, 2013
united states is a semester of solo exhibitions and artist’s projects that approach both the nature of the United States as a country and “united states” as the notion of uniting separate forms, entities, or conditions of being. Timed to coincide with the 2012 American election season, united states is presented at a time when political and social divisions in this country are readily apparent, and polarization on many major issues is at an historical high. The Aldrich Museum hours are: Tuesday to Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm.
The Wilton Historical Society
Building a Future From the Past: Architecture
224 Danbury Road
Wilton, CT 06897
203.762.7257
through October 31, 2012
Architect David Ling holding, model of the browngrotta barn from the building a Future From the Past: Architecture exhibit ion. Photo by TomGrotta
This exhibition explores architects’ work to preserve antique homes while bringing them into the 21st Century. Among the homes included is browngrotta arts‘ home/office, designed by David Ling Architect, New York, New York. The Society’s hours are: Tuesday through Friday: 10 am to 4 pm; Saturday: 1 to 4 pm; 2nd & 4th Sundays of the month 1 to 4 pm.
browngrotta arts
Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture
276 Ridgefield Road
Wilton, CT 06897
203.834.0623
October 26 through November 4, 2012
Ray Series, Mary Merkel-Hess, paper, reed, 24″ x 24″ x 6″ each, 2012, photo by Tom Grotta
This exhibition features work by more than 70 artists, some are pioneers, some mid career and some new to the field of art textiles, while others work in wood and metal, porcelain, glass and clay. Artists’ reception and Opening: October 27th, 1 to 5 pm; http://browngrotta.com’ hours October 26th and October 28th- November 4th: 10 am to 5 pm.
Looking Forward/Looking Back: Dona Anderson
20da Re-Tire, Dona Anderson, tire chain, netting and window screen, 8.5″ x 16.25″ x 14.5″ , 2011
“Wow, 25 years in the art business is pretty remarkable. Not only that—it’s successful. One of the challenges I enjoyed (among many) was your request for work for Stimulus: art and its inception. Finding my “Stimulus” was fun for me. Walking through my neighborhood everyday, I took care to find that special something that appealed to my imagination. When I saw a rusty piece of metal wire tweaking out from a pile of dirt, my heart soared with possibilities. No one even knew what it had been until I cleaned it—a tire chain I turned into a basket. This is only one of the many opportunities you have provided for your artists over the years. I am grateful for all of them — including your encouragement, enthusiasm and innovative marketing experience!”
Dona Anderson
September 2012
Save the Date: Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture this October
Helena Hernmarck, Jo Barker and Kiyomi Iwata are three of the artists participating Retro/Prospective 25+ Years of Art Textiles, photo by Tom Grotta
This fall we will present a catalog exhibition, Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture in Wilton, Connecticut from October 26th to November 4th to commemorate browngrotta arts’ 25 years promoting international contemporary art. The comprehensive exhibition will look at the past and future of the art textile movement, and as always, include related works in ceramics and wood and mixed media. There will be works in the exhibition by pioneers of the contemporary textile art and sculpture movement and there will be current work by established and emerging artists, to explain where the movement is now and provide a sense of what’s ahead.
Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles, work by John McQueen, Sue Lawty
photo by Tom Grotta
The artworks selected by browngrotta arts for Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture express a powerful sensibility. John McQueen was persuaded to take the dramatic sculpture, Centered, begun in 2007, from his personal collection and place it on display. Naoko Serino’s ethereal Generating 12 is from her most current body of work. Sue Lawty’s Calculus is a contemplation made of thousands of tiny stones, from a series she began as artist in residence at the V&A, While Chris Drury’s Roussillon I, takes viewers on a visual adventure by combining rubbed ochre on paper and a woven map.
GENERATING 12 by Naoko Serino, photo by Tom Grotta
The Artists Reception and Opening for Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture will be held Saturday, October 27, 2012 from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. at browngrotta arts, 276 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, Connecticut. From October 28th through November 4th, the exhibition will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 203-834-0623; email: art@browngrotta.com or visit browngrotta.com. A catalog will accompany the exhibit and be available after the opening.
Looking Forward/Looking Back: Sherman F. Lee
Details of Adela Akers 1988 Midnight and 2011 Triptych. Adela is one of the artists who was included in the 1977 Fiberworks exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Her work will be included in Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture this fall at browngrotta arts.
“The 20th century has been a period of numerous experiments in the arts based on new concepts, materials and techniques which have proliferated as never before in history. Some of these new developments, however, have been only fashionable and have been inappropriate exploitations of materials or techniques for very vague and general ideas. Among the exceptions to these trends, enjoying widespread and lasting success, has been the use of fibrous materials to create aesthetic equivalents of sculptures and paintings.
Adela Akers 1960 portrait. Photo Archives of American Art, aaa.si.edu. Courtesy of the artist.
New tools, techniques and synthetic fibers have fired artists’ imaginations. The variety of effects possible range from the predominantly decorative to the highly expressive. And unlike some other recent developments in the arts, contemporary fiber works rest firmly on long and substantial traditions from all major cultures. Although many new and significant forms have already appeared, the future seems to offer even further possiibiities for the growth of this art.”
Sherman F. Lee, then-Director
Cleveland Museum of Art 1977
from the Forward for Fiberworks catalog, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1977
Exhibitions Abroad: On and Upcoming
West Sweden
100 Beginnings
Through September 9th
Dalslands Konstmuseum
Dail Behennah installation Dalslands Konstmuseum
One Hundred Beginnings detail
The installation features Dail Behennah and highlights 100 ways of starting a basket, some works made of copper wire and some enamel. Thicket, for example, is a three-dimensional drawings of twigs, made of iron wire. Dalslands Konstmuseum, Upperud 46440, Åsensbruk, Sweden. For information: phone +46530-30098; website: http://www.dalslandskonstmuseum.se.
ScotlandWeaving The Century: Tapestry from Dovecot Studios 1912-2012
Through October 7th
Dovecot Studios
Weaving The Century: Tapestry from Dovecot Studios 1912-2012 is the first major exhibition of tapestry in Scotland in more than 20 years. Curated by Elizabeth Cumming, the exhibition features more than 60 tapestries, rugs and designs spanning 100 years of Dovecot history including iconic and rarely seen works.The works in the exhibition represent the broad range of visual styles and technical weaving styles. In its 100 years, Dovecot Studios have collaborated with dozens of leading contemporary international artists including David Hockney, Paul Gauguin, Elizabeth Blackadder, Sir Peter Blake, Edward Wadsworth, Cecil Beaton, Graham Sutherland, Louise Nevelson and Claire Barclay. Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. For information: phone: +44 (0)131 550 3660; website: http://www.dovecotstudios.com.
WalesMichael Brennand-Wood: Forever Changes
Opens September 22nd; ends November 25th
Forever Changes is an exhibition documenting Michael Brennand-Wood’s practice over 40 years. Forever Changes will feature many previously unseen, new and important works with the emphasis very firmly on the ideas behind each piece. The exhibition will include installation, sculptural, relief, studio and commission works. It will be accompanied by a 200-page illustrate book that will present a biography of the work, exhibitions, events, places and concepts that have shaped Brennand-Wood’s practice. Ruthin Craft Center, Lon Parcwr, Ruthin LL15 1 BB, Denbigshire, North Wales, United Kingdom. For information: phone: 01824 704774; website: http://www.ruthincraftcentre.org.uk/comingsoon.html.
Canada
INVADERS by Norma Minkowitz, photo by Bobby Hansson 1991
Norma Minkowitz’s work, Invaders is one of the works included in a themed grouping on anthropomorphism in a permanent decorative arts and design gallery at the Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal. Also included are works by Niki de Saint Phalle, Gaetano Pesce and Pablo Picasso. Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal,1380 Crescent Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; (514) 285-1600; website: www.mbam.qc.ca.
Coast to Coast — Exhibitions Around the US
Here’s a round up of exhibitions throughout the US that are worth traveling to see. They are listed in date order — a few of them close this month or next; others are open through the fall.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Craft Spoken Here
Last Week – through August 12th
Artists in the exhibit include: clockwise; WATERFALL by Lenore Tawney; SPIRALS AND PATHS by Rebecca Medel; CERAMIC 42 by Yasuhisa Kohyama; BODY LANGUAGE by John McQueen; SEASIDE by Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet; RAY by Mary Merkel-Hess
With Craft Spoken Here, curated by Elisabeth Agro, the Nancy M. McNeil Associate Curator of American Modern and Contemporary Crafts and Decorative Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art seizes the opportunity to experiment with its craft collection and to understand craft in an international context. Some 40 contemporary works from 1960 to the present in ceramic, glass, metal, wood, lacquer, paper and fiber—some by living, acclaimed artists, including Lenore Tawney, Rebecca Medel, Yasuhisa Kohyama, John McQueen, Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet, and Mary Merkel-Hess and others by lesser-known creators—are on view. Representing the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe, the works highlight formal qualities that cross cultures, time, and media. Hear Agro describe the evolution of the exhibition and the installation of Tawney’s Fountain of Water and Word, in a podcast at the art blog.
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Perelman Building
2525 Pennsylvania Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19130
phone 215.763.8100
www.philamuseum.org
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
At First Light: The Katagami Sculpture of Jennifer Falck Linssen
through September 16, 2012
Handcrafted vessel of katagami-style handcarved paper. Materials include archival cotton paper, aluminum, waxed linen, paint, varnish, freshwater pearl, and sterling silver.
Utilizing the ancient Japanese paper carving technique of katagami, Colorado-based artist Jennifer Falck Linssen creates three-dimensional sculptures that explore the beauty of line and the delicacy of nature. Since 2003, Jennifer has been shaping katagami stencils into three-dimensional vessels and sculptures, combining the katagami paper carving with more traditional metal-smithing and basketry techniques to create contemporary sculptures that transform the two-dimensional stencil into a unique three-dimensional art form.
Myrtle Beach Museum of Art
3100 South Ocean Boulevard
(across from Springmaid Pier)
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
phone 843.238.2510
fax 843.238.2910
www.myrtlebeachartmuseum.org
East Hampton, New York
Accumulations NOW
through October 6th
Dawn MacNutt is one of the artists included in Accumulations NOW
Accumulations: NOW bills itself as, “[s]imply, the best of craft. NOW.” Cuurated by Jack Lenor Larsen, the exhibition at LongHouse Reserve features 500 works made in the last 100 years, including a number of important pieces from the collection of the late Dena Katzenberg. Artists shown in the NOW collections include, in fiber Anni Albers, Jun-ichi Arai, Dawn MacNutt, Ed Rossbach, Peter Collingwood, Ethel Stein, Helena Hernmarck and Chunghie Lee; in clay Hans Coper, Toshiko Takezu and Peter Voulkos; hollowware by Chunghi Choo; and furniture masters including Judy Kensley McKie and Edward Wormley. You can see the exhibition catalog and installation shots, here: Accumulations_Now_Catalog.pdf and here: http://www.longhouse.org
LongHouse Reserve
133 Hands Creek Road East Hampton, NY 11937
phone 631.604.5330
http://longhouse.org
San Francisco, California
Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers
Part one through October 6th
Part two October 13 – December 29th
Takaaki Tanaka in front of his work at Fiber Futures when it was in New York at the Japan Society
If you missed this remarkable exhibition last fall at the Japan Society in New York (or in an earlier incarnation in Japan) you’ve got another chance. Fiber Futures explores a new art that is emerging from a remarkable fusion of Japanese artisanal and industrial textile making. Coaxed from materials as age-old as hemp and newly developed as microfilaments, a varied array of works by 30 artists from multiple generations, including Hisako Sekijima, Takaaki Tanaka, Naoko Serino, Hideho Tanaka, Naomi Kobayahsi and Kyoko Kumai, are on view in this important two-part exhibition.
Museum of Craft and Folk Art
51 Yerba Buena Lane
San Francisco, CA 94103
phone 415.227.4888
http://www.mocfa.org
Minneapolis, Minnesota
In Our Nature: Tapestries of Helena Hernmarck
through October 14th
Helena Hernmarck 2009 FOREST PATH , wool and linen, 6′ 7″ x 6′ 7
In Our Nature: Tapestries of Helena Hernmarck, is an assemblage of 19 large-scale tapestries by legendary trompe-l’oeil weaver, Helena Hernmarck. Monumental works immerse the viewer in the best of nature: lush blooms, rich green forest scenes, and sunny poppy pastures. Hernmarck’s work represents a lifetime of closely honed weaving technique that combines intensely sensitive attention to color with one-of-a-kind combination of textures creating layered, shaded effects. The tapestries in In Our Nature: Tapestries of Helena Hernmarck are on loan from three major arts museums, several corporate and individual collectors, and from Hernmarck’s own collection.
American Swedish Institute
2600 Park Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55407
phone 612.871.4907
http://www.asimn.org
Art for Good: Kids, Creativity and the International Child Art Foundation
Pick Up Your Pencils, Begin by Harriete Estel Berman installed at Anita Siepp Gaalery, Castilleja School, Palo Alto, California in March 2012. Photo: Phillip Cohen.
Pick Up Your Pencils, Begin, side view. Photo: Harriete Estel Berman.
Last December, we advertised out first gift site. For each gift purchased from the site, we promised to make a donation to the International Child Art Foundation, which we did. http://www.icaf.org/whatwedo. The ICAF seeks to ignite a “Creativity Revolution” that will spearhead American ingenuity and draw upon our collective imagination to solve problems and find innovative solutions to global challenges. For the revolution to succeed, creativity must be nurtured in our children.Twenty-two percent of the U.S. population (and 27 percent of the world’s population) are under 16 years old. The scientific evidence on the “4th grade slump” by E. Paul Torrance, known by some as the “father of creativity,” points to the need for creative education. For 15 years, ICAF has supported creative arts education, designed global programs — including ChildArt magazine, the World Arts Olympiad, Asian Tsunami Healing Arts Program and the World Child Award — tested the effectiveness of existing programs and hosted events, exhibitions and symposia. The ICAF is committed to spearheading the global children’s creativity revolution in order to reaffirm U.S. global leadership this century and beyond.
This post also gives us a chance to share Harriete Estel Berman’s thought-provoking piece, Pick Up Your Pencils, Begin. The work required four years of effort and thousands of pencils from all over world. Successful on several levels, the installation, 15 feet tall and 28 feet wide, creates a bell curve, highlighting the impact of standardized testing on our educational system — a creativity-endangering development if ever there was one. For more information, visit Berman’s website at: http://www.harriete-estel-berman.info/sculpt/pencilPage.html.